The death tax remains one of the most destructive taxes in the federal code. It punishes families at the moment of loss and threatens the survival of family farms and small businesses that took decades to build. The “Working Families Tax Cuts” law delivers important relief by making the death tax exemption permanent and protecting families from a massive tax hike that would have taken effect if Congress had failed to act. Permanent Protection From the Death Tax Under the “Wor

The IRS is the nation’s tax collector. It should not also be the nation’s tax preparer. When the same agency that collects taxes also calculates what you owe, a clear conflict of interest arises. The incentives point in only one direction: higher tax bills and less trust in the fairness of the system. That is why proposals to expand the IRS “Direct File” system are misguided. Americans should not have to rely on the tax collector to prepare the very returns that determine how

President Trump’s sweeping tariff policy is now facing problems on two fronts: the courts and the economy. The Supreme Court of the United States recently ruled that key tariffs imposed under emergency authority were illegal , raising serious questions about the administration’s use of executive power to impose broad import taxes. At the same time, a federal trade court has ordered the government to begin refunding tariff payments to businesses , potentially returning billio

Prominent conservative leaders are increasingly calling attention to how large nonprofit hospitals are exploiting the federal 340B drug discount program to enrich themselves at taxpayer expense. What began as a program intended to help vulnerable patients afford medications has instead become a lucrative revenue stream for large hospital systems that purchase drugs at steep discounts and bill insurers and taxpayers full price. Critics argue that the program now benefits hospi

College sports work best when the rules are clear and the government stays out of the way. Heavy-handed federal intervention would turn college athletics into another Washington-run bureaucracy. That would empower regulators, enrich trial lawyers, and hand influence to Big Labor, all while making the system more confusing for schools and athletes alike. The better solution is simple: establish clear national rules that everyone understands and follows. That is exactly what th

Raising children has never been cheap. From childcare to adoption to paid leave, many families face significant costs during life’s most important moments. The “Working Families Tax Cuts” respond directly to these challenges by lowering the cost of child and dependent care and providing meaningful tax relief to parents. At the center of these reforms are two major improvements that strengthen financial support for families: a permanent expansion of the Child Tax Credit and ne

President Joe Biden’s so-called Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was sold as a major deficit-reduction and drug-savings package. The numbers now point in the opposite direction. A new analysis from the Paragon Health Institute finds that Medicare Part D spending has surged since the law’s enactment. Instead of producing immediate savings, federal drug outlays have increased. What Was Promised At the time of passage, supporters argued the IRA would significantly reduce federal d

Early IRS data show the typical tax refund this year is running roughly 10 to 15 percent higher than at the same point last year. That increase is not random. It reflects pro-worker tax policy that is putting real money back into household budgets. A recent report from CBS News highlights how Americans plan to use their refunds. Many are paying down debt, building emergency savings, or covering essential expenses. The reason refunds are larger is straightforward. The “Workin

More than 4.8 million veterans work in overtime-eligible jobs. About 1.4 million of them regularly put in overtime hours. When those men and women stay late, take extra shifts, or work weekends, they should keep more of what they earn. The “Working Families Tax Cuts” make that possible. This reform ensures that veterans who go the extra mile on the job are not punished by higher federal taxes on their overtime pay. After serving their country, they deserve a tax code that res

Washington has spent years talking about housing affordability. Here is a simple, bipartisan reform that would actually help. This week, the Center for a Free Economy organized and led a coalition letter to Speaker Mike Johnson and Senate Majority Leader John Thune urging immediate action on H.R. 1340 and S. 3332, the “More Homes on the Market Act.” The legislation fixes an outdated tax rule that is quietly choking off housing supply and making it harder for middle-class fami

The “Working Families Tax Cuts” deliver real relief to the Americans who work the longest hours and carry the heaviest load. At the center of that relief is the “no tax on overtime” tax cut. Under this policy, overtime workers can exclude up to $12,500 per year in overtime pay from their taxable income, or up to $25,000 per year for married couples. That means the extra hours worked on nights and weekends are no longer fully subject to federal income tax. Work is rewarded. Ef

The Center for a Free Economy supports H.R. 1778, the “American Innovation Act,” introduced by Cong. Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.) in the U.S. House. This legislation expands first-year tax relief for new businesses and removes an outdated barrier in the tax code that makes it harder to get started. Entrepreneurs take risks, create jobs, and drive growth. The tax code should support that effort, not slow it down. What H.R. 1778 Would Do Under current law, new businesses may deduct o

The One Big Beautiful Budget Act moves federal policy back toward growth, work, and fiscal discipline. Anchored by the Working Families Tax Cuts, the law improves incentives across the economy while pairing tax relief with meaningful spending restraint. According to the Congressional Budget Office’s latest outlook , the economy strengthens in the near term as a result of the reconciliation law. After payrolls grew by an average of just 70,000 jobs per month in 2025, CBO proje

