Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

Estate Tax Update

Jul 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Congress has yet again taken up efforts to dismantle the estate tax. This time, the tricksy, anti-equity gang attempted to add estate tax reduction to the pension bill now being negotiated in conference. But, thanks to Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who didn't want to see a highly controversial amendment deep-six the pension bill and professing concerns for transparency, refused to sign the conference report. From BNA (subscription required):

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Does The IRS Have It Out For Poor Americans?

Jul 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Just this morning I stumbled across this enlightening report released earlier this year from the folks up at Syracuse University who run the TRAC database. (For those who don't follow arcane data analysis groups as closely as OMB Watch does, TRAC is the Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse - a data gathering and analysis group that uses the Freedom of Information Act to access and analyze government information. See them at http://trac.syr.edu.)

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Federal Spending Database Legislation Gains Momentum

Jul 25, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Legislation to create a free, public, searchable database (S. 2590) containing grants and contracts spending information is gaining momentum in the Senate this week. OMB Watch testified in support of this bill at a subcommittee hearing last week of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and this week on Thursday the full HSGAC committee will mark up a consensus version of the bill. The bill is expected to pass the full committee unanimously.

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Congress Looks for New Ways to Cut Taxes

Jul 25, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Running out of ways to cut federal taxes, Congress looks to other jurisdictions. A bi-partisan effort to give federal tax breaks to corporations at the expense of the states has gained the attention of the Washington Post editorial board:

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Americans Concerned About Household Debt

Jul 25, 2006 by Craig Jennings

As real wages stagnate and as energy prices continue their steep climb, Americans have reached the bottom of their pockets and have found only credit cards. Going into debt is becoming increasingly common as many Americans see their wages fail to keep pace with inflation.

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De Facto Estate Tax Repeal for Some

Jul 24, 2006 by Craig Jennings

David Cay Johnston reports in the Sunday New York Times that the IRS has plans to eliminate 157 of the most productive IRS employees. And, those IRS employees are estate tax lawyers and the staff who support their auditing activities. The federal government is moving to eliminate the jobs of nearly half of the lawyers at the Internal Revenue Service who audit tax returns of some of the wealthiest Americans, specifically those who are subject to gift and estate taxes when they transfer parts of their fortunes to their children and others.

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New Opportunity to Support Access to Gov't Information

Jul 21, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Over the past few months, OMB Watch has been working closely with Sens. Tom Coburn (R-OK) and Barack Obama (D-IL) on a bill to create a free, searchable database available to the public containing information on all federal spending - both grants and contracts. This legislation (S. 2590) continues to move forward in the Senate and OMB Watch remains strongly supportive of it (see the OMB Watch website for more information on the bill and to access previous coverage on this by OMB Watch. You can also read recent media coverage of the effort.) New Effort for Transparency and Disclosure Underway

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Government Spending Transparency Legislation Getting Attention of the Press

Jul 21, 2006 by Matthew Madia

In the considerably divided legislative body that is Congress, it is rare to see a bill gain so much positive attention from both sides of the aisle. It has also gained the support of a whole slew of advocacy groups from all stripes of the ideological spectrum. As a staunch proponent of S.

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Democrats: Responsible for Budget Surplus, Not So Much for Budget Deficits

Jul 20, 2006 by Matthew Madia

In today’s Washington Post, Robert Samuelson chides President Bush for boasting about a $300 billion deficit, but finishes his column by shifting some of the blame for the atrocious fiscal policies of the Republican Congress and President to the Democrats. For fiscal 2006, which ends in September, the administration projects a $296 billion deficit; for fiscal 2007, the estimate is $339 billion. How could anyone boast about that? [...]

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SOS DOA

Jul 20, 2006 by Craig Jennings

CQ Today is reporting that Senate Budget Committee Chair Judd Gregg (R-NH) doesn’t think he has the votes to overcome a Democratic filibuster of his committee-passed Stop Overspending Act 2006. His measure would implement a bevy of spending-control measures - measures which open up a backdoor to cutting Social Security. Also included in his bill is a version of line-item veto. And, not only is SOS not likely to make it to the Senate floor, but prospects for passage of a separate, standalone line-item veto bill look dim. Included in CQ Today’s article is this interesting bit from Gregg:

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