President Obama is making the Buffett Rule -- a minimum tax on millionaires who get off easy under the current tax code -- one of the centerpiece of his re-election campaign. Here's what adoption of the tax might mean for all of us.
Last year, the Social Security Administration warned that the program's trust fund was likely to run out of money in 2036, leading to deep cuts in benefits. Now, the Congressional Budget Office says that projection may have been too optimistic.
With all the talk about taxes and whether we should lower them, you'd think that the citizens and corporations of the United States face steep tax rates. You'd be wrong, though. When it comes to taxes, things are not as they appear.
How many Americans have been out of work for more than a year? Around 4.4 million -- about the same as the population of Louisiana. And a disproportionate percentage of those long-term unemployed workers are 55 and older.
It's no secret that many middle-class families are in a financial bind, caught between rising costs and falling incomes. But according to recent government reports, the middle-class squeeze is not a recent development, and isn't likely to disappear anytime soon.
There's trouble ahead for Social Security disability recipients: A new analysis says the fund will begin to run out of money in 2017 as more and more baby boomers enter retirement.
Think you can do better than Congress in coming up with a balanced U.S. budget? Several smartphone apps let you play along with all the fiscal fun happening in Washington. Raise taxes on market speculators? Cut spending on social services? You decide, and these apps will show you the results.
Like all budgets, the federal government's spending plan is all about revenues and expenditures. Unfortunately, Uncle Sam is very good at grossly overestimating tax receipts and grossly underestimating spending. It's enough to make you wonder if any of it is real.
The Republican opposition in Congress has put that number on the impact they say health care insurance reform will have on employment. The law's proponents say that figure is way off target. The real effect will likely depend on how the law actually gets implemented.
The tax cut compromise between Obama and the GOP is now being touted as a back-door stimulus plan, one that some economists predict will create or save 3.1 million jobs. Unfortunately, the model on which those forecasts are based makes some flawed assumptions.
The annual U.S. budget deficit is well over a trillion dollars, and in the long term, that's unsustainable. But a closer look at the sources of most of that gap shows that balancing the budget wouldn't be nearly as hard as it might at first appear.
Economists say the Obama administration's stimulus program actually saved the country's economy from plunging into the Great Depression 2.0. Yet that news will likely fail to sway voters who believe the current administration didn't do enough to support the economy.
By some calculations, the Obama plan will help trim future budget gaps. But other figures show it'll only make things worse. The problem is that no one knows for sure right now, and that makes sensible spending choices ever harder to make.
