Unintended Consequences: Democrat’s Child Tax Credit Will Cost Jobs

April 22, 2021Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

President Biden’s first signature legislative accomplishment, the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), is now law. Nearly $1.2 trillion in fiscal aid will pour into the economy before October, and another $700 billion will be doled out over the next four years. As one of us has written previously, $1.9 trillion is a significant underestimate of the plan’s total cost if temporary expansions of several tax credits are permanently extended. The largest of these temporary policies is the expanded child tax credit (CTC), touted by Democrats as a boon to low- and middle-income households. In addition to being costlier than the sticker price, a permanent CTC expansion, a goal expressed by many Democratic lawmakers, would have the unintended consequence of reducing employment.

There are Costs for Climate Change Whether Leaders Take Action or Not

March 23, 2021Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

Much of the public debate over climate change policy focuses on the cost of reducing emissions, deploying green energy, or building adaptations. A point often lost is that whatever we do, we pay for climate change, even if we do nothing. For officials to arrive at effective solutions, they must know both the cost of the policy options and the cost of inaction.

How Will the American Rescue Plan Impact Your 2021 Tax Liability?

March 17, 2021Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

Last week, President Biden signed into law the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (ARP). The plan provides economic relief to households through the tax code, making several credits fully refundable and advanceable and providing stimulus checks that already started arriving in bank accounts this past weekend. We have created a web application to help users explore how the American Rescue Plan will impact their 2021 federal tax liability.

The American Rescue Plan’s Likely Cost is Way More Than $1.9 Trillion

March 4, 2021Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

The Senate is poised to consider President Biden’s American Rescue Plan, an elaborate bill recently passed by the House of Representatives through the budget reconciliation process at an estimated cost of $1.9 trillion over the coming decade.

Pick Your Child Tax Credit

March 2, 2021Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is all the rage these days. Democrats and Republicans both are advancing proposals to increase the maximum value of the CTC and make it available to more families. We have developed a web application to accompany our recent report. Design Your Own Child Tax Credit Reform allows any user to compare popular current proposals or choose the parameters of their own preferred custom CTC reform.

Almost-Speaker McCarthy

November 23, 2020Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

Four years ago, many commentators lamented that Hillary Clinton fell short of winning the Electoral College by less than 80,000 votes. “You Could Fit All the Voters Who Cost Clinton the Election in a Mid-Sized Football Stadium,” read a headline in Vanity Fair. Now, it is not just Hillary Clinton that lost by a hair.

Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Red, Blue, and Swing States

October 20, 2020Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

From both a public health and economic perspective, the coronavirus pandemic has wreaked havoc on our country. More than 210,000 people have died, more than 435,000 individuals have been hospitalized, and more than 10 million jobs have been lost nationally. The US economy was 10 percent smaller in June than it was last December and is not projected to fully recover until some point in 2021 at the earliest.

A Deal for Coronavirus Fiscal Relief

September 17, 2020Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

We recently had the honor of testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee on the effects of inaction on coronavirus fiscal legislation. One of us was invited by the Republicans and the other by the Democrats. The basis of the hearing was the Heroes Act, a $3 trillion bill that passed the House in the spring on a party line vote with about $1 trillion in tax cuts and $2 trillion in new spending.

COVID-19 and Nursing Homes: National Updates and Early Evidence on the Second Wave

August 10, 2020Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

Evidence from the initial coronavirus outbreaks within the United States has shown that the fate of nursing home residents is tightly linked to the severity of the virus within the nursing home’s state. With a “second wave” of COVID-19 in many southern states and a host of policy changes, it is worth investigating whether the evidence suggests this vulnerable group is now better protected.

Toward a Better Employee Retention Tax Credit

August 3, 2020Filed Under: Op-EdsBy admin

Lawmakers in both chambers of Congress have staked out positions on expanding the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC), a refundable tax credit that provides temporary wage support to help employers retain or rehire workers.