The Economic Policies of President Obama, Governor Romney and the Simpson-Bowles Plan John B. Shoven 25 th Anniversary High School Teachers Workshop Stanford.

The Economic Policies of President Obama, Governor Romney and the

Simpson-Bowles Plan

John B. Shoven25th Anniversary High School Teachers Workshop

Stanford UniversityAugust 3, 2012

The President’s Plan• American Jobs Act – introduced in 9/2011 – some of it has been

enacted– Cutting payroll taxes in half for the first $5 million of payroll– Complete payroll tax holiday for added workers– 100% investment expensing in 2011– Streamlining regulations for new entrepreneurs– Preventing 280,000 teacher layoffs– Modernizing 35,000 public schools– Expanding access to high-speed internet– $4,000 tax credit for hiring long-term unemployed– Cutting payroll taxes in half for 160 million Americans– Unemployment insurance reforms– Expanding job opportunities for low-income youth and adults

A Few Elements of the American Jobs Act have been Enacted

• The 6.2% payroll tax on employees on the first $110,100 was lowered by 2 percentage points in both 2011 and 2012. Recently, President Obama has indicated that he would let these temporary payroll tax cuts lapse at the end of 2012

• A bill passed this past spring (Jumpstart Our Business Startup Act) which eases SEC and other regulations on small businesses

President’s position on tax changes

• Extend Bush rates for singles with incomes <$200,000 and marrieds <$250,000

• Raise the top income rate from 35% to 39.6% on labor income. ACA adds another 3.8% tax on dividends, interest and capital gains. The phase-out of personal exemptions and the limitations on itemized deductions would further raise the top federal rate to roughly 45%

• Lower the corporate income tax rate to 29% and close corporate tax loopholes

• Raise the taxation of dividends and capital gains (in 2013 budget, Obama proposed taxing dividends as ordinary income with top rate of 43.4% up from 15%). Capital gains would be taxed at 20% +ACA tax or 23.8%. Senate Democrats passed a bill last month setting top tax rate on both dividends and capital gains at 23.8%

• Estate tax in Senate Democrat bill would return to a 55% rate with $1 million exemption. At other times, Obama has proposed a $3.5 million exemption with a top rate of 45%

Silence is deafening

• Social Security Solvency• Dealing with the long-run deficits and the

resulting run-up in the debt-to-GDP ratio• Agricultural policies?• Environmental policies?• Repatriation of foreign cash for companies?Interesting Question – Who would President Obama appoint to succeed Ben Bernanke?

My Conclusion

President Obama has focused his economic policy almost exclusively on health care and trying to stimulate the economy. There has been no focus on long-run economic issues

other than health care.

Romney’s 59 point plan

• Many of the ideas are recycled conservative standards

• Also, many are only broad outlines without the details

• But, those that say Romney doesn’t have a plan are mistaken… he has outlined a broad plan with the details missing

Romney’s Tax Ideas• Maintain current tax rates on personal income• Maintain current tax rates on dividends, interest and

capital gains for higher income (>200K) taxpayers• Eliminate the taxation of interest, dividends and capital

gains for those with <$200,000 income• Eliminate the estate tax• Pursue revenue neutral tax reform with rates lowered

20% in all cases (marginal rates from 8 to 28% instead of 10 to 35%) with base broadening measures

• Reduce the corporate income tax rate to 25%• Pursue the transition from worldwide corporate taxation

to territorial corporate taxation

Romney’s Regulation Ideas

• Repeal ACA• Repeal Dodd-Frank; replace with streamlined

framework• Amend Sarbanes-Oxley for medium & small

companies• Cost-benefit analyses on environmental regulations.

Lengthen compliance times.• Require Congressional approval of all new “major”

regulations• Reform legal system to discourage spurious litigation

Romney’s Trade Ideas

• Implement trade agreements with Columbia, Panama and South Korea

• Complete negotiations for a trans-Pacific Partnership• Increase customs and border patrol personnel to

prevent illegal entry of counterfeit goods from China• Designate China a currency manipulator and impose

countervailing duties• Discontinue U.S. Government purchases from China

until commits to the WTO’s GPA (government procurement agreement)

