The House of Representatives has passed variants on four provisions in President Bush's FY2005 Budget: marriage penalty relief (H.R. 4181), a temporary increase in the AMT exemption (H.R. 4227), an increase in the 10-percent tax bracket thresholds (H.R. 4275), and an increase in the child credit and making it available to taxpayers with higher incomes (H.R. 4359). This paper discusses the potential implications of those bills on revenues, the distribution of tax liabilities, and the economy.

The House of Representatives has passed variants on four provisions in President Bush's FY2005 Budget: marriage penalty relief (H.R. 4181), a temporary increase in the AMT exemption (H.R. 4227), an increase in the 10-percent tax bracket thresholds (H.R. 4275), and an increase in the child credit and making it available to taxpayers with higher incomes (H.R. 4359). This paper discusses the potential implications of those bills on revenues, the distribution of tax liabilities, and the economy.

Today's children represent the future of the century. This notion that children and future generations should have better living standards than current generations is central to universally shared views of economic progress. This article examines the effects of recent fiscal policies on children and the direct and indirect effects of one set of policies--the tax cuts and the Medicare spending increases that have been proposed and enacted since January 2001--on the long-term economic prospects of today's and tomorrow's youth.