Baker Institute expert available to comment on Biden tax proposals

Evans: Plan does little to reduce growth of US debt

The word "taxes" with money imprinted on the letters.

HOUSTON – (June 16, 2020) – The tax proposals outlined by former Vice President Joe Biden, the presumptive 2020 Democratic presidential nominee, would raise $3.8 trillion in revenue over 10 years but do little to address debt growth, according to a new report co-authored by an expert at Rice University's Baker Institute for Public Policy.

The word "taxes" with money imprinted on the letters.

The American Enterprise Institute paper co-authored by Richard Evans, the Baker Institute Advisory Board Visiting Fellow in the institute's Center for Public Finance, uses the open-source Tax-Calculator microsimulation model of U.S. fiscal policy and the OG-USA macroeconomic model of U.S. fiscal policy to simulate the effects of Biden’s tax proposals announced in February. Evans is available to discuss the findings with the news media.

"Biden’s proposed reforms, which we simulate and analyze in this report, are from February," Evans said. "Biden and Trump will certainly release updated tax plans that address the new situations created by COVID-19 and racial unrest. But this analysis of Biden’s February proposals highlights some key features for future policy. Despite the fact that the Biden plan raises significant revenue over the next 10 years and increases the progressivity of the U.S. tax code, it does very little to remedy the structural imbalance in the growth of U.S. debt."

Evans also holds appointments as director of the Open Source Economics Laboratory, nonresident fellow at the Tax Policy Center of the Urban Institute, president of Open Research Group Inc., and senior editor at the Center for Growth and Opportunity at Utah State University.

He specializes in macroeconomics, public economics and computational economics.

To schedule an interview with Evans or for more information, contact Jeff Falk, director of national media relations at Rice, at jfalk@rice.edu or 713-348-6775.

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Evans bio: www.bakerinstitute.org/experts/richard-evans

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Founded in 1993, Rice University’s Baker Institute ranks as the No. 2 university-affiliated think tank in the world and the No. 1 energy think tank in the world. As a premier nonpartisan think tank, the institute conducts research on domestic and foreign policy issues with the goal of bridging the gap between the theory and practice of public policy. The institute’s strong track record of achievement reflects the work of its endowed fellows, Rice University faculty scholars and staff, coupled with its outreach to the Rice student body through fellow-taught classes — including a public policy course — and student leadership and internship programs. Learn more about the institute at www.bakerinstitute.org or on the institute’s blog, http://blog.bakerinstitute.org.

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