News & Views
Here's what we have our eye on today:
- Trump Wants a ‘Phase Two’ of Tax Cuts – CNBC
- Congress Has Until March 23 to Fund the Government. Three Ways This Could Go – Vox
- The First Target on Drug Prices: Pharmacy Benefit Managers – Axios
- No One’s Sure Who Qualifies for This $415 Billion U.S. Tax Deduction – Bloomberg
- Companies Are Putting Tax Savings in the Pockets of Shareholders – CNBC
- Conservative Groups Warn Against Obamacare 'Bailout' in Spending Bill – The Hill
- Trump to Visit Boeing Plant in Missouri to Tout Impact of Tax Overhaul – Reuters
- U.S. DOT Announces TIGER Grants Totaling Nearly $500 Million – Route Fifty
- Are You Underpaid? In a First, U.S. Firms Reveal How Much They Pay Workers – Wall Street Journal
- How Much Do America’s Arms Makers Depend on Foreign Metal? No One Seems to Know – Defense One
- Fox News Launching New Ad Campaign: 'Real News. Real Honest Opinion' – The Hill
- It’s Tax Time! Here’s What to Know This Year – New York Times
VIEWS
- The G.O.P. Accidentally Replaced Obamacare Without Repealing It – Peter Suderman, New York Times
- Red-State Changes Could Strengthen ACA, Medicaid – Drew Altman, Axios
- Social Security Is Headless Because of Trump’s Inaction. Will Other Agencies Be Decapitated? – Joe Davidson, Washington Post
- Britain Has Budget Problems, and the US Can Learn from Them – Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
- The Rich Are Happier About Their Taxes Than the Poor – Kevin Drum, Mother Jones
- Axing State Corporate Taxes Is Good Policy – Richard F. Keevey, Route Fifty
- Trump's Tariff Move Shows He Flunked Economics – Jeffrey Sachs, CNN
- Without Pressure from the Electorate, Better Infrastructure Will Just Be Talk – Mark Jamison and Jeff Lawrence, RealClear Markets
- Most Small Business Owners Say They Will Not Hire, Give Raises Because of New Tax Law – Frank Knapp, Jr. – The Hill
- Trump Administration Is Helping a Lost Generation of Workers Recover – Scott Jennings, CNN
- I Hate Trump, but I Love These Tariffs – Krystal Ball, The Hill
Chart of the Day: Boosting Corporate Tax Revenues
The leading candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination have all proposed increasing taxes on corporations, including raising income tax rates to levels ranging from 25% to 35%, up from the current 21% imposed by the Republican tax cuts in 2017. With Bernie Sanders leading the way at $3.9 trillion, here’s how much revenue the higher proposed corporate taxes, along with additional proposed surtaxes and reduced tax breaks, would generate over a decade, according to calculations by the right-leaning Tax Foundation, highlighted Wednesday by Bloomberg News.
Chart of the Day: Discretionary Spending Droops
The federal government’s total non-defense discretionary spending – which covers everything from education and national parks to veterans’ medical care and low-income housing assistance – equals 3.2% of GDP in 2020, near historic lows going back to 1962, according to an analysis this week from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
Chart of the Week: Trump Adds $4.7 Trillion in Debt
The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimated this week that President Trump has now signed legislation that will add a total of $4.7 trillion to the national debt between 2017 and 2029. Tax cuts and spending increases account for similar portions of the projected increase, though if the individual tax cuts in the 2017 Republican overhaul are extended beyond their current expiration date at the end of 2025, they would add another $1 trillion in debt through 2029.
Chart of the Day: The Long Decline in Interest Rates
Are interest rates destined to move higher, increasing the cost of private and public debt? While many experts believe that higher rates are all but inevitable, historian Paul Schmelzing argues that today’s low-interest environment is consistent with a long-term trend stretching back 600 years.
The chart “shows a clear historical downtrend, with rates falling about 1% every 60 years to near zero today,” says Bloomberg’s Aaron Brown. “Rates do tend to revert to a mean, but that mean seems to be declining.”
Chart of the Day: Drug Price Plans Compared
Lawmakers are considering three separate bills that are intended to reduce the cost of prescription drugs. Here’s an overview of the proposals, from a series of charts produced by the Kaiser Family Foundation this week. An interesting detail highlighted in another chart: 88% of voters – including 92% of Democrats and 85% of Republicans – want to give the government the power to negotiate prices with drug companies.
