The rising demand for more educated, experienced and technologically able workers has produced a more dispersed distribution of income. The increasing income gap between the highest and lowest paid workers is a concern if some groups of workers are fated to remain at the bottom of the economic ladder throughout their working lives.
Last month, the House of Representatives and its Ways & Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-Calif.) advanced legislation to create tax-preferred savings accounts for medical expenses that would reform private health care and retiree health care.
The No Child Left Behind Act, the new school accountability measure that became law in 2001, requires that all states develop and administer standards-based tests to students in grades 3 through 8 and report results by student subpopulation (race/ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic status and disability) for districts and campuses.
Some things never seem to die. The marriage penalty is one of them. The new tax law benefits most married couples somewhat, but it does not eliminate the so-called marriage penalty for lower- and upper-income couples. Even more important, the new law does not address other tax rules that financially penalize married couples and two-income couples
The Bush administration is proposing the most sweeping improvements in Medicare since the program's inception in 1965.
In just 15 years, workers' Social Security payroll taxes will fall short of what is needed to pay promised benefits, and the system will require increasing cash transfers from general revenues. One way to begin alleviating the shortfall is to allow workers to set.
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) reported this month that while the number of chronically uninsured Americans is lower than commonly believed (between 21 million and 31 million, rather than 41 million), the number of Americans who go without health insurance for brief periods is around 60 million.
Rep. Richard Gephardt (D-Mo.) recently unveiled the centerpiece of his presidential campaign: a plan to encourage near-universal health coverage. The plan calls for replacing the existing system of federal income tax subsidies for health insurance with a much more expensive system.
The ultimate goals of a new "National Energy Policy" should be economic growth and consumer freedom of choice. Unfortunately, versions of the energy bill currently being debated in Congress include some economically harmful proposals designed to appease certain politically powerful constituencies.
Congress can help control health care costs, reduce the number of uninsured and promote quality medical care by making an existing health benefit – Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) – more flexible, portable and widely available. Doing so would give millions of Americans more control over their medical care and make them more cost-conscious patients.
The proportion of health care paid directly by consumers has been falling for decades. In 1960, individuals paid directly for 50 percent of their health care. Today they pay for only 15 percent. The other 85 percent is paid by third parties, generally employers, insurance companies or the government. See Figure. As their share of health expenses declined, so also did consumers' interest in controlling health care costs.
Prices for medical services have been rising faster than prices of other goods and services for as long as anyone can remember. But not all health care prices are rising. Although health care inflation is robust for those services paid by third-party insurance, prices are rising only moderately for services patients buy directly.
The 2003 annual reports for Social Security and Medicare highlight the financial burdens these programs will create for future generations. If they are not reformed in a timely and responsible way, Social Security and Medicare will consume an ever-increasing portion of workers' incomes as the government seeks to keep its promises to future retirees.
President Bush has proposed a tax package to spur economic recovery and promote growth. The President's plan includes accelerating scheduled tax rate cuts, ending the double taxation of corporate income and increasing the amount of capital expenditures small businesses can deduct from their taxable income.
In the early 20th century, state governments and the District of Columbia set up Workers' Compensation (WC) systems to pay employees' lost income and medical expenses due to job-related accidents.
National energy policy is a more prominent issue now than at any time since the "energy crisis" of the 1970s. Congress is debating legislation that would create a new national energy policy in response to electric industry deregulation, rising and wildly fluctuating energy prices, deteriorating relations with energy exporting countries, energy implications of the war with Iraq and various environmental concerns.
Access to safe and affordable child care has been a major issue in the congressional debate on reauthorization of the 1996 welfare reform law.
Foreigners have invested more than $1 trillion in capital in the United States since 1984, when Congress and the Reagan administration established a policy of not taxing interest they earn on U.S. bank deposits.
America's health care system is an uneven playing field. Government subsidizes employer-provided health insurance by excluding the premiums from taxation.
Social Security reform is one of the nation's most prominent domestic policy issues. A common feature of many leading Social Security reform plans is that they would prefund benefits by integrating personal retirement accounts into the current system.
About 31 million Americans live in households with incomes below the poverty level, according to the latest U.S. Census data. Poverty is more than a lack of income. It is also the consequence of specific behaviors and decisions.
The U.S. embargo on Cuba was instituted in 1961 to overthrow Fidel Castro and neutralize the threat his regime posed by blocking all trade, except in food and medicine.
A desire to relieve suffering can sometimes hurt. Moving an accident victim can worsen his injuries, despite our good intentions. Similarly, a desire to help the unemployed can actually delay their reemployment.
With continued sluggishness in the economy, the Bush administration is looking at new tax initiatives that will have a quick, positive impact on growth. However, the key to truly helping the economy is long-term, not short-term, thinking.
Chile was the first country in the western hemisphere to set up a social security system, and the first country in the world to reform it using individual investment accounts.