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
Tweet of the Day: Revenues or Spending?
Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee and one of the authors of the 2017 Republican tax overhaul, told The Washington Post’s Heather Long Tuesday that the budget deficit is driven by excess spending, not a shortfall in revenues in the wake of the tax cuts. The Wall Street Journal’s Kate Davidson provided some inconvenient facts for Brady’s claim in a tweet, pointing out that government revenues as a share of GDP have fallen significantly since 2015, while spending has remained more or less constant.
Chart of the Day: The Decline in IRS Audits
Reviewing the recent annual report on tax statistics from the IRS, Robert Weinberger of the Tax Policy Center says it “tells a story of shrinking staff, fewer audits, and less customer service.” The agency had 22% fewer personnel in 2018 than it did in 2010, and its enforcement budget has fallen by nearly $1 billion, Weinberger writes. One obvious effect of the budget cuts has been a sharp reduction in the number of audits the agency has performed annually, which you can see in the chart below.
Number of the Day: $102 Million
President Trump’s golf playing has cost taxpayers $102 million in extra travel and security expenses, according to an analysis by the left-leaning HuffPost news site.
“The $102 million total to date spent on Trump’s presidential golfing represents 255 times the annual presidential salary he volunteered not to take. It is more than three times the cost of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation that Trump continually complains about. It would fund for six years the Special Olympics program that Trump’s proposed budget had originally cut to save money,” HuffPost’s S.V. Date writes.
Date says the White House did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment.
Americans See Tax-Paying as a Duty
The IRS may not be conducting audits like it used to, but according to the agency’s Data Book for 2018, most Americans still believe it’s not acceptable to cheat on your taxes. About 67% of respondents to an IRS opinion survey “completely agree” that it’s a civic duty to pay “a fair share of taxes,” and another 26% “mostly agree,” bringing the total in agreement to over 90%. Accounting Today says that attitude has been pretty consistent over the last decade.
Coming Soon: Deductible Relief Day!
You may be familiar with the concept of Tax Freedom Day – the date on which you have earned enough to pay all of your taxes for the year. Focusing on a different kind of financial burden, analysts at the Kaiser Family Foundation have created Deductible Relief Day – the date on which people in employer-sponsored insurance plans have spent enough on health care to meet the average annual deductible.
Average deductibles have more than tripled over the last decade, forcing people to spend more out of pocket each year. As a result, Deductible Relief Day is “getting later and later in the year,” Kaiser’s Larry Levitt said in a tweet Thursday.