Romney on Energy and the Environment

• Open America’s energy reserves for development• Support Keystone pipeline from Canada• Prevent overregulation of shale gas development and

extraction• Support basic research on alternative energy sources• Comprehensive survey of America’s energy reserves• Fast track approvals for drilling in pre-approved areas

by companies with good safety records• Use non-political organizations such as ARPA-E for

basic energy and environmental research

Romney on Labor

• Supports several changes to NLRB– Appoint experienced individuals– Require secret ballot in every union certification

election– All certification elections must be announced at

least one month in advance– Support states in right to work laws– Prohibit political use of funds automatically

deducted from paychecks

Romney on Retraining

• Give states authority to manage retraining programs by block granting federal funds

• Encourage greater private sector involvement in retraining programs

• Eliminate redundancy in federal programs. Consolidate to a single agency

• Facilitate the creation of Personal Reemployment accounts

Romney on Immigration

• Raise visa caps for highly skilled workers• Grant permanent residency to eligible

graduates with degrees in math, science or engineering

Romney on Federal Spending

• Immediately cut non-security discretionary spending by 5%

• Restructure Medicaid as block grants to states• Reduce federal workforce by 10% by attrition• Cap federal spending at 20% of GDP• Align wages and benefits of federal workers

with market rates• Pursue a balanced budget amendment

My take on the Romney 59-point plan

• Not surprisingly, a mixture of conservative and moderate proposals

• Romney is banking on supply side ideas to increase the rate of growth of the economy.

• Romney’s idea is that lower taxes and less government will lead to more rapid economic growth

• The crucial details are missing with his tax plans• Obama’s idea is that we need more government

actions to stimulate the economy and now is not the time to worry about the long-run fiscal situation

Romney is Also Silent on Some Big Issues

• Social Security Reform• How would he suggest we “bend the curve” in

health care spending?• Would he sharply curtain agricultural subsidies?• What is in the black box of the tax base

broadeners? For example, mortgage interest deduction? deductibility of state and local taxes? charitable deductions?

Simpson-Bowles Commission: The Biggest Missed Opportunity in Decades• Biggest benefit – Assuring consumers and

businesses that we will get the budget under control

• Vastly decreasing uncertainty regarding :– The future of Social Security– The basic design of the tax code– Future credit rating of the US– The outlook for the dollar, interest rates and

inflation in the long-run

Simpson-Bowles: Illustrative Personal Taxes

• Three tax brackets: 12, 22, &28%• Repeal AMT• Repeal phase out of personal exemptions• Maintain EITC• Maintain Standard deduction• Capital gains and dividends taxed as ordinary income• Replace mortgage interest deduction with 12% nonrefundable

credit. Mortgage size limited to $500K. No credit for mortgage interest on second homes

• Exclusion for health insurance capped at 75 percentile• Replace charitable deduction with 12% non-refundable credit.

Credit only available if gifts exceed 2% of AGI• Interest on newly issued state and local bonds would be taxable• Cap tax-preferred contributions to retirement accounts at $20K or

20% of income and consolidate programs

Simpson-Bowles: Corporate Taxes

• Reduce rate to 28%• Eliminate domestic oil and gas production

deduction• Eliminate LIFO inventory accounting• Eliminate 115 general business credits and tax

expenditures• Switch to territorial tax system to permit

companies to repatriate foreign cash without taxation

Simpson-Bowles: Discretionary Spending Cuts

• Eliminate all Congressional earmarks• Reduce Congressional and White House budgets by 15%• Freeze Congressional pay for four years• Eliminate 200,000 federal jobs by 2020 and also 250,000 non-

defense contractor jobs• Limit the growth of federal spending to ½ of inflation• Cut $1B in fossil fuels research• Increase transportation revenues with a 15 cent addition to the

gas tax• Establish a disaster fund based on the average amount spent on

disasters over the past decade• Establish a committee to cut $11 billion of unnecessary programs

by 2015• Etc.

