The Heritage Foundation offers a detailed plan to redesign entitlement programs, guarantee assistance to those who need it, and save the American dream for future generations. Read More.
Taxes should raise the revenue to fund necessary government operations in ways that cause the least possible economic damage. Accordingly, Congress and President Obama should reform the existing tax code and drop their current plans to increase taxes on high-income earners, small businesses, investors, and other job creators. Read More.
Conventional wisdom says that Congress and the President will get nothing done in 2012 until after the elections. Conventional wisdom appears to be at least mostly correct, but in one respect Congress should not fall prey to conventional wisdom: preventing Taxmageddon. Too much is at stake…
The nation faces an unprecedented tidal wave of tax hikes on January 1, 2013. Aptly called “Taxmageddon,” at nearly $500 billion the tax hike is so massive that it has accomplished what many regarded as impossible: consensus.[1] There is broad agreement that at least most of this tax…
If you thought paying your taxes was painful this year, get ready for more heartache next year, when taxpayers could be on the hook for almost $500 billion in higher taxes. That's the size of "Taxmageddon." Taxmageddon is the tax hike set…
If President Obama and Congress fail to act this year, an enormous, unprecedented tax increase will fall on American taxpayers starting on January 1, 2013. The Washington Post called the looming tax increase “Taxmageddon,”[1] and Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke called it a “massive fiscal cliff.”[2] …
In the few months since Washington’s dramatic debt ceiling confrontation, America’s fiscal situation has only worsened. Federal spending is set to soar past previous record-shattering levels, endangering the economic future of the nation. This is a moral issue because younger generations will be forced to bear either staggering levels of…
Abstract: The current tax code is an enormous burden on the economy, preventing it from reaching its full potential. Tax reform is long overdue. After initial reluctance, President Obama now agrees that the economy needs tax reform. He…
As the national debt races toward $17 trillion and nearly 13 million Americans search fruitlessly for work, America needs bold changes from its leaders. Congress must get federal spending and borrowing under control and get out of the way of job creation in the private sector. …
Testimony Before the Committee on Finance United States Senate Chairman Baucus, Ranking Member Hatch,…
President Obama’s fiscal year 2013 budget proposal explicitly claims a $1.561 trillion tax hike over 10 years, as reported by the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB).[1] This is a vast understatement, because that figure fails to account for all of the President’s tax increases and…
Abstract: The President’s 2013 budget, released on February 13, repeats the stale and unsuccessful policies of the past three years. The Administration’s apparent vision is one of bigger government, more spending, higher taxes, and deeper deficits. At a time when runaway spending and swelling…
During his presidential campaign, President Barack Obama promised the American people a "net spending cut."1 Instead, he signed a "stimulus" bill that spends $800 billion, and he has proposed a budget that would: Increase spending by $1 trillion over…
This key research from 2005 has been updated in J.D. Foster's paper "The New Flat Tax—Easy as One, Two, Three" There is widespread consensus that the current tax system is a complicated failure that hinders the…
The Democratic majority in the U.S. House of Representatives must decide whether to write a budget extending, expiring, or repealing the Bush tax cuts. These tax cuts have provided a convenient scapegoat for the nation's budget and economic challenges. Despite a 42 percent spending increase in 2001, critics charge that…
Abstract: The current tax system discourages saving. It discourages investment. It discourages entrepreneurship. It causes decision makers to misallocate the nation’s resources, limiting productivity gains, wage gains, and the nation’s overall level of international competitiveness. And, it is far, far too complicated. The New Flat Tax is the remedy.…
Abstract: The annual federal budget deficit is projected to reach 8.3 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2020—more than three times the historical average of 2.3 percent. This dramatic increase in the federal deficit will be exclusively the result of increasing spending, not…
Abstract: Despite evidence to the contrary, President Obama and his supporters insist that a tax increase will not impede economic recovery. They claim that the Clinton tax hikes spurred the boom of the 1990s and that the subsequent Bush tax cuts hurt the…
Since the passage of the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, critics have claimed incessantly that they disproportionately benefited the rich while burdening the poor. Now that the data is in, these claims have been shown to be unquestionably false. Squeezing the Wealthy Even More According to a report issued by the Congressional Budget…
President Obama recently sent Congress a series of policies as part of his “Startup America Initiative.”[1] The goal of the program is to help startups and small businesses to create jobs. The proposal includes four tax provisions that he also included in his budget. Some…
President Obama and Congress need to focus on policies in 2012 that will unleash the economic growth necessary to get the economy back on track, create jobs, and lower the unemployment rate. As more government spending has failed to create that growth, the President and Congress…
Talk-radio host Neal Boortz is no fan of the nation's capital. "The place gives me the creeps," he said on this week's...…
Rule #1 of tax reform: Tax reform does not raise taxes. The budget resolution sponsored by Representatives Jim Cooper...…
On December 31, a set of approximately 50 tax-reducing provisions commonly referred to as the “tax extenders” expired....…
How many times should your money be taxed? One time? Two times? Three times? Four? Sounds like a ridiculous...…
House Republicans return to Washington today to vote on a two-month payroll tax extension. If news reports are...…
Ready for a new year and another bout with the Internal Revenue Service, deductions, exemptions, pens and pencils,...…
President Obama and Republicans in Congress continue to wage war over an extension of the payroll tax cut. But missing...…
Democrats on the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction last week floated a proposal that includes massive tax...…
The Republican members of the Senate Finance Committee recently submitted their recommendations for tax reform to the...…
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX) visited Heritage earlier this week for The Bloggers Briefing and stuck around to chat in our...…