Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

Notes from the Economy: The Bush Record

Jan 14, 2009 by Craig Jennings

"It's almost a lost economic decade." -- Mark Zandi, co-founder of and chief economist at Moody's Economy.com

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IRS Audits Decrease, But More High-Income Returns Scrutinized

Jan 14, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has decreased the number of audits it performs in 2008, but is auditing more upper-income filers. From the article:

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Obama to Drop Some Business Tax Cuts from Stimulus

Jan 13, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Well, this is certainly good news (sorry, BNA email, no link):

Aides to President-elect Obama agreed late Jan. 12 to drop an unpopular idea to provide a $3,000 tax credit for companies hiring new workers from the economic stimulus package, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told BNA.

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Business Tax Cuts as Stimulus, By The Numbers

Jan 13, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Citizens for Tax Justice has released a report on how the proposed tax breaks in the Obama stimulus plan would affect the economy. The bottom line:

  • Family tax cuts could be net beneficial, but only if they're targeted to low-income families.
  • Business tax cuts are pretty much a waste.

In the report's discussion of the Obama plan's (reported) Net Operating Loss Carryback provision, CTJ explains why such a tax cut would be somewhat less than stimulative:

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Notes from the Economy: Unemployment

Jan 9, 2009 by Craig Jennings

The jobs report from the Bureau of Labor statistics reports that the unemployment rated jumped from 6.8 percent to 7.2 percent (a 25-year high) in December as payrolls dropped by 524,000.

While these numbers were not unexpected, their realization will add to the mounting pressure on Congress to have a stimulus bill on soon-to-be-President Obama's desk ASAP.

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Business Tax Cuts as Stimulus: Somewhat Less Than Effective

Jan 8, 2009 by Craig Jennings

This week, I've been considering the value of tax cuts as an effective economic stimulus. On the one hand, government spending appears to provide the most bang-for-the-buck.

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