Simpson-Bowles: Mandatory Spending Cuts

• Limit federal spending to 21% of GDP• Reduce agricultural subsidies• Reform military and civil service health and

retirement systems• Charge market rates for federally generated

electricity

Simpson-Bowles: Social Security Reform

• Increase retirement age based on longevity statistics (full retirement age might be 69 by 2075)

• Raise contribution ceiling (currently $110,100)• Increase benefits for those over 85• Revise the inflation adjustments to more

accurately reflect changes in the cost of living• Make the system more progressive by increasing

benefits for low income households and decreasing benefits for high income households

Simpson-Bowles: Healthcare

• Create a long-term budget for total health spending

• Limit the growth in health care spending to GDP growth plus 1%

• More low income households would be put on Medicaid managed care

• Spending cap for Medicaid and Medicare outlays

Currently Federal spending is 25% of GDP, revenues are 16% or so

• Bowles-Simpson would reduce spending to 21%, raise revenues to 19% and cut the deficit from 9% of GDP to 2% or so by 2020

• It is far from perfect, but it should have been the starting point for a real long-term plan

• One thing that is holding back the economy – massive uncertainty about future policy

Two Important Matters regarding the progressivity of the tax system

• Who bears the corporation income tax?– Revenues are estimated by CBO at $400 billion in

2014, or 2.5% of GDP– If it is the owners of capital who bears the tax, then

the tax system is more progressive than it appears

• Are FICA contributions (aka payroll taxes) a form of deferred compensation like pension contributions or are they labor income taxes?

Profit Before Corporate Tax

Profit After Corporate Tax

Price

Profit

Why Corporate Tax Is Not Borne by Customers

Companies Maximize Profits

• Companies set prices, wages, advertising budgets, investments, etc. in order to maximize profits.

• Exactly the same set of policies (the same prices, wages, advertising budgets, investments, etc.) maximize before tax profits and after tax profits. A corporate income tax increase (or decrease) will not change prices and will not be passed on to consumers.

Payroll tax and progressivity

• With income taxes, you don’t earn promises for money from the government later for paying the taxes now

• With payroll taxes, you do somewhat. So, the “taxes” could be considered deferred compensation at least to an extent

Figure 1: Percent of Americans without Health Insurance

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

<18 18-24 25-34 35-44 45-54 55-64 65+

Age Category

Pe

rce

nt

1999

2009

Affordable Care Act: Background

Affordable Care Act: Background

Affordable Care Act: Background

• 85% of Americans have health insurance; 15% do not• Who Has It?– Elderly with Medicare– Very Poor with Medicaid (exception= able-bodied without

dependents)– Workers at sizable firms

• Who Doesn’t?– Those who are eligible for Medicaid but did not register– Young and healthy– Workers at small firms– Long-term unemployed

Elements of ACA

• Expand Medicaid so that it covers everyone with income below 133% of poverty ($25,390 for family of 3 in 2012)

• Mandate the purchase of quality health insurance– Penalty for non-compliance is $695/year or 2.5% of income,

whichever is greater• State-based health exchanges

– Limit of 3 to 1 ratio based on age– Limit of 50% surcharge for smokers– Four tiers of coverage based on co-pays– Limits of out-of-pocket expenses to $6K for individuals and

$12K for families

More Elements of ACA

• Health insurance purchased through exchanges subsidized for those with incomes up to 400% of poverty (up to $92,200 for family of four in 2012)– For those at 150% of poverty, insurance is limited to 4%

of income– At 200%, limit is 6.3% of income– At 300-400%, limit is 9.5% of income

• Cannot exclude for pre-existing conditions• Guaranteed renewal• Dependent coverage available until age 26

ACA: Employer Mandate

• Firms with 50 or more employees must offer health insurance– Penalty for not offering insurance is $2,000 per

employee

ACA: Some New Taxes

• Medicare payroll tax is increased for individuals with incomes greater than $200K and marrieds greater than $250K. The increase is from 1.45% to 2.35%. For the high-income self employed the rate goes from 2.9% to 4.7% effective 2013

• A new 3.8% surtax on capital income (dividends, interest, capital gains and rental income) for those above $200K/$250K

ACA: My Assessment

• Significant progress on coverage. Somewhere between half and 75% of uninsured will be covered

• Essentially no progress on cost containment. In fact, the extra coverage and the subsidized exchanges may increase health spending, not decrease it

What We Should Have Done and What We Still May Need to Do

• Put Total Health Spending on a Budget• Replace Medicare, Medicaid and Employer-

Sponsored health insurance with universal risk-adjusted health insurance vouchers

• Eliminate the Medicare payroll tax• Improve state budgets by eliminating Medicaid• Increase income taxes and take home pay by

eliminating employer-sponsored health ins• Introduce new, dedicated tax source (e.g. 20%

VAT)