Policy Issue Areas

ATR is active on a wide variety of issues that affect the American taxpayer. Below are the broad subject areas that we follow closely at the federal level. Each one links to more information.

Social Security Reform and Private Accounts

Social Security reform promises to be the largest signature issue of the second Bush term. If done correctly, Social Security reform can turn America into a nation of savers, freeing capital for investment and making the system solvent permanently. Personal investment accounts must be the cornerstone of any reform.

Death Tax

No matter which final form fundamental tax reform takes, there are concrete steps we can take right now to make taxes fairer and simpler. Number one should be the permanent elimination of the Death Tax.

Investment Taxes (Such as Capital Gains and Dividend Taxes)

Investment taxes are a form of double taxation that punish wealth and job creators. They must be cut, and eventually eliminated.

Savings Taxes (includes RSAs and LSAs)

America's poor savings rate is a major problem on the micro and macro levels. RSAs (Retirement Savings Accounts) can help Americans save for their own retirement, and LSAs (Lifetime Savings Accounts) will will help Americans with major lifetime needs.

Internet and Technology Taxes

The 21st century engine of job creation is threatened by tax and spend liberals who are anxious to tap this new wealth source for their agenda.

Media Regulation/ Free Speech

Leftists still yearn for a return to Soviet-era free press controls, as witnessed by recent calls to bring back the so-called "fairness doctrine".

Free-market Healthcare Reform (includes HSAs)

The few areas where healthcare costs have decreased in cost in recent years show one similarity: the consumer and the payer are the same person. Healthcare savings accounts and other free-market reforms will put the American back in control of his or her own healthcare.

Federal Judiciary Appointments

Whether for regulatory clarity that frustrates the trial lawyers, or the protection of property rights, the U.S. needs judges who will rule on the law--not legislate from the bench.

Regulatory Reform

Regulatory reform is tort reform. Clear rules mean that the trial lawyers cannot exploit the law to punish business and destroy jobs.

Reducing the burden of government means more freedom, and more freedom means more prosperity.

Free Trade Issues

P.J. O'Rourke once wrote that there is only one lesson taught in economics that is neither hopelessly complicated nor common sense: the law of comparative advantage. ATR is working to free this great force to make all Americans more prosperous.

School Choice

A greater role for parents and a smaller role for government means a greater value for the taxpayer.

Government Spending

Including initiatives like competitive sourcing, ATR is working to decrease the spending side pressure for tax hikes.

Postal Reform

The government's most famous monopoly is continuously in need of reform.

Domestic Subsidies

Farm and dairy, as well as other subsidies, punish the American consumer and stifle wealth creation.

Fundamental Tax Reform (includes Flat Tax)

ATR supports a one-time, single-rate tax that exempts all savings from taxation.

Environment and Energy

As the left has shifted gears over the last thirty years, it has become clear: they are not interested in any particular type of energy--they are against all energy. Their hysteria has changed its focus from "global cooling" to "global warming", but their end is the same--a taxation of energy and the suppression of its production.

Pension Reform

Social Security Reform writ small, pension reform can be the states' way to free investment from demographics and from the hands of union bosses. Their money should be in their own hands. They're not too stupid to handle it (as one California pension official alleged).

The Tax Limitation Amendment and Supermajority Requirements

Super-majority requirements are based on the premise that tax increases fuel excessive government spending. Therefore, to more effectively control the budgetary process, the ability to raise taxes or enact new taxes should be made as politically difficult as possible, require broad consesus, and be held to a high standard of accountability.

Other Issues

Including congressional nepotism, campaign finance reform, defunding the National Governor's Association, and the Tax Limitation Amendment.