On Thursday, the Senate HELP committee will consider a series of bills, and entertain amendments. Senator Bernie Sanders (D-Vt.) will offer several amendments to impose socialized medicine on American patients in the area of prescription drugs. Senators committed to making healthcare more affordable using proven free market solutions should reject his amendments. Sanders Amendment 5 would permit anyone to steal the patent for any prescription drug the government deems too e

President Trump used his State of the Union address to make a clear commitment: protect Social Security and Medicare while expanding access to private retirement savings. He also announced a new initiative aimed at workers who lack access to employer-sponsored 401(k) plans. The proposal would give these workers access to the same retirement plan used by nearly 2 million federal civilian employees, every Member of Congress, and members of the military. It would also include a

Washington just shut down one Medicaid gimmick. States are already building the next one. An important piece in The Federalist  by Brian Blase of the Paragon Health Institute warns that intergovernmental transfers, known as IGTs, are becoming the next major Medicaid taxpayer rip off scheme. If Congress and the Trump administration do not act quickly, this maneuver could explode federal spending all over again. How the IGT Scheme Actually Works Medicaid is jointly funded by s

Nonprofit hospitals receive generous tax breaks. Many are no longer acting like charities. A new National Review  op-ed by Ryan Ellis makes the case clearly: Congress should close the big hospital tax loophole that allows large, highly profitable hospital systems to avoid taxes while providing limited charity care. Federal law grants nonprofit hospitals tax-exempt status in exchange for providing meaningful community benefits. That status is supposed to reflect real charitab

More than 40 million Americans have a Health Savings Account, yet most treat it like a checking account instead of what it truly is: one of the most powerful tax-advantaged savings tools in the tax code. When a medical bill arrives, many families simply swipe the HSA debit card and move on. The balance often sits in cash, earning little or nothing. That approach feels practical, but it sacrifices the most valuable feature of an HSA, which is long-term, tax-free growth. There

Recent redistricting news in Virginia highlights how intense the fight over congressional power has become. Virginia’s Democratic-controlled legislature advanced new congressional maps that could significantly reduce Republican representation in the state’s 11-seat U.S. House delegation, prompting debate over partisan map drawing and a planned April voter referendum on the changes. While this story has grabbed headlines, it reflects only one chapter in a much larger national

President Trump’s aggressive expansion of trade taxes is weakening the economy, and the latest labor market revision makes that harder to ignore. In 2025 alone, previously reported payroll figures were revised down by 1,029,000 jobs. That is the largest annual downward revision in at least two decades. More than one million jobs that were initially reported as created simply were not there. When job growth is overstated by that magnitude, it signals that the economy is not a

Source: www.whitehouse.gov For the first time in nearly six decades, the federal government is meaningfully smaller. More than 330,000 federal employees have left their positions over the past year through firings, resignations, or retirements, and those roles were not replaced. As a result, total federal employment now stands at roughly 2.7 million , the lowest level since 1966. That outcome did not happen by chance. It reflects deliberate policy decisions made under the Tru

Washington’s spending binge drove up interest rates and made big purchases more expensive for working families. Even as inflation begins to cool, the cost of financing a car remains higher than it should be. The “Working Families Tax Cuts” respond with targeted relief. One key provision allows up to a $10,000 tax deduction for auto loan interest on vehicles assembled in the United States, even if you've already taken the standard deduction. This is practical tax relief aimed

School choice is no longer a niche reform. It is a national movement. Demand is rising across the country, and states continue to move quickly to expand options for families. A new Wall Street Journal op-ed by Kelly Hancock  underscores just how strong that demand has become. In Texas, a record 42,000 education savings account applications flooded in on the very first day  of the state’s new program. That level of interest is not theoretical support. It reflects real parents

The Federal Trade Commission has reached a landmark settlement with Express Scripts , resolving allegations that the pharmacy benefit manager artificially inflated insulin prices and drove up costs for patients. The action confirms what lawmakers have warned for years. PBM abuses are real, systemic, and costly for American patients. Federal Trade Commission Express Scripts Years of Oversight Set the Stage This outcome did not come out of nowhere. It follows years of sustained

Washington has spent years talking about affordability while making it harder for families to get ahead. Housing costs remain elevated. Health care bills keep climbing. Energy prices stay volatile. At the same time, federal spending continues to drive price pressures that hit working families first and hardest. That is why the Republican Study Committee’s Reconciliation 2.0 framework, “Making the American Dream Affordable Again ,”  deserves serious attention. It reflects a go

