The President released his Welfare Reform Agenda last week and with it came much concern from those who are currently working to ensure that changes are made to the 1996 welfare reform law to address the needs of those who are working (currently defined as a success under the 1996 welfare reform law measurement) but are still unable to provide for the basic needs of their families.

We can either choose to pay now, or we will have to pay later -- preventing social ills is much cheaper in the long run. From a purely economic standpoint, many economists agree that a return to deficits is not a problem -- running a surplus would actually be more of problem -- and that this economic climate prescribes more government spending, not less.

Estate Tax Repeal's Impact on States

A recent report from the New Jersey Policy Perspective (NJPP) illustrates the havoc the 2001 tax cut's repeal of the estate tax is wreaking on the already strained New Jersey budget. The report offers a state-level solution to the problem created by the federal estate tax repeal process, which actually ends the states' ability to "pickup" a portion of the federal tax for themselves earlier than the federal government's estate tax ends. The NJPP website also provides links to the 3 newspapers that have thus far endorsed its proposal, as well as an op-ed piece that ran in the New York Times New Jersey edition.

An update on the efforts of Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to repeal the estate tax.