The Great Recession has left tens of millions of families facing unemployment, underemployment and the threat of losing their home. However,concerns over the deficit threaten to derail efforts to turn around the economy and spur employment. This report attempts to correct many of the...

With the debate over health care dragging on, it is becoming increasingly likely that the Senate will pass a bill through the reconciliation process, requiring just a simple majority rather than the super-majority needed to break a filibuster. This paper shows that if this path is taken,...

Many proponents of conservative fiscal policies talk of the budget deficit as being a matter of intergenerational equality. However, this paper shows the younger generations (and those yet to be born) will contribute more to the deficit than older generations. This analysis uses data from the...

Leading health care reform proposals all require individuals to obtain health care coverage, but differ in how they would require employers to share in the costs of coverage for their employees. This report reviews the employer responsibility requirements in the leading proposals—often...

Leaders in both the House and the Senate have committed to "shared responsibility" as a basic principle of health care reform, meaning that the costs of health care coverage are shared by individuals, businesses, and the public sector. However, as this issue brief documents, the Senate version...

Two of the three leading health care reform proposals being considered by Congress—the House “Tri-Committee” health care reform legislation and the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee’s reform legislation—include sensibly designed “play-or-pay” provisions...

This report uses data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Expenditure Survey from 2004 to 2006 as well as data from the Congressional Budget Office to analyze the savings in prescription drug spending for seniors as a result of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and...

Patent monopolies have long been used as a mechanism for financing innovation and research. The logic is that the government awards a monopoly on a product or process for a limited period of time in order to reward innovation. However, in addition to providing incentives for innovation and...

This paper uses data from the Current Population Surveys for 1980 through 2011 to review trends in health-insurance coverage rates for low-wage workers (defined as workers in the bottom fifth of the wage distribution in each survey year). In 2010, over 38 percent of low-wage workers lacked...

The Argentine economy has grown 94 percent for the years 2002-2011, using International Monetary Fund projections for the end of this year. This is the fastest growth in the Western Hemisphere for this period, and among the highest growth rates in the world. It also compares favorably to...