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Lawmakers received a stark warning last week from a host of prominent economic and federal policy experts: The mere prospect of a U.S. default could raise interest rates, forcing taxpayers to pay many billions of dollars more on the government’s…

After a week-long recess, the House continued last week to make progress on FY 2012 appropriations bills. The second and third bills to clear the House were for Military Construction/ Veterans Affairs and Agriculture.The House Appropriations Committee completed action on…

Vice President Joe Biden says the budget talks he chairs are “getting down to the hard stuff” and aiming to curb deficits by $4 trillion over the next decade or so. That's ambitious goal which would be hard to achieve…

In an encouraging vote last week, a bipartisan Senate majority approved a repeal of the ethanol tax credit. Although the repeal is not expected to become law, the 73-27 vote raised the possibility of further bipartisan agreement on the elimination…

Although Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes once described taxes as “what we pay for civilized society,” political debates over taxes have often been anything but civilized. In recent weeks differences over tax policy in Washington have remained a major obstacle for…

Much of the political debate over health care costs continues to focus on who should pay them rather than how to curb their growth. Republicans want private insurers and individuals to pay while Democrats want the government to be the…

WASHINGTON -- Diane Lim Rogers, chief economist for The Concord Coalition, will focus on the federal budget, tax policy and deficit reduction in a new column for the weekly magazine Tax Notes.The column, “Taxes for a Civilized Society,” will also…

A shorter version of this column is featured on CNNMoney.com.It is often said that the most expensive piece of medical equipment is the doctor’s pen. Unfortunately, after more than two years of intense debate about health care costs in Washington,…