Phil Kerpen

The present bad deal that is Social Security may get even worse.

By Phil Kerpen

President Bush’s commitment to establish a Social Security legacy may be on a collision course with the Democratic Congress. The contours of a deal are starting to appear around a payroll-tax increase and cuts in promised future benefits for higher income workers — both of which spell major collateral damage for American workers. Meanwhile, personal accounts may not be included in any compromise deal.

Taken together, these measures are entirely about what’s best for government: They are about finding a way to make the books balance on paper so that the feds can keep spending our Social Security dollars on unrelated, wasteful programs.

by Phil Kerpen
Posted Nov 15, 2006
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=18049

All three of the candidates for House minority leader are conservatives, and all three have expressed a welcome commitment to return the party to principles of limited government. That said, one candidate stands out as the best choice because of his background and the unique role that the next Republican leader must serve. That candidate is Rep. Mike Pence (R.-Ind.), who has already been serving very effectively as a minority leader of sorts in his role as chairman of the conservative Republican Study Committee.

BY PHILIP KERPEN
November 9, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/43218

Democrats won Congress this week on a platform of fiscal conservatism. Voters believed Republicans had lost their fiscal compass and had become the party of big, reckless government. Yes, Iraq was also a big issue, but a key component of the victory was the Democrats' ability to neutralize the Republican advantage on taxes and spending by adopting key fiscally conservative positions. The first big test of whether Democrats are serious about being a party of fiscal discipline will be on earmark reform.

Read the full column on NYSun.com.

. . . but government is bigger.

By Phil Kerpen

The Treasury Department released the results for the fiscal year 2006 budget last week. As has become the norm in recent years, the numbers blew the official projections out of the water. The deficit, at $247.7 billion, is $175.5 billion less than projected in the January budget, and $48.1 billion less than the White House Office of Management and Budget predicted just three months ago. At about 1.9 percent of GDP, the deficit is lower than it was every single year between 1980 and 1996.

How did this happen? Did government get smaller?

BY PHILIP KERPEN
September 25, 2006
URL: http://www.nysun.com/article/40256

The old fight over indexing the basis for the capital gains tax is starting up again, and this is shaping up to be the best chance ever to finally end the unfair tax on inflationary gains. Legislation sponsored by Reps. Mike Pence of Indiana and Eric Cantor of Virginia, H.R. 6057, would use the Gross Domestic Product implicit price deflator to index the capital gains tax basis for inflation, ending one of the most egregious practices of our tax system. Perhaps more encouraging, it may be possible for the president to introduce indexing administratively, without the passage of any legislation.

Read the whole column at NYSun.com.

It’s a tax most don’t notice, but it’s one of the most unfair of all.

By Phil Kerpen

The capital-gains tax can be thought of as two different taxes: a tax on real increases in asset values and a tax on nominal, inflationary increases in asset values. That inflation tax, levied on the phantom gains in asset values due to inflation, is one of the most unfair and economically destructive taxes the federal government levies. With inflation having nudged upward of late, there is a renewed urgency to repeal the tax.