April 1 may be a day for jokes, but on Sunday Japan ceded to the United States a distinction that is no laughing matter: the highest combined statutory corporate tax rate (state, local, and federal) in the developed world.

U.S. House of Representatives hearing on tax policy impacts on the commercial application of renewable energy technology

Political dysfunction. Partisanship at record levels. Attack politics run amok. And public approval of Congress scraping the single digits (Sen. John McCain is fond of saying it's down to blood rlatives and paid staff).

This updated second edition details a better approach to health care, offering fundamental reform alternatives centering on tax changes, insurance market changes, and redesigning Medicare and Medicaid.

One of the more hotly debated policy questions surrounding tax reform is how revenues are affected by changes in the tax code. The current standard for assessing such changes does not take into account growth effects from tax cuts, which in turn boost revenues. Ignoring such effects can make tax...

Cutting the payroll tax cut, or even eventually eliminating it, might make more sense - if it happens on the Medicare, rather than Social Security side, of FICA.

As in Chicago, President Obama seems to live in a cocoon in which Republicans are largely absent, offscreen actors that no one pays any attention to.

The agreement that extended the debt limit has been very controversial. Even Republicans have questioned whether it was responsible to go to the brink with the country's credit standing at stake. But given the severity of the county's debt position, "grand bargains" involving tax increases are not a viable option.