From Red Carpet to Red Ink – The Emmy Awards last night celebrated the best in TV. In Washington, the plotlines are still being written for this fall, but fiscal issues are sure to get star treatment.
At the Federal Reserve meetings in Jackson Hole, CRFB President Maya MacGuineas, commented on fiscal policy and the need for a credible debt reduction plan.
Watch a video of the interview below, or click here to go to CNBC.
Today the President’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board issued a report on tax reform options. The report should encourage and inform a vital discussion on the need for fundamental tax reform and hopefully will broaden the current narrow debate over extending the 2001/2003 tax cuts.
If lawmakers extended various current policies, as opposed to letting them expire as they are set to under current law, what would happen to economic growth over the coming decade?
House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) gave an economic speech today that was billed as setting the policy table if Republicans gain control of the House in November. If so, the table needs some more place settings.
Washington Empties Out – With both houses of Congress in recess and the president traveling, Washington feels deserted. The biggest news in DC is whether the Nats will sign Bryce Harper. Congress will return after Labor Day.
They’re Here (for a day) – The House did return briefly on Tuesday to approve $26.1 billion in state aid. The president signed the bill, which is fully offset, shortly afterwards.
The Wall Street Journal reports that a package of tax extenders might have a harder time getting by the PAYGO regime. Since the planned offsets were used up in the recent state aid package, Congress will need to find another way to pay for them.
In an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal this Wednesday, Martin Feldstein discusses the pivotal role of tax expenditures in increasing the federal deficit and how they should be considered, perhaps even more than direct spending cuts, in reducing the deficit as well.
Today, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in an interview that all of the 2001 Bush tax cuts, which he had previously supported, should be allowed to expire at the end of this year, citing the need for the increased tax revenue in efforts to decrease the federal deficit.
