Alan D. Viard, a resident scholar at AEI, reviews the budget outlook, the need for tax reform and the benefits of moving to a progressive consumption tax. He also discusses his forthcoming book, Progressive Consumption Taxation: The X Tax Revisited, which he coauthored with Robert Carroll of Ernst & Young. The book will be published by AEI Press in the Spring.

How in the world might a transportation bill feed our retirement crisis? Congress is sneaking a harmful pension change that could lead to massive underfunding of our largest plans

Super committee members Sen. Pat Toomey and Rep. Jeb Hensarling are taking flak from some conservatives for proposing a deal including increases in "revenues." But it's worth taking a look at what Toomey and Hensarling actually were talking about. It may not matter now but could after 2012.

In less than twenty-five years, government “affordable housing” and other housing policies have turned a healthy market into a financial ruin. Until Fannie and Freddie’s market dominance and the government’s role in the housing finance system are substantially reduced or eliminated, the United States will continue to have an inferior and unstable housing market.

Limiting the tax deductibility of charitable contributions would effectively transfer more than $7 billion a year from charitable institutions to the federal government.

The following is a summary highlighting testimony by AEI Director of Economic Policy Studies Kevin Hassett to the Joint Economic Committee at a hearing entitled "How the Taxation of Capital Affects Growth and Employment."

Politicians have frequently directed harsh rhetoric toward particular corporate taxpayers that earn high profits. At times, this rhetoric has been accompanied by policy proposals that single out a narrow set of profitable taxpayers for disparate treatment. Perhaps the most notable example is the war against Big Oil.

The growth in payroll taxes is seldom noticed, even though by some accounts they are now a greater burden for the vast majority of American workers than income taxes.