Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

Senate GOP Battling Themselves Over Earmarks

Jun 26, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Looks like reforms that would bring increased transparency to earmarking in the U.S. Senate will have to wait a little longer. The Senate Republican caucus postponed a vote yesterday on a package of recommendations developed by five GOP senators earlier this year that would increase disclosure of earmark requests and accessibility of earmark language in legislation. The Hill reports:

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More Support for Ending the Contracting Free-For-All

Jun 25, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Following up on my blog earlier today about the Webb-McCaskill Wartime Contracting Commission finally starting to get off the ground, I came across a great column by Thomas Frank today in the Wall Street Journal (of all places!) continuing the drumbeat for a contracting commission to finally get to the bott

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House Approves Fiscally-Responsible AMT Patch

Jun 25, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The voted this afternoon (233-189) to pass a fully-offset, one-year AMT patch that would prevent some 25 million Americans from falling into an alternate tax universe in which their tax bills would jump by an average of $2,000. The bill's $61.6 billion cost is fully offset mostly by:
  • Treating income of equity fund managers as income, rather than capital gains
  • Revoking some tax cuts for oil companies
  • Closing a loophole currently enjoyed by some foreign-owned firms using tax havens
  • Tighter tax enforcement of merchant credit card payments

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Contracting Oversight Commission Members Announced

Jun 25, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Craig's post yesterday about some short-sighted decisions at OMB to not provide sufficient resources for contractor oversight at the Army got me thinking about the Webb-McCaskill Commission on Wartime Contracting. There hasn't been a ton of news about that commission since it was enacted into law last fall, but just last week seven of the eight commission members were announced.

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OMB Refuses to Prioritize Army Contractor Oversight

Jun 24, 2008 by Craig Jennings

A day after we read that OMB denied the Army funds to employ 5 generals that would be in charge of overseeing contracting for the Army, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee issues a report that finds the Army's $300 million contract with fraudster contractor AEY "can be viewed as a case study in what

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Approps Update: Senate Panel Clears Labor-H

Jun 24, 2008 by Craig Jennings

By a voice vote, a Senate appropriations subcommittee has approved a FY 2009 Labor-HHS-Education funding bill. The measure would provide about $400 billion less than the House version but bests the president's request by over $7 billion. The bill includes a $1.1 billion boost to NIH and would increase college education funding by $2.7 billion.

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Everybody Needs to Pay Their Taxes...Everybody!

Jun 24, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Our friends over at the Government Accountability Office released another great report a week or two ago concerning how Medicare providers (hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors) are failing to pay federal taxes to the tune of at least $2 billion a year. Findings from the report:

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Kyl Language in Senate Housing Bill "Hooey"

Jun 24, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The housing legislation that the Senate may vote on this week contains a property deduction similar to one found in the House version of the bill. The provision would allow homeowners who do not itemize their taxes to deduct a fixed amount from their taxes -- $500 for individuals and $1,000 for couples.

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Social Security Can Wait. Really.

Jun 23, 2008 by Craig Jennings

A "Brookings Alert" in my inbox this morning directs me to an op-ed by Brookings Senior Fellow Alice M. Rivlin and U. Mich Prof. John W. Kingdon entitled "Next President and Congress: Tackle Social Security First." Oy. I'm going to outsource this one to Shawn Fremstad over at Inclusion.

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House Approves Supplemental War, Domestic Spending

Jun 20, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Spending bill sent to Senate

Yesterday evening (Thurs.), the House approved a pair of amendments to the war supplemental spending bill that would found the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and would provide funding for exetended unemployment benefits, expanded GI bill benefits, and a host other domestic spending provisions.

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