Notes on increasing age qualifications for Medicare and Social Security

The CBO released a brief earlier this week about the budgetary impacts of raising the eligibility age for Medicare and Social Security. As anyone would expect, raising the qualifying age for either program will reduce government outlays. Raising the Medicare eligibility age by two years will reduce government outlays on the program by 5 percent.… Continue reading Notes on increasing age qualifications for Medicare and Social Security

Congressional under-funding of IRS costs the government $385 billion

The Internal Revenue Service released a report on how much revenue the government misses out on due to illegally unpaid taxes. According to their estimates, the figure for 2006 was around $450 billion, with 17 percent of taxes going unpaid. Around $65 billion of the unpaid taxes are recovered through enforcement, leaving a net tax… Continue reading Congressional under-funding of IRS costs the government $385 billion

Are the poor envious of the rich?

Since Occupy Wall Street pushed inequality back into the mainstream consciousness, those on the right have scrambled to mount their defenses. Paul Ryan and Eric Cantor tried to defend by emphasizing the existence of social mobility, something that is