From the The Fiscal Times -
Official Site
Why It is Time to Worry Again About
Americas Rising Federal Debt
By Charles Blahous The Fiscal Times June 1, 2016
One of the fascinating quirks of humanity, studied by
scientists ranging from behavioral economists to psychologists, is how our perceptions of events
are shaped as much by our expectations as by objective realities. Because
we compare outcomes to our expectations it is easy for us to make a number of
cognitive mistakes, including confusing something getting better for something
getting worse, and vice versa. The national debt is a case in
point. The tenor of much recent coverage is that the federal debt is
a fading problem, even though by any objective measure it is a serious one in
the process of getting rapidly worse
That the federal debt situation is worsening is easily seen
by looking (see Figure 1) at the latest projections from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO).
Throughout the whole time CBO has made estimates, federal debt held by the
public never exceeded 50 percent of GDP until 2009 when it began to rise
dramatically, eventually reaching roughly 75 percent of GDP this year. CBO
now projects that we will continue to accumulate debt at unsustainable rates,
exceeding 85 percent of GDP by 2026 and continuing to grow to eventually exceed
our entire domestic economic output. Viewed objectively, our debt situation has
grown much worse in recent years and is projected to grow still worse in the
future.
Continue reading at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/Columns/2016/06/01/Why-It-s-Time-Worry-Again-About-America-s-Rising-Federal-Debt
By Rob Garver May 20, 2016
A watchdog agency
in charge of overseeing the Internal Revenue Service issued a report today finding that the agency
issues billions of dollars of payments every year to taxpayers who erroneously
claim that they are due a refund under the Earned Income Tax Credit and other
tax credits. However, at a time when bashing the IRS is a favorite pastime of
many members of Congress, the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration
laid most of the blame not on the beleaguered agency, but on those same
lawmakers.
The IRS has, for
years, known and reported that nearly 25 percent of the EITC payments it makes
are going to people who do not actually qualify for the credit under the law.
And in a vast number of cases, the agency has the ability to identify these
false claims before payment is issued. However, it has neither have the
legislative authority to stop those payments from being issued nor the
necessary resources to investigated incorrect EITC claims on an individual
basis. Continue reading at http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2016/05/20/Outraged-Over-23-Billion-Wrongful-Tax-Credits-Blame-Congress
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