C. Eugene Steuerle's Blog: The Government We Deserve, page 6

Replacing the Individual Mandate to Buy Health Insurance: A First Step to Compromise

This post originally appeared in TaxVox. The Trump Administration and congressional Republicans remain stalemated over how to “repeal and replace” the 2010 Affordable Care Act (ACA). One major problem: The House approach in the American Health Care Act (AHCA) is highly unlikely to pass Congress when it increases the number of uninsured by 23 million, […]

A Debt Straightjacket or a Misdiagnosed Disease?

Debt is merely one symptom of a disease that has vastly restricted the ability of developed nations to respond to new needs, emergencies, opportunities, and voter interests. The disease: the extraordinary degree to which past policymakers have attempted to control the future—building automatic growth or growing public expectations into existing spending and tax subsidy programs while refusing to collect the corresponding revenues required to pay for them.

The Trump Administration Dilemma on Tax Reform

Avoiding big new revenue losses requires systemic reform, such as increasing taxes on individuals to offset business tax cuts. Or engaging in true budget reform that includes scaling back on popular programs. Those are the requirements of our time, like them or not, and while briefly they might be ignored politically, over the longer run they can’t be dodged as a matter of either economics or arithmetic.

How Both Public Tax Reform and Private Sector Initiatives Can Strengthen Charities

Charities must think longer-term as the nation is struggles to define a modern set of public policies and societal goals relevant to 21st century needs and opportunities. My suggestions are intended to extend well beyond any current political battle, no matter which party controls government at any point. Their goal is to strengthen the charitable sector, by improving both government incentives and the outreach and self-examination by non-profits themselves.[image error]

How the Fight over Symbols Prevents Health, Trade, Immigration and Tax Reform

As long as lawmakers fight mainly over symbols rather than substance, they are unlikely to achieve many real improvements in policy. And tax reform will follow along the path down which health, immigration, and trade reform already seem headed.

Before We Reform Tax Policy, We Need to Know What Is Working

First, the IRS should report administrative information to Congress on each program or subprogram it operates. It should describe how tax subsidies are distributed by taxpayer income and geographical location. Second, the IRS commissioner should hire a Chief Evaluation Officer who would work closely with the Taxpayer Advocate to teach and encourage staff to make better use of the tools that generate such evidence.

Did the Financially Insecure Secure Donald Trump’s Victory?

In a classic case of Monday-morning (or Wednesday-morning) quarterbacking, many of us tend to seek one simple explanation for why Donald Trump won the recent presidential election. New analysis from some of my colleagues at the Urban Institute shows that the real reasons are more complex and transcend sound bites. As part of our Opportunity and Ownership Initiative, Diana Elliott and Emma Kalish have assessed ongoing election narratives with some on-the-ground facts and an interactive map [an...

The California Secure Choice Retirement Savings Program: Why pension reform turns inefficiently to the states

This post originally appeared on TaxVox. By: C. Eugene Steuerle and Pamela Perun Starting as soon as it can be made operational, perhaps in 2018, as many as 7 million private-sector California workers who currently have no access to a job-based retirement plan will be automatically enrolled in a state-managed savings program. The California Secure […]

Six bipartisan opportunities for president-elect Trump

Many workers made it clear in this election that they feel forgotten by government. While the left and right disagree over how well our government promotes opportunity for workers, they generally agree it could do better.

Both Clinton and Trump would reduce tax incentives for charitable giving

Both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump have proposed income* tax changes that would result in less charitable giving.