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 “Tax policy can definitely play a role in mitigating inequality.…It's kind of ironic that over the past six years, as inequality has widened to its worst levels since the Great Depression, the tax system has become much more regressive.” Len Burman, Reuters |
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  Leonard Burman, Center Director The Tax Policy Center (TPC) continues to lead the field of indispensable sources on key tax issues. In 2007, the center was cited in nearly 600 major publications, including 86 citations in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal,and The Washington Post. In a fast-moving news cycle, we have been quick to respond to policy proposals, analyzing Ways and Means Committee Chairman Charles Rangel’s “mother of all tax reforms” proposal a day after its release in October. We also circulated a report on President Bush’s health insurance proposal the same day he announced it in his State of the Union address. We pointed out that, while the president’s plan included some important innovations that may expand coverage and help control costs, it could threaten the health insurance coverage of vulnerable groups, such as the poor and chronically ill. As Congress argued endlessly over how to keep the alternative minimum tax from ensnaring more and more of the middle class, legislators and the media sought out TPC to provide expertise on the debate. We offered analysis and context for the debate and developed a progressive, revenue-neutral solution that The New York Times endorsed as “fair and smart.” TPC’s work on taxation and the family homed in on child tax credits and college financial aid for low-income families. We expanded and refined our microsimulation tax model so we can better analyze how proposed tax policy options will play out. We began building a one-of-a-kind health insurance policy simulation model with the help of Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center. Using that model, we can study the effects of health policy proposals on coverage and health care costs. In 2007, we produced dozens of discussion papers, research reports, policy briefs, and articles, and published Taxing Capital Income with the Urban Institute Press. At one of the many public policy symposia we convened, presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama announced his tax plan. Researchers testified before Congress many times on the AMT, deficits, health insurance and the tax code, and other tax policy issues. In September, our redesigned, more user-friendly web site debuted. We also launched the popular TaxVox blog, which attracted nearly 70,000 visits in its first 10 weeks. |
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