Issue Brief

This issue brief examines the major features of the Ways and Means bill and discusses
the economic and budgetary effects.

A relic of the Great Depression, the Social Security retirement earnings test penalizes people receiving Social Security benefits who work. The earnings test puts a huge tax on wage inome, creating an effective marginal tax rate of between 41 and 80+ percent.

This Issue Brief outlines the case for eliminating the earnings test, and finds that "the long-run costs of eliminating the earnings test are almost nothing."

1998 was supposed to be the year when fiscal good times finally overflowed the U.S. Treasury and put money back into the pockets of ordinary Americans in the form of tax cuts. What happened?

This issue brief looks at the major proposals and the bill’s economic and revenue effects.

This paper summarizes the three major arguments against continued U.S. involvement in the IMF.

The purpose of this issue brief is to focus on how changing the tax treatment of married couples would affect the economy. As background, the first section explains how the tax code and marital status interact. The next section estimates the economic and revenue consequences of four proposals
while the last section discusses whether reducing marriage penalties makes for good tax policy.

 Recently released figures lead us to estimate that the federal budget surplus could be roughly $1 trillion higher than Congress expected when it drafted the bi-partisan budget deal at this time last year. We believe that at least half of this $1 trillion windfall (but preferably all of it) should be returned to taxpayers via a very large tax cut enacted immediately.

New requirements to track additional asset holding periods have greatly increased the complexity in calculating capital gains taxes. Our researchers, Gary and Aldona Robbins, point out the reasons why these added complications are totally unnecessary.

Have you ever thought of vacationing in Hawaii and not coming back? Should you decide to do this and be unable to find a job, never fear - you can fare well on welfare. In Hawaii, 88.8 percent of the 'poor' collect welfare benefits rather than seek work--a higher percentage than any other state. Why? Hawaiians can draw up to $664 weekly ($34,528 annually) on a permanent vacation or work for average local wages and earn $476 weekly ($24,752 annually.) Which would you choose? The 'poor' do make rational economic decisions in deciding whether or not to seek work. The success of 'workfare' programs bears this out.

Two words: Tax cuts. Surpluses should not be used for new government spending, or for paying down the national debt. They should be used to help return the overall tax burden to a reasonable level.