If a tax cut is scheduled to expire, but the focus of the debate is elsewhere, will people notice? Will the average family be surprised when their taxes rise by $1,000 or more next year, even if most of the rest of the 2001-2003 tax cuts are extended for all but the wealthiest Americans? That’s [...]

Last December, Congress replaced the two-year-old Making Work Pay tax credit (MWP) with this year’s payroll tax cut. That change cut taxes for higher-income workers, raised taxes for some low-wage workers, and nearly doubled the amount of lost tax revenue. And it most likely provided less bang-for-the-buck economic stimulus than the credit it replaced. Since [...]

Should Congress extend and expand the payroll tax cut it first passed a year ago? In a bizarre but not unexpected role reversal, Democrats insist that at a time of economic uncertainty, Congress must not only extend this tax cut but make it even more generous. And Republicans seem to have somehow discovered a tax break [...]