Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

$250 Billion FY2006 Deficit: Cause and Effect

Oct 11, 2006 by Matthew Madia

To follow up on Matt's discussion below of the final deficit figures for FY2006, I thought I'd point to some of the wildly disparate explanations offered for it. Says Speaker Hastert, whose credibility right now is not exactly at an all-time high: "Republicans have cut the deficit in half three years ahead of schedule because they know that tax relief fuels America's economy." President Bush added a corollary last night: "Do we keep taxes low so we can keep this economy growing, or do we let the Democrats in Washington raise taxes and hurt the economic vitality of this country?"

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Bush Celebrates $250 Billion Deficit

Oct 11, 2006 by Matthew Madia

President Bush on the Treasury's announcement that the FY 2006 budget deficit is $248 billion: First, I want to briefly mention that today we've released the actual budget numbers for the fiscal year that ended on September the 30th. These numbers show that we have now achieved our goal of cutting the federal budget deficit in half, and we've done it three years ahead of schedule.

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The Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Pt. 2

Oct 10, 2006 by Dana Chasin

In Part 1 of our evaluation of the 109th Congress to date, we looked last week at Congress’ effort to meet its minimal constitutional requirements: producing a budget resolution and adopting a budget. While Congress failed to complete work on the FY2007 budget, it did approve an additional $70 billion in tax cuts over five years, and allowed discretionary spending to increase to $873 billion, $30 billion above the 2006 level. On top of this, Congress approved two major FY 2006 supplemental bills to finance the war in Iraq and Katrina recovery, totaling $110 billion.

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FedSpending.Org Released!

Oct 10, 2006 by Matt Lewis

FedSpending.Org is now online! Check it out!

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Why Presidents Matter in Tax Policy

Oct 10, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Cactus of the econo-blog Angry Bear looks for a connection between who's President and tax enforcement rates. A few interesting results: Ronald Reagan was a strict tax enforcer in his second term, while George W. Bush's first term saw the largest decline in the tax enforcement rate in the last 50 years.

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CBO's Final FY2006 Deficit Estimate: $250 Billion

Oct 6, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

The final CBO FY 2006 deficit estimate numbs are in … at a cool quarter of a trillion dollars. The $250 billion figure released today is well under CBO’s estimate of $337 billion at the beginning of the year and the $318 billion actual deficit for FY2005. Until this summer, the deficit projections were uniformly in the $300 billion-range, but a late surge in corporate income helped boost FY2006 revenues by $253 billion over last year’s total.

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Extraneous Credit

Oct 6, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Sen. Joseph Lieberman has proposed creating a tax credit for home purchases. The Tax Foundation says it's a really bad idea, because that type of tax credit could raise home prices.

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Wyden We Think of That?

Oct 6, 2006 by Matt Lewis

In the aftermath of the House earmark disclosure rule adopted last month, the debate about the adequacy of that rule’s scope continues. The rule requires the disclosure only of earmarks with a single ultimate beneficiary. So, critics point out, far more “pork spending” than “tax expenditure” earmarks will be disclosed, since the latter tend to benefit industries and sectors, rather than individuals and single entities. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said this week in a podcast by the Tax Foundation that he wants to address this imbalance. As reported by

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Estate Tax Putting Mom and Pop Out of Business?

Oct 6, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Honestly, I’m a little concerned that the estate tax is hurting family-owned businesses. I read the following in a Wichita Eagle article, and suddenly it really hits home: There are numerous examples where families had to sell their businesses to pay taxes when the founder died and the estate was taxed, often at a rate of 50 percent. This happened to the Joe Robbie family in Miami, forcing the sale of the Miami Dolphins. It tears me up to know that the estate tax is forcing owners of professional football teams to sell their teams because they can’t foot the tax bill. So sad.

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OMB Watch to Unveil www.FedSpending.org

Oct 6, 2006 by Dana Chasin

Next Tuesday, Oct. 10, at 9:30 a.m. EST, OMB Watch is launching FedSpending.org, a new, searchable online database allowing you to search, aggregate and analyze all federal spending. Be a more informed voter this midterm election. See which federal programs and agencies got the most federal dollars this year. See which contractors are getting paid how much to work in your congressional district.

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