The GOP Fumbles the Payroll Tax Cut

The Republicans have finally found a tax increase many of them can get behind. Unfortunately it's the first middle class tax increase in decades. Make no mistake, failure to renew the payroll tax cut would mean a significant tax increase. If nothing is done, then starting next month everybody …

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Written by Andrew Pavelyev on Monday December 5, 2011

Signs of Hope

My article in New York magazine on the state of conservatism presented a grim picture. Yet there are also signs of hope in the conservative world, evidences of intellectual openness and readiness for problem-solving. We'll try to monitor them here, with links as they appear one by one. …

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Written by David Frum on Tuesday November 22, 2011

Real Policy isn't Done Through Taxes

David Frum is right to attack the growing Republican orthodoxy that "nothing is wrong with this country that cannot be solved by abolishing the capital gains tax." He should take the argument a little further: a fixation on taxes above everything else--regulatory policy and excellence in …

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Written by Eli Lehrer on Wednesday November 2, 2011

A Conservative Free Thinker

Robert Patterson makes a welcomed point in the  Washington Examiner : For decades, conservative economists have essentially argued that carving out loopholes for property income at the expense of workers will generate more jobs and greater prosperity. Yet the legacy of the Reagan, Clinton, …

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Written by David Frum on Wednesday November 2, 2011

Perry's Plan: Politics not Policy

In my column for The Week I explain that Rick Perry's tax plan is designed to appeal to voters in the Republican primary, not to policy wonks who care about whether or not the plan makes economic sense: The wonks point out that (as conventionally scored) Perry's tax plan would blow a giant …

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Written by David Frum on Wednesday October 26, 2011

New Tool Makes the Cost of Tax Expenditures Clear

Information about how much revenue is lost through tax expenditures used to be hard to access, until recently. Many people believe that the deficit is large because of spending on expensive programs. This is why conservatives try to push for cuts in programs ranging from Medicare to the NPR, and …

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Written by Noah Kristula-Green on Friday July 15, 2011