Urban Institute’s Roberton Williams answers questions about the Tax Policy Briefing Book, a new online resource guide with concise explanations about tax policy issues. Williams is a principal research associate for the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Urban Institute and Brookings Institution.
Five Questions Archives
February 7, 2008
1. What is the Tax Policy Briefing Book?
We designed this guide after an actual briefing book, the support notebook that a policymaker takes into a hearing or a TV interview. That notebook contains information in Q&A format on a broad range of issues the policymaker may be asked about. In the real world, the briefing book is a loose-leaf binder with separate pages on each topic. Our version will be online but have the same concise structure—one or two pages per topic. Ask a question, get an answer: What is the alternative minimum tax? How does the AMT work? Who pays the AMT? What can we do about the AMT? We assume people interested in the AMT will look at six or seven entries on it and maybe print out a few pages. We don’t expect many people to print out the entire book and walk around with it under their arms.
2. Who is your audience?
The briefing book is designed for a wide audience. We have timed it for the election year since this information will be useful for the people in the campaign, for the press covering the campaign, and for the electorate. What we’re trying to do is provide, concisely and in one place, a comprehensive look at our tax system: how it works, its problems, and ways to make it better. The briefing book has four main sections – background information, more specific key elements of the U.S. tax system, ways to improve the federal tax system, and state and local tax policy. We see this as a resource for the media to find background material, for policymakers to help formulate policy, and for the public to better understand tax issues.
3. How will the briefing book evolve?
The briefing book will debut with more than 100 entries, and more are in the works. Because the book is online, it’s easy for us to expand on the initial batch of entries or add new ones. We expect to add information about tax proposals as candidates put them forward. After the election, new entries will cover legislative activity. When Congress considers a particular bill, we plan to post information that explains and critiques the proposal.
4. What tax questions do you hear the most?
That varies with what’s in the news. We anticipate a lot of discussion over the next year or so about ways to reform the tax system, particularly as we get closer to 2010 when virtually all the Bush tax cuts will sunset. After 2011, we pretty much go back to the tax laws we had in 2001. Many members of Congress have said that won’t happen. Republicans want to make the tax cuts permanent. Democrats want to keep tax cuts for the middle class but raise taxes for the rich to pay for other things. Almost every policy will have winners and losers, so it’s important to know who the winners and losers will be, how much they will gain or lose, and what trade-offs policies pose.
5. How do you remain nonpartisan when discussing the merits of these policies?
Computer models are not subjective. We have a complex tax model that’s very much like the tax models that the Joint Committee on Taxation, the Congressional Budget Office, and the Treasury Department use to analyze tax issues. It relies on the same underlying data and gets pretty much the same answers. All the models are basically designed to mimic the workings of the tax system and can be readily modified to test alternative policies. Our nonpartisan approach to analysis and freedom from political pressures means that we are free to examine any issues we feel are important and report the results regardless of their implications.
That nonpartisan approach to analyzing tax policy is one of the reasons I like working at TPC. Most of what we do is provide factual information on important—and sometimes not so important—tax issues. The numbers tend to be pretty cut and dried. We don’t focus on a policy because we think it’s good or bad. We don’t try to shoot down policies; we don’t try to boost policies; we just try to analyze what’s out there and provide objective information. We are mostly professional economists with a lot of experience in the tax world. Many of the people at TPC have worked in government and have spent years conducting nonpartisan analysis. That’s a lot more satisfying than having to justify a predetermined political answer to a policy question.
