Blogs

An estimated $458 billion a year in federal taxes went unpaid in 2008 through 2010, the Internal Revenue Service reported recently. That figure, called the “tax gap,” was up slightly from $450 billion in 2006, although the IRS attributed much…

The most notable cost-related changes in the health care system over the past decade have attacked some of the misaligned incentives in the system, and those efforts have helped slow health-care cost growth in recent years. (more…)

Playing to the frustration Americans often feel around tax-return season, many lawmakers last week targeted the IRS with criticism and an array of proposals with little chance of becoming law. The House passed several measures during what some Republican lawmakers…

Military operations against the terrorist organization ISIS in Iraq and Syria have cost $7 billion, according to a recent Pentagon report. The report measured the cost of the campaign from its start in August 2014 until last month. Almost half…

A pair of Republicans on the House Rules Committee recently discussed proposals to alter the rules for the consideration of spending bills. The effort drew attention – and opposition – from Rules Committee Democrats and Appropriations Committee Republicans alike. (more…)

Congress missed its statutory deadline on Friday for approving a budget resolution to frame work on spending legislation for Fiscal 2017, which begins Oct. 1. On Monday Senate Budget Chairman Mike Enzi filed topline spending numbers based on bipartisan legislation…

With yesterday’s deadline for filing most individual tax returns, many Americans are again wondering how the overly complex and inefficient federal tax code could be improved. “The place to begin is with a major effort to scale back or eliminate…

Unfunded pension liabilities for state, local and federal governments have grown to $7 trillion, according to a new report by Moody’s Investors Service, a credit-rating agency. With the U.S. population aging, the troubling report says, the federal government has $3.5…