Browse Research and Commentary

It’s hard to imagine that it’s going to really be that expensive for online retailers to comply with the [“Internet Sales Tax”].

May 6, 2013, Tracy Gordon, ABC News

On the environmental objective, certainly we are concerned about greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels. But we argue that the best way to address that would be to put a price on carbon, for example through a carbon tax, rather than try to subsidize alternatives. [That]'s much less efficient. The way the [current] rules work, electric vehicle manufacturers can sell credits to other automakers toward their fuel economy standards, so that means that other automakers can sell more polluting cars for every electric car that's sold.

February 23, 2013, Adele Morris, National Public Radio

Everything is easier to do if the economy is growing. If you want to cut spending, it is easier to do in an environment where people think they are going to have robust income growth and aren’t as dependent on government. In terms of taxes, growth gets you not just more income to tax, but taxpayers moving into higher rates.

January 12, 2013, William G. Gale, New York Times

What we did on January 1st isn’t tax reform, but it may well preclude any tax reform for this year. First, the whole point of tax reform is to reduce the rates and broaden the base. But we just raised the rates. I find it difficult to think that after the election, where Obama campaigned and won on higher tax rates on the rich, that policymakers would then turn around and reduce rates on the rich, even in exchange for a broader base.

January 9, 2013, William G. Gale, The Fiscal Times

We should reform the tax system, no question. We are going to need to move beyond the current set of tax instruments to raise the needed revenues—a VAT and or a carbon tax seem like the obvious ways to go.

November 27, 2012, William G. Gale, New York Times

Raising for taxes for everyone, and making big senseless cuts would be really stupid policy.

September 19, 2012, Alice M. Rivlin, Washington Post

Once you start looking under the hood you can see it’s not that simple and there are a lot of divisions. A lot of the provisions in the corporate tax system that are frequently eyed for reform benefit specific constituencies often for good reason.

May 2, 2012, Adam Looney, Financial Times

One thing that’s pretty clear: Individual income tax expenditures hit a pretty broad swath of people in the middle of the income distribution.

April 17, 2012, Adam Looney, Lawmakers consider changing tax breaks on retirement savings

The evidence suggests that individuals, and particularly high-income individuals, are responsive to tax rates.

April 13, 2012, Adam Looney, Top Earners Can Find Ways Around Buffett Rule