Congress' Final Month: The Trifecta Agenda

The 109th Congress reconvenes today for a last month of session (barring a lame-duck session) before a pre-election recess scheduled to start September 29. Among the many tax and budget issues that may see action this month, all three left over from the defeated “trifecta” bill -- which combined estate tax reduction, a minimum wage increase, and a tax extenders package -- are reportedly on the agenda. OMB Watch resumes its focus on these:

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    Government Issues $388 Billion in Contracts in FY 2005; Up 18%

    Hedieh Rahmanou writing at Center for American Progress's Budget Blog, points us to this GovExec article reporting on the 18 percent increase in federal agency contract spending. Federal agencies issued $388 billion in contracts in fiscal 2005, up more than 18 percent from the year before. Defense contracts topped $278 billion, a healthy increase from $229 billion in 2004. [...]

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    Mortgage Bills Come (Past) Due

    While wage increases have failed to outpace inflation, real housing prices have nearly doubled in the past ten years. Astronomical housing prices made it impossible for many families to purchase a home. The market responded by introducing and aggressively marketing new mortgage "products" like ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages) and interest-only loans. These mortgages made monthly payments affordable, but their continuing affordability hinged on two things: 1) that interest rates would not rise and that 2) the housing market continued to sizzle.

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    The Local Connection

    Think you can spend the public's money better than the government has? Well, you should check out the National Priorities Project here to find out how your congressional district could have spent the money we gave to the richest 1% in tax cuts this year. And for an example of how federal budget cuts are affecting local communities, take a look at this article from the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

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    New CBPP Paper on Min. Wage

    Another sad anniversary is coming up. Tomorrow is the 9-year anniversary of the last time the minimum wage was raised. For the occassion, the Economic Policy Institute and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities have a new paper on the minimum wage. On relative poverty: For example, in 1978, even before the gap [between executive pay and the minimum wage]began to grow quickly, the average CEO was still paid 78 times as much as a full-time year-round worker earning the minimum wage. By 2005, the average CEO was paid 821 times as much as a minimum wage earner; this is the widest

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    Octogenarian Club Bill Holding Party

    Rebecca Carr of Cox Newspapers is reporting that West Virginia Senator Robert Byrd has also had an annonymous hold on S. 2590 in addition to Sen. Stevens. I'm immediately inclined to wonder: Is this characteristic of Senators in their 80's? Unlikely. Here's an explanation from Byrd's press spokesman Tom Gavin for the Senator's hold:

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    LA Times Op-Ed on IRS Privatization

    Yesterday's LA Times had a good op-ed on tax privatization, as follows. ONCE UPON a time, the Internal Revenue Service proclaimed that its mission was "to collect the proper amount of tax revenue at the least cost, serve the public by continually improving the quality of our products and services and perform in a manner warranting the highest degree of public confidence in our integrity, efficiency and fairness."

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    Hold On One Second...

    Rumors are flying that Sen. Byrd (D-WV) also has a hold on S. 2590. I suppose we need to figure out what Coburn did to him as well? More at TPMMuckraker.com

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    Does the Administration Drink Its Own Kool-Aid?

    OMB Watch has been trying for the past year or so to connect the dots to expose the farce that is the administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). Here's another great example: The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) was reviewed under the PART survey in 2003 and given the highest rating of "effective." Some excerpts from the PART survey itself:
    • [NCES] makes a unique contribution to knowledge about the conditions and outcomes of education in America.

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    Bernanke on Minimum Wage

    We've noted that there's been a spate of establishment-types (and establishments) that have come out denying basic conservative talking points on economic policy. Now, here's new Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, who says that a raise in the minimum wage will not cause inflation. BNA has the story. In a written response to questions from Rep. Ginny Brown-Waite (R-Fla.), Bernanke avoided addressing whether he thought the federal minimum wage should be raised, but he said the small number of workers affected would mean that overall labor costs and inflation would see little upward pressure.

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