News & Views
Here's what we have our eye on today:
- Trump Wants a ‘Phase Two’ of Tax Cuts – CNBC
- Congress Has Until March 23 to Fund the Government. Three Ways This Could Go – Vox
- The First Target on Drug Prices: Pharmacy Benefit Managers – Axios
- No One’s Sure Who Qualifies for This $415 Billion U.S. Tax Deduction – Bloomberg
- Companies Are Putting Tax Savings in the Pockets of Shareholders – CNBC
- Conservative Groups Warn Against Obamacare 'Bailout' in Spending Bill – The Hill
- Trump to Visit Boeing Plant in Missouri to Tout Impact of Tax Overhaul – Reuters
- U.S. DOT Announces TIGER Grants Totaling Nearly $500 Million – Route Fifty
- Are You Underpaid? In a First, U.S. Firms Reveal How Much They Pay Workers – Wall Street Journal
- How Much Do America’s Arms Makers Depend on Foreign Metal? No One Seems to Know – Defense One
- Fox News Launching New Ad Campaign: 'Real News. Real Honest Opinion' – The Hill
- It’s Tax Time! Here’s What to Know This Year – New York Times
VIEWS
- The G.O.P. Accidentally Replaced Obamacare Without Repealing It – Peter Suderman, New York Times
- Red-State Changes Could Strengthen ACA, Medicaid – Drew Altman, Axios
- Social Security Is Headless Because of Trump’s Inaction. Will Other Agencies Be Decapitated? – Joe Davidson, Washington Post
- Britain Has Budget Problems, and the US Can Learn from Them – Tom Rogan, Washington Examiner
- The Rich Are Happier About Their Taxes Than the Poor – Kevin Drum, Mother Jones
- Axing State Corporate Taxes Is Good Policy – Richard F. Keevey, Route Fifty
- Trump's Tariff Move Shows He Flunked Economics – Jeffrey Sachs, CNN
- Without Pressure from the Electorate, Better Infrastructure Will Just Be Talk – Mark Jamison and Jeff Lawrence, RealClear Markets
- Most Small Business Owners Say They Will Not Hire, Give Raises Because of New Tax Law – Frank Knapp, Jr. – The Hill
- Trump Administration Is Helping a Lost Generation of Workers Recover – Scott Jennings, CNN
- I Hate Trump, but I Love These Tariffs – Krystal Ball, The Hill
Small Business Owners Say They’re Raising Worker Pay
A record percentage of small business owners say they are raising pay for their workers, according to the latest monthly jobs report from the National Federation of Independent Business, based on a survey of 10,000 of the group’s members. A seasonally adjusted net 35 percent of small businesses say they are increasing compensation. “They are increasing compensation at record levels and are continuing to hire,” NFIB President and CEO Juanita Duggan said in a statement accompanying the report. “Post tax reform, concerns about taxes and regulations are taking a backseat to their worries over filling open positions and finding qualified candidates.”
The US Is Running Short on More Than 200 Drugs
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The U.S. is officially running short on 202 drugs, including some medical staples like epinephrine, morphine and saline solution. “The medications most vulnerable to running short have a few things in common: They are generic, high-volume, and low-margin for their makers—not the cutting-edge specialty drugs that pad pharmaceutical companies’ bottom lines,” Fortune’s Erika Fry reports. “Companies have little incentive to make the workhorse drugs we use most.” And much of the problem — “The situation is an emergency waiting to be a disaster,” one pharmacist says — can be tied to one company: Pfizer. Read the full story here.
Chart of the Day: Could You Handle a Sudden $400 Expense?
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More Americans say they are living comfortably or at least “doing okay” financially, according to the Federal Reserve’s Report on the Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households in 2017. At the same time, four in 10 adults say that, if faced with an unexpected expense of $400, they would not be able to cover it or would cover it by selling something or borrowing money. That represents an improvement from 2013, when half of all adults said they would have trouble handling such an expense, but suggests that many Americans are still close to the edge when it comes to their personal finances.
Kevin Brady Introduces Welfare Reform Bill
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The Tax Policy Center’s Daily Deduction reports that Rep. Kevin Brady (R-TX), chair of the House Ways and Means Committee on Friday introduced The Jobs and Opportunity with Benefits and Services (JOBS) for Success Act (H.R. 5861). “The bill would rename the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program and target benefits to the lowest-income households. Although the House GOP leadership promised to include an expansion of the Earned Income Tax Credit as part of an upcoming welfare reform bill, this measure does not appear to include any EITC provisions.” The committee will mark up the bill on Wednesday.
Who Will Pay the AMT in 2018?
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The GOP tax cuts expanded an exemption for the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) and changed tax breaks that often triggered the tax. As a result, The Wall Street Journal’s Laura Saunders reports, “This year’s AMT is a shadow of its former self. It is expected to raise about $5 billion for 2018, down from an estimated $39 billion under prior law, according to the Tax Policy Center.” The AMT will likely hit some 200,000 tax filers for 2018, down from roughly 5 million who would have had to pay if the tax cuts hadn’t been passed. And the number of people making $500,000 or less who owe the AMT will fall to about 120,000 this year from 4 million last year, a Tax Policy Center economist tells the Journal.