Richard Rubin

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Richard Rubin

Former Republican House lawmaker who promoted controversial tax breaks will run the agencyWASHINGTON—The Senate confirmed former Republican Rep. Billy Long to run the Internal Revenue Service, placing a consistent and vocal supporter of President Trump in charge of the tax agency. Long, a former auctioneer who represented southwestern Missouri in the House for 12 years, takes over an IRS that expanded substantially during the Biden administration before shedding thousands of workers this year.

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Richard Rubin

WASHINGTON—Republicans’ tax-and-spending megabill would give more money to middle-income and high-income households while taking benefits away from low-income people, according to a Congressional Budget Office analysis released Thursday. The study by Congress’s nonpartisan scorekeeper looks at the combined effects of many of the House bill’s tax reductions and its cuts to federal programs, including Medicaid and nutrition assistance.

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Richard Rubin

Republicans and outside economists agree on the basic direction: tax cuts increase consumer spending and business investment, accelerating short-term growth. But they differ vastly on how large and meaningful that jump would be. The bill, according to public- and private-sector economists, would fall far short of Republicans’ hoped-for boom.

2 weeks ago | wsj.com | Richard Rubin

Debate over policies’ economic effects is at the core of this summer’s fiscal fight in CongressWASHINGTON—Republicans see a golden age of prosperity ahead, driven by the tax-and-spending megabill they are trying to push through Congress by July 4. Nonpartisan experts project far more modest effects, forecasting a slight near-term economic expansion and larger federal budget deficits. The growth debate is at the core of this summer’s fiscal fight.

3 weeks ago | wsj.com | Juliet Chung |Richard Rubin

Harvard, Stanford and others want Congress to lower tax rates in Trump’s bill. In return, they would agree to a requirement to spend billions more. Some of the nation’s wealthiest universities are hoping to avoid a huge potential tax hike by pitching an alternative plan to Congress: a pledge to spend more of their own money.