Blog: The Fine Print / Revenue & Spending

AMT and TPM

Nov 1, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Check out Dana's TPM Cafe post on the AMT. After months of delays and anticipation, House Ways and Means Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) finally unveiled his self-described "mother of all tax bills" last week, the Tax Reduction and Reform Act. The revenue-neutral trillion-dollar bill proposes the abolition of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT), a package of "offsets" to pay for it, and a progressive redistribution of the regular income tax.

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Responsible Fiscal Action: AARP's Perspective

Oct 31, 2007 by Dana Chasin

We commend for your consideration the testimony presented at today's Senate Budget Committee hearing on S. 2063, the Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Act of 2007, by William Novelli, CEO of AARP.

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23 Organizations Ask Congress To Stick to PAYGO

Oct 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

23 organizations, including OMB Watch, signed and sent a letter to Congress today asking for a sustained commitment to PAYGO budgeting rules. As the Ways and Means Committee is ready to mark up the AMT patch, now is an important time to reaffirm Congress's commitment to these rules.

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In-Appropriate: Veto-Happy Bush Castigates Congress

Oct 31, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Who's Wasting Whose Time Here? At a GOP rally at the White House yesterday, President Bush took the opportunity to have another tantrum, again threatening to veto a congressional appropriations proposal, the latest in a series of nearly a dozen such veto threats: Congress is not getting its work done... We're near the end of the year, and there really isn't much to show for it... I believe [Congress] is wasting valuable time. Or could it be that Congress, being forced to negotiate with itself because Bush refuses to negotiate, is having its time wasted?

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TheMiddleClass.Org

Oct 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Drum Major Institute has an intriguing new website up- themiddleclass.org- where you can basically track legislation that matters to the "current and aspiring" middle class, and get a reliable perspective on what it's all about. Its unveiling is a good opportunity to rundown a couple other really useful sites that help everyone -myself included- hold the government accountable.
  • OpenCongress.Org- like Thomas, but understandable.
  • OpenSecrets.Org- complete records of campaign donations.
  • Congresspedia- a wiki site on Congress that anyone can update.

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IRS Private Tax Collector Bill To Move in AMT Patch

Oct 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The AMT patch package will probably include a repeal of the IRS private debt collection program, according to BNA. We'll have more when the bill is marked up by the Ways and Means committee tomorrow.

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Your Money's No Good Here

Oct 30, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Via our very own RegWatch, a commissioner of the Consumer Products Safety Commission is lobbying against a proposed budget increase.

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Outsourcing Foreign Policy

Oct 30, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Most major news outlets are reporting today that some Blackwater guards involved the Sept. 16th shooting have been given immunity under strange circumstances. The State Department investigators from the agency's investigative arm, the Bureau of Diplomatic Security, offered the immunity grants even though they did not have the authority to do so, the officials said. Prosecutors at the Justice Department, who do have such authority, had no advance knowledge of the arrangement, they added.

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Stupid Fiscal Policy Tricks; See the President Perform!

Oct 30, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Deficits Disappear! Vetoes without Votes! Budget Bombast! Some seriously silly circus tricks are on daily display this Halloween season as three-ring leader President Bush pushes the bounds of credulity, for a man who has single-handedly added over $3,000,000,000,000.00 (three tril) to the national debt. His biggest and most mendacious trick is a sleight-of-hand to convince the children of the jury that the spending bills passed by the House, and sometimes the Senate, are budget-busting veto bait, exceeding his $730 billion in requests by around $20 billion.

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The Spying Budget, Declassified, Partially

Oct 30, 2007 by Matt Lewis

We did $50 billion worth of spying last year, according to the Washington Post today. The director of national intelligence will disclose today that national intelligence activities amounting to roughly 80 percent of all U.S. intelligence spending for the year cost more than $40 billion, according to sources on Capitol Hill and inside the administration. The disclosure means that when military spending is added, aggregate U.S. intelligence spending for fiscal 2007 exceeded $50 billion, according to these sources, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because the total remains classified.

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