The Center for a Free Economy (CFE) is leading a coalition of more than 40 organizations opposing California's Medicaid ambulance reimbursement practices. The coalition is urging the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to reject proposed changes sought by Governor Gavin Newsom's administration that would favor government-owned providers at the expense of private companies and federal taxpayers. The letter to CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz includes signatures from Amer

Robert Hall’s 2026 Nobel Prize in Economics brings renewed attention to the Hall-Rabushka flat tax, one of the most influential proposals in the history of federal tax reform. Developed with economist Alvin Rabushka, the flat tax helped establish the intellectual foundation for consumption-based taxation, including several major business tax provisions now incorporated into the Working Families Tax Cuts. Although Hall received the Nobel Prize for his contributions to macroeco

A bipartisan Senate proposal would allow families to transfer more unused education savings into retirement accounts by eliminating the $35,000 lifetime limit on rollovers from 529 plans to Roth IRAs. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Sen. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) introduced S. 5550, the "529 Retirement Enhancement Act of 2026," to give families more options when money saved for education is no longer needed for that purpose. The legislation would remove the lifetime rollover cap w

The bottom half of American households has posted the fastest percentage growth in wealth since 2020, an economic gain that has received far less attention than the widening gap between millionaires and billionaires. The Wall Street Journal recently focused on the growing divide at the very top of the wealth distribution. The wealth held by the top 0.1% has more than doubled since the end of 2019, while the threshold for reaching the top 1% has climbed substantially. The Comm

Employers have long helped workers pay for health insurance while retaining considerable control over which plans those workers can choose. CHOICE Arrangements offer a different model: employers provide the money, but employees choose the insurance. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) is promoting the approach as an alternative to traditional employer-sponsored group coverage. At a recent event in Texas, federal officials joined employers already using CHOICE A

The Treasury Department is proposing tighter eligibility rules for refundable tax credits, drawing opposition from critics who warn that the change could affect some legal immigrants and families with U.S. citizen children. The criticism comes despite a long record of improper payments and eligibility errors in refundable tax credit programs. Treasury's proposal would classify the refundable portions of the Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, American Opportunity Tax

New federal rules have clarified how taxpayers will be able to use a school choice provision created by the Working Families Tax Cuts, including a tax credit worth up to $3,400 for married couples filing jointly. The Education Freedom Tax Credit allows taxpayers to receive a dollar-for-dollar federal income tax credit for contributions to eligible scholarship granting organizations, or SGOs. The credit is capped at $1,700 for individual taxpayers, while the new Treasury and

The Treasury Department is opening a new path for private investment in Trump Accounts by allowing qualifying donors to contribute publicly traded stock directly to children's accounts. Combined with Treasury's decision to automatically establish accounts for more than 60 million eligible children, the change could make stock ownership a much larger part of the program. The new rules are especially important for companies, founders, and other large shareholders interested in

High-tax states have spent years losing residents and income to lower-tax competitors. If those trends continue, the next loss could be political power in Washington. A new 2030 congressional apportionment forecast projects California losing four U.S. House seats after the next census. Texas would gain four seats and Florida would gain two, while Arizona, Georgia, Idaho, North Carolina, and Utah would each gain one. The forecast is not a guarantee of what the 2030 census will