Sooner or later, Congress will realize it needs new revenues to help balance the budget, and trimming tax subsidies is the way to get them.  But will it tackle individual preferences, such as the mortgage interest deduction, one at a time? Or, will it try to limit the political bloodshed and go after these tax [...]

I spent this morning at one of those Washington institutions: the budget roundtable. Today’s (at the Aspen Institute) gave me a chance to pose a question in exchange for my muffin:  Should Washington await the results of the 2012 election before reaching a cosmic budget agreement? It will, of course. The odds that President Obama [...]

Would you rather get a tax cut of $1,000 or $1.4 million?  I thought so.   Would you change your answer if taking the smaller tax cut allowed you to avoid paying income tax entirely? That is exactly the focus of the endless squabble over the half of American households who pay no federal income [...]

I hate budget caps. They are arbitrary and beg to be gamed. It is irresponsible to make one that is absolutely unbreakable, even in the face of an economic depression or other national catastrophe. Yet even the most well-intended exception will open the door to wholesale abuse. Caps–and the triggers needed to enforce them– are [...]

Will Donald Trump bring Barack Obama’s birth certificate to the Royal wedding? I have no idea, but now that I’ve made our Web optimization folks happy, here is another question: What’s the deal with the People’s Budget, the fiscal plan released this week by 80 congressional progressives? The answer is likely to drive less traffic than [...]

So it has come to this: The biggest short-term risk of the U.S. defaulting on its sovereign debt is not that big spenders will have their way. Rather, it is that a relative handful of self-styled fiscal conservatives succeed in throwing the country into financial crisis by refusing to raise the nation’s debt limit. It [...]

Now that you’re done filling out your 1040, the White House wants you to know where your tax dollars are going. Its Federal Taxpayer Receipt is, in concept, a great idea. But it also has some odd bits worthy of note. First, the good news: At a time when much of the fiscal debate in [...]

In yesterday’s budget speech, President Obama said that one leg of his fiscal policy stool is “tax reform to cut about $1 trillion in tax expenditures.” But what exactly is he talking about? Obama mentioned only two tax increases in his speech—both golden goodies. He vowed that he would never extend the 2001 and 2003 [...]

Imagine for a moment you walk into a dealership to buy the vehicle of your dreams. The salesman asks what you want to pay. You say $50. He counters with $50,000. The good news is you have begun a negotiation. The bad news is, you’ve got a lot of talking to do before you can drive [...]

If you view a budget as a vision of government, the House GOP’s fiscal map unveiled today charts a profound course correction for Washington and its relationships with both its citizens and the states. In this new world, individuals and families would receive only limited assistance from government in times of stress, but they also might [...]