Desperately Seeking Revenue

In August 2009 the Congressional Budget Office warned that the budget was on an unsustainable path. Preventing federal debt from growing faster than the economy over the long-run requires large increases in revenues and/or decreases in spending. We explore, using the Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center Model, whether incremental reforms of the current tax system could raise enough revenue to reduce the deficit to a sustainable level over the last five years of the current 10-year budget window. We conclude that feasible tax increases within the current tax structure cannot generate sufficient revenues to bring federal budget deficits under control.