Elite liberal Democrats who run Washington, D.C. are deliberately blocking tax relief for their own workers and small businesses, not because the policy is wrong, but because the politics offend them. Their target is the 2025 Working Families Tax Cut. Their motivation is opposition to congressional Republicans and President Trump. And their chosen weapon is a local tax law that raises taxes on their own people by refusing to follow federal reforms. That is why the Center for

Washington’s recent surge in prices driven by Bidenflation hit seniors especially hard. Many retirees live on fixed incomes, and a growing number of older Americans continue working part time just to keep up. The "Working Families Tax Cuts" responds to that reality by delivering targeted tax relief for seniors who were squeezed by higher costs. A key provision is a new senior deduction that reduces federal income taxes on Social Security benefits for most seniors and allows l

House Republicans are showing what tax reform looks like when it is built around working families and a simpler tax code. The Working Families Tax Cuts of 2025, enacted as part of the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” are intended to streamline filing, lower taxes, and deliver meaningful relief to households across the country. For 91 percent of taxpayers, the policy centers on a simpler filing structure. The expanded standard deduction means families pay no federal income tax on

Social Security’s long-term financial problems are not the result of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s original design. They are the product of policy changes adopted decades later. When Social Security was created, it was intentionally modest. Benefits were structured to prevent old-age poverty, not to replace a large share of pre-retirement income. The program’s costs were kept low enough to remain affordable across generations, which is why Social Security enjoyed broad public suppo

Producer prices are moving higher again, and the trend is clear. Since “Liberation Day,” cost pressures faced by American producers have accelerated. That matters because producer prices act as an early warning sign. What businesses pay today often becomes what consumers pay tomorrow. The latest data confirm the shift. Producer prices rose 0.5 percent in December , equal to a 6.0 percent annualized rate . Core producer prices, which exclude food and energy, climbed even faste

Minnesota lawmakers are finally confronting an uncomfortable truth: government anti-poverty programs have become an open invitation to fraud, waste, and abuse. In several of the state’s largest cases, the schemes were centered in parts of Minnesota’s Somali community and involved billions of taxpayer dollars meant to help vulnerable families. That reality is not a smear. It is a documented policy failure. And it is a warning sign for the entire country. As Center for a Free E

Housing supply has emerged as a central concern among conservative tax and economic policy experts. Across multiple outlets and institutions, analysts are reaching the same conclusion. The tax code discourages homeowners from selling, reduces housing inventory, and drives prices higher. While the commentary continues to grow, Congress already has a clear solution. The U.S. House version is H.R. 1340 , and the Senate companion bill is S. 3332 . Together, they are titled the “M

The Center for a Free Economy is leading a coalition of 35 free-market and taxpayer-focused advocacy groups urging federal housing regulators to slow down proposed changes to mortgage credit standards that could destabilize the housing market. In a coalition letter organized and led by CFE, the groups warned Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte  that altering how credit scores are used in mortgage underwriting risks repeating the policy errors that contributed t

Virginia families are about to face higher electricity bills again, and this time it is by design. Governor Abigail Spanberger  has moved to rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative , a multistate climate compact better known as RGGI. Supporters sell RGGI as a technical emissions program. In reality, it functions as a backdoor carbon tax that directly raises electricity prices for households and businesses. The track record is clear and it is not encouraging. What RGGI

For the first time in U.S. history, the federal government is spending more on interest payments than on national defense. Annualized interest costs have reached roughly $1.2 trillion, surpassing about $1.16 trillion for defense. The cost of past borrowing now exceeds the cost of protecting the nation. This is not a theoretical warning. It is a budget reality. How the U.S. Reached This Point Decades of persistent deficits have steadily increased the national debt. For years,

The U.S. House last week passed the final batch of fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills. Predictably, a wave of online criticism followed, claiming spending levels were too high and that House Republicans failed to deliver deeper cuts. That criticism ignores basic facts and misunderstands how federal budgeting works. First, year-over-year appropriations spending under these bills is set to grow more slowly than both overall inflation and nominal economic growth. That matters

California is pushing a legal theory that should alarm anyone who values mobility, federalism, and basic fairness in the tax code. A new lawsuit challenges whether a state can continue taxing income long after a taxpayer has left , raising serious constitutional questions about how far state tax authority can stretch. At the center of the dispute is California’s effort to tax income earned by former residents who have moved to states like Florida. The lawsuit argues that Cali

A claim circulating online says that seniors are receiving a new $6,000 “bonus exemption” worth $93 billion as part of the Working Families Tax Cut. The suggestion is that retirees are being handed a benefit comparable to what families receive through the Child Tax Credit. That claim is incorrect. The confusion stems from a basic misunderstanding of how the tax code works, specifically the difference between a tax credit and a tax deduction. They are not interchangeable, and

