View Research by Author - C. Eugene Steuerle

More about C. Eugene Steuerle's areas of expertise can be found on this Urban Institute expert's page.

Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/CEugeneSteuerle

Political theater? Such is the label many have attached to the tax reform task force headed by Paul Volcker. But I heard the same claim made about President Reagan's State of the Union request for a tax reform study from the Treasury Department to be made only after the 1984 election was over. Congress literally burst out laughing.

In a letter to top Senate Democrats, President Obama recently stated that he was open to the "principle of shared responsibility—making every American responsible for having health insurance coverage, and asking that employers share in the costs." This sounds very much like support for what are sometimes labeled individual and employer "mandates," though in the Presidential campaign he opposed requiring adults to buy insurance, except for their children. Done the right way, "mandates" could increase dramatically the numbers of those insured, while helping drive down the rate of increase in health care costs. Done the wrong way, they can be unenforceable or drive up the number of unemployed. The Senate Finance Committee increasingly has been turning to mandates as part of a package of health reform.

Federal Expenditures on Infants and Toddlers in 2007 looks comprehensively at federal spending and tax expenditures targeted toward infants and toddlers. This appendix details our data sources, the programs we include, and the methodology used to estimate the percentage of federal expenditures that went to infants and toddlers in 2007.

Again and again, health reformers believe they have identified ways to save money through more efficient delivery of care. So why can't we count on those savings to budget the coming expansion of health care for Americans or lower cost growth?

If we are to achieve health reform—that is, affordable, sustainable, and constantly improving health care available to all—we need to start looking as much to the psychology of the issue as to the economics and politics.

Pundits and press alike are declaring President Obama's budget "transformational." ... Administration insiders are more careful with their claims, knowing that the hard work remains to be done.

"If you're depressed when Congress fails to get an 'A' on legislation, you should never work for government. Getting from an 'F' to a 'C' must be fulfillment enough." That's the advice I got many years ago at the Treasury Department from Jim Wetzler, who worked for the tax-writing committees of Congress, later became Commissioner of Taxation and Finance for the State of New York, and most recently was on an Obama transition team that reviewed the Treasury Department.

In his inaugural speech, President Obama attempted to move beyond the partisan divide over size of government, claiming that his tenure would be mainly devoted to making government work. Some might view this statement simply as a political appeal to moderates in both parties—echoing President Clinton's 1996 election year claim that "the era of big government is over." Others more cynically might view it as a ploy to get around the dilemma that plagues almost every winning candidate when campaign promises for both tax cuts and spending increases face the reality of governing.

Now that the United States has discovered that it was easier to fall into a recession than to climb out of one, the Obama administration needs to learn an equally urgent lesson. Timeliness is important not just for getting into, but also backing out of, an economic stimulus package.

Two former directors of the Congressional Budget Office now at the Urban Institute join scholars from other organizations in a memo advising President Obama on how to balance the nation’s short- and long-term economic needs. To reduce escalating future deficits without endangering near-term recovery, the authors’ recommendations include action to stem the growth of Social Security and Medicare.

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