Tag Archives: revenue

CBO Director on Choices for Federal Spending and Taxes

The Director of the Congressional Budget Office, Douglas W. Elmendorf, made a presentation on the Federal Budget to the Harvard Economics 10 class on April 26.  I encourage you to download and read the entire presentation. It’s a clear and concise overview … Continue reading

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Financial Sustainability of US Postal Service at Risk

GAO Report on the Need for Urgent Action to Achieve Financial Sustainability of the US Postal Service “The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) continues to incur unsustainable operating deficits, has not made required payments of $11.1 billion to prefund retiree health … Continue reading

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Moody’s Downgrades Entire US Higher Education System

Moody’s: 2013 outlook for entire US Higher Education sector changed to negative “The 2013 outlook for the entire US higher education sector is negative, including the market-leading, research-driven colleges and universities, says Moody’s Investors Service in its annual industry outlook. … Continue reading

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The Source of Three-Quarters of Deficit Reduction Since 2011: Spending Cuts

Michael Linden and Michael Ettlinger document approximately three-quarters of deficit reduction achieved since 2011 has been through spending cuts and interest saved through those spending cuts. Approximately one-quarter of the deficit reduction is due to revenue increases (tax increases). Dismissing the $1.5 trillion President … Continue reading

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Believe It? The Deficit has Fallen Faster in Past Three Years than any Period of Time Since Demobilization of WWII

The federal deficit has fallen faster than any period of time since the demobilization from World War II, according to the Office of Management and Budget. According to Investor’s Business Daily, “From fiscal 2009 to fiscal 2012, the deficit shrank 3.1 percentage … Continue reading

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Fed Study Questions CBO Conclusions Regarding Healthcare Costs as Driver of Fed Deficit

Yesterday I encouraged readers to examine the CBO report, What’s Driving the Federal Deficit and What are the Realistic Choices? I still do. However, an interesting paper, An Examination of Health-Spending Growth in the United States: Past Trends and Future Prospects, from reputable … Continue reading

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What’s Driving the Federal Deficit and What are the Realistic Choices?

The Congressional Budget Office’s timely study, Choices for Deficit Reduction, includes a graph on page 23 which succinctly summarizes what drives our federal deficit. The report is a must read for anyone who’s serious about understanding the deficit and our … Continue reading

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Understanding Nobel Laureate Krugman 101, Well Maybe 601

Whether one agrees with Nobel-winning Princeton economist Krugman or not is not the point of this post. Instead I found a succinct summary of Krugman’s positions on a host of economic issues that I think does a great job of capturing … Continue reading

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Taxes Not Collected Would Make the Bush Tax Cuts Permanent and More

Via Stan Collender’s Gapital Gains and Games: “In August, the IRS issued yet another Tax Gap report.  The IRS estimates that in 2006 alone, the Treasury missed out on $385 billion in revenue due under the current tax law from … Continue reading

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Is ObamaCare “The Largest Tax Increase in History?”

It’s often said that ObamaCare is the “largest tax increase in history.” The evidence suggests otherwise.  Austin Frakt at the Incidental Economist utilized Kevin Drum’s data to produce the following chart, depicting ObamCare in the bottom six revenue increasing pieces … Continue reading

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