The federal budget numbers since the pandemic make one thing clear. Washington does not have a revenue problem. It has a spending problem. From 2019 to today, federal outlays have surged by roughly 59 percent. Over the same period, federal revenue has risen by about 49 percent. Both are large increases. But spending has grown much faster, and that gap explains why the federal deficit has exploded. The deficit was already too high in 2019. Since then, it has roughly doubled. T

Congress has a clear choice on the future of college athletics. It can adopt a free-market framework that protects student-athletes and preserves competition. Or it can invite lawsuits, unionization, and federal micromanagement. H.R. 4312 , the Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements Act, takes the right path. Name, image, and likeness policy is not the only area in need of reform. The same legal chaos now surrounds student-athlete transfers. Both

Virginia Democrats are pushing a major state income tax increase that would not stay confined to the wealthy for long. House Bill 188 (HB 188)  would create a new 10 percent Virginia income tax bracket on earnings above $1 million, sharply increasing the state’s top marginal rate on that income. Supporters sell the bill as a narrow tax hike on high earners. In reality, HB 188 would land squarely on Virginia farms, small businesses, and family-run companies that already operat

Center for a Free Economy President Ryan Ellis recently published an op-ed in National Review Online  explaining how outdated federal tax rules are worsening the housing shortage and squeezing middle-class families out of homeownership. High mortgage rates and elevated prices are only part of the problem. Federal tax policy is also reducing housing supply by discouraging homeowners from selling. An outdated rule is freezing supply Current law allows homeowners to exclude up

President Donald Trump  has proposed allowing Americans to use their 401(k) retirement savings for down payments on homes, according to reporting by the Wall Street Journal . The goal is straightforward: help first-time buyers navigate a housing market where prices and mortgage rates remain elevated. That goal makes sense. But like many financial decisions, this approach involves real tradeoffs that families should understand before treating it as a go-to solution. Retiremen

As of this year, several states are blocking food stamp dollars from being spent on soda and candy. That change is overdue. Taxpayer-funded welfare exists to prevent hunger and malnutrition. It is not meant to subsidize junk food. This shift builds on reforms enacted last year, when Congress and President Trump  tightened SNAP eligibility to reduce fraud and abuse. Those changes reinforced a basic principle: welfare programs should be targeted, conditional, and focused on gen

Last year’s major tax law created a new tool for working families: Trump Accounts. Enacted as part of the Working Families Tax Cut passed by President Trump and the Republican Congress in July 2025, the policy is designed to do something Washington rarely does. It uses economic growth to build long-term wealth for every American child. The concept is straightforward. A modest, one-time deposit is made into an investment account at birth. That money is then allowed to grow, un

Capping credit card interest rates at 10% would not just change what borrowers pay. It would wipe out the rewards programs millions of Americans use every day. Points, cash back, airline miles, airport lounges, and statement credits all depend on today’s credit card pricing model. Take that away, and the perks disappear with it. That is not a theory. It is basic credit card economics. Rewards Are Paid for by Interest Margins Credit card rewards are not free. They are funded b

A new proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% would not make credit cheaper. It would make credit disappear. According to a new study , nearly 90% of Americans would lose access to credit cards entirely  if Washington imposes a one-size-fits-all rate cap. That is not consumer protection. It is a credit shutdown. A new analysis from the Electronic Payments Coalition  finds that 175 to 190 million Americans  would effectively lose their credit cards under a 10% annual

Initial Obamacare  enrollment for 2026 is roughly flat. That happened even as gross premiums jumped about 26 percent and COVID-era subsidy bonuses expired. This outcome is not a mystery. It reflects how deeply subsidized Obamacare already is and how enrollment rules hide real market signals. A new analysis from the Paragon Institute explains why Affordable Care Act enrollment barely moved despite higher prices and the end of temporary COVID add-ons. The reason is simple. The

Middle-class families do not need lectures about inflation being “manageable.” They see the problem every month when they pay their bills. Cost-of-living pressure is real, persistent, and concentrated in the expenses households cannot avoid. Since November 2019, prices for basic necessities have surged far faster than overall inflation. Motor vehicle insurance costs have jumped 56.1 percent, the largest increase of any major consumer category. Utility gas service and motor ve

The U.S. housing market just hit an important turning point that makes it easier for homeowners to sell and should increase housing supply over time. For the first time since the pandemic, there are now more homeowners with mortgage rates above 6% than homeowners holding sub-3% Covid mortgages . As of the end of 2025, 21.2% of existing mortgage holders are paying rates of 6% or higher. That is the highest share since 2015, and it now exceeds the share of ultra-low Covid-era l