Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

Doan Headlines at Three Ring Circus on Capitol Hill

Jun 13, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Embattled GSA Administrator Lurita Doan returned to Capitol Hill today for a hearing before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) invited Doan to testify in the continuing saga of her tenure - this time to examine statements made by Doan that impugn the reputation of federal officials who cooperated with a Committee investigation into Ms. Doan's conduct at the General Services Administration. There was plenty of fireworks at the hearing, particularly because of the release one week earlier of a report by the White House's Office of Special Counsel that found Doan had broken the law by violating the Hatch Act, which prohibits the use of government resources for political activity.

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Giving Up on the Hamilton Project

Jun 13, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Hamilton Project's new paper on tax reform is a mixed bag. The section on the tax gap is pretty good, and it makes some interesting points about how unpaid taxes seem to make the tax code more regressive. But the section on deficits- which leads the paper, reflecting the Hamiltonian philosophy of fiscal responsibility uber alles- is a disappointment. The paper's authors just don't want to understand what's driving up health care costs. Instead, they sound the familiar refrain about cutting benefits:

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Watcher: June 12, 2007

Jun 13, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Appropriations Season Kicks Off Congress shifted into full appropriations mode the week of June 4 as both the House and Senate began subcommittee markups of the twelve individual appropriations bills. Congress Still Struggling to Settle Earmark Disclosure Procedures Five months after the House adopted institutional earmark reform rules (H. Res. 6) and the Senate passed statutory requirements governing earmark disclosure (S. 1), confusion reigns in both chambers on how earmark disclosure rules will work and who will administer them.

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Bush to Veto "Irresponsible and Excessive" Homeland Security Bill

Jun 12, 2007 by Dana Chasin

As H.R. 2638, the $36.3 billion Homeland Security bill, headed for debate on the House floor today, it met with a stern veto threat from the administration because "it includes an irresponsible and excessive level of spending." The administration had requested $34.2 billion. During the six fiscal years of the Bush presidency thus far, six years of GOP control of Congress, the national debt has increased by approximately 3 trillion dollars to almost $9 trillion.

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Who Says Obey Must Sign Off on 32,684 Earmarks (besides Obey)?

Jun 12, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

An article in today's Roll Call ($) appears to resolve the central mystery behind Obey's earmarks antics: why in the world must poor Obey himself review each and every one of this year's 32,684 earmark requests, which in turn forces him to wait to include earmarks in spending bills until they are in conference -- after it's too late to remove any earmarks by amendment?

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Blue Dogs Seek to Seize Fiscal Responsibility Mantle

Jun 12, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

The Washington Post reports today that the Democratis Blue Dog Coalition plans to introduce legislation shortly to impose caps on some spending, enshrine pay-as-you-go rules in federal law and authorize automatic spending cuts to enforce them ... amend the U.S. Constitution to require a balanced budget and to create an array of budget provisions that would focus more attention on what it sees as pork-barrel spending.

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The Benefits of Cultural Exchange

Jun 12, 2007 by Matt Lewis

I just got back from a trip to Spain, and I thought I'd share a few of the things that made it hard to come back. Or rather things that, were they also in America, it would have been much easier to come back.
  • Fast Trains Spain has very fast trains. Seems like the benefits are pretty self-explanatory, but I just thought I'd mention that being on an extremely fast train is really fun, all practicality aside.
  • Holidays

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BEA Report: 2006 State GDP Rankings

Jun 11, 2007 by Dana Chasin

With a surfeit of sources supplying stories on states' fiscal surpluses this news cycle:
  • New York Times
  • Washington Times
  • Wall Street Journal
  • Shreveport Times (yes, even Louisiana)
... we thought we'd take a step back and look at comparative gains and losses in state economic productivity, as reported in BEA's report last week on state economic growth. According to the report, the top and bottom five states in per capital real GDP for 2006 are as follows (2003 ranking in parens): 1 Delaware (1) 2 Connecticut (2) 3 Massachusetts (3)

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EITC Reform: Tax Credit Where Credit is Due

Jun 8, 2007 by Dana Chasin

As BNA ($) reports today, the administration is looking at ways to make EITC eligibility easier to figure out. According to the article, the IRS estimates that more than 22 million individuals and families received EITC benefits in the 2005 tax year, yet roughly 25 percent of those eligible do not claim it, due in part to the tax credit's "labyrinthine computations" currently needed to determine eligibility. In an effort to address this problem, the administration proposes to reform EITC eligibility as follows:
  • allow separated spouses to claim the EITC

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Appropriations Agenda, Part II: The Senate

Jun 8, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Following the flurry of initial appropriations activity in the House this week, the Senate will swing into action next week. [Note: the House and Senate 302(b) allocations for FY 2008 are identical.] The current mark-up schedule in the Senate Appropriations Committee is as follows:
  • Tuesday, June 12:
    • Military Construction-VA ($65 billion; $4 billion over the president's request) -- subcommittee mark-up
    • Homeland Security ($36 billion; $2 billion over) -- subcommittee committee mark-up
  • Thursday, June 14:

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