Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/LeonardEBurman
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Personal savings need a boost (Commentary)The Washington Times. America's days of economic dominance are numbered because we don't save. The government is borrowing like crazy, and households aren't doing much better. The personal savings rate -- the share of after-tax income that people set aside for a rainy day -- has been falling like a stone since the early 1980s.
| Posted to Web: November 10, 2009 | Publication Date: November 10, 2009 |
Pyrrhic victory on health reform? (Commentary)Washington Times op-ed. Leonard Burman discusses the politics of the health care reform debate.
| Posted to Web: September 01, 2009 | Publication Date: September 01, 2009 |
Catastrophic Budget Failure (Audio / Video Files)Len Burman, former director of the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center, explains why our spending and borrowing policies are leading the country toward catastrophic budget failure. Burman argues that the Congressional Budget Office's bleak economic forecasts are too optimistic, so we must act quickly to reduce our deficits.
Len Burman is an Urban Institute Affiliated Scholar and the Daniel Patrick Moynihan professor of public policy at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University.
| Posted to Web: August 20, 2009 | Publication Date: August 20, 2009 |
Tax subsidies for private health insurance: Who benefits and at what cost? (Policy Report)Policymakers are considering modifications to the tax treatment of employer-sponsored insurance (ESI) as a way to raise revenue to help pay for health reform and provide incentives to reduce health care costs. Understanding how current subsidies work is important to assessing health reform proposals. This brief presents essential information about the structure and distribution of existing tax subsidies for ESI and the implications for policy options.
| Posted to Web: August 18, 2009 | Publication Date: July 01, 2009 |
Catastrophic Budget Failure (Opinion)In a Washington Times op-ed, Len Burman explains why even this gloom-and-doom outlook is "wildly over-optimistic." The latest CBO budget outlook predicts a bleak scenario if we don't change our current policies.
| Posted to Web: July 14, 2009 | Publication Date: July 14, 2009 |
Give Up A Benefit, Gain Jobs (Commentary)Washington Post op-ed, July 9, 2009. Employer-paid health insurance is entirely tax-free — a break that will cost the Treasury about $250 billion this year. Len Burman looks at tax-free health insurance provided by employers.
| Posted to Web: July 10, 2009 | Publication Date: July 09, 2009 |
Different Way to Pay for Health Reform (Commentary)Washington Times op-ed, May 19, 2009. Expanding health-care access is a top priority for the Obama administration, and leaders in Congress are on board. Political leaders also agree that any health insurance expansion must not increase the deficit. So how do we pay for health care without sinking the economy? The best option would be to phase in a value-added tax (VAT) dedicated to paying for health care. Packaged with the right bells and whistles, the VAT would help revive the economy, offset the burden on low-income families, and help slow health-care costs.
| Posted to Web: May 28, 2009 | Publication Date: May 19, 2009 |
Financing Health Care Reform: Before the Senate Committee on Finance (Testimony)The latest statistics show that 46 million Americans were uninsured in 2007. Health care costs threaten to bankrupt the nation if we can't figure out a way to slow their growth and pay for the government's growing share. Adding to the government's unfunded health care obligations would be reckless and irresponsible. In this statement, I will discuss some issues involved in measuring the impact of health care financing options, discuss an option to pay for universal health care coverage with a value added tax (VAT), and examine several incremental options to pay for all or part of health care coverage expansions.
| Posted to Web: May 12, 2009 | Publication Date: May 12, 2009 |
A Blueprint for Tax Reform and Health Reform (Research Report)This paper outlines a plan for a VAT dedicated to paying for a new universal health insurance voucher combined with a vastly simplified and much flatter income tax. Top income tax rates could be cut to 25% or less and most taxpayers would not have to file returns. The health care voucher would offset the inherent regressivity of a VAT, since the voucher would be worth more than the VAT tax paid by most households. Moreover, with the VAT rate tied to health spending, the public would have a vested interest in reining in the growth of health care costs.
| Posted to Web: April 07, 2009 | Publication Date: April 07, 2009 |
Taxing Capital Gains in Australia: Assessment and Recommendations (Research Report)One of the most vexing and contentious issues in taxation is the proper treatment of capital gains-the increase in value of an asset such as shares of company stock or a business. In principle, under an income tax, capital gains should be included in the tax base as they accrue. In practice, if they are taxed at all, capital gains are almost always taxed only when an asset is sold (or "realized") and generally at lower rates than other income.
| Posted to Web: March 25, 2009 | Publication Date: March 25, 2009 |
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