FISCAL BLOG

The continued economic recovery and reopening of businesses has been fueled by COVID relief programs and an accelerating vaccination effort.

Compared to historical trends and other advanced economies, corporate tax revenues in the United States are very low.

Despite the consensus among economists that some amount of inflation is likely to occur in the near term, their level of concern varies.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, 1 in 7 children were classified as being in poverty.

Generally, states with larger populations have been receiving more federal dollars from COVID-19 relief programs as such states typically have more unemployed persons, small businesses, and healthcare providers to which that relief has been targeted.

One key component of the $1.9 trillion package is an estimated $362 billion in federal aid to state, local, territorial, and tribal governments to cover expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency.

Cracking down on the tax gap would not only introduce more fairness into the system, but it could be a big help for our nation’s fiscal imbalance — to the tune of hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

America’s small businesses have been severely impacted by the economic downturn caused by the pandemic — and lawmakers have focused a significant part of federal relief on helping this critical part of our economy.

The number of individuals experiencing long-term unemployment (lasting 27 weeks or longer) has quadrupled during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

Since April 2020, the federal government has spent an average of $9 billion per month on SNAP — 71 percent higher than the amount spent in March 2020 (before the pandemic was widely recognized).