Blog: The Fine Print / Open, Accountable Government

Congress Hearing Middle-Class Midterm Message

Feb 1, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Washington seems to have gotten the midterm message from middle-class voters. No less than three congressional committees held hearings yesterday on the economic plight of the American middle class. The problem, in a word, is "insecurity," caused chiefly by:
  • steadily declining real wage growth in the the middle class over the 25-30 years (see chart)
  • technological change
  • increased international competition
  • rapidly rising education costs
  • large-scale corporate downsizings

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Sawicky on Min. Wage Tax Bogusness

Feb 1, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The Senate is scheduled to vote on the minimum wage package today at 2:30 PM...but now's a good time to check out Max Sawicky's erudite take on the unnecessary tax cuts attached to the minimum wage bill. One key passage on the tax cuts, AKA the Small Business and Work Opportunity Act of 2007 (SBWOA):

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Heritage Foundation Debunking Debunked

Jan 31, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

The Heritage Foundation has released a misleading document entitled "Ten Myths About the Bush Tax Cuts." The first "myth" that Heritage's Brian M. Riedl "debunks": Myth #1: Tax revenues remain low. Fact: Tax revenues are above the historical average, even after the tax cuts. Tax revenues in 2006 were 18.4 percent of gross domestic product (GDP), which is actually above the 20-year, 40-year, and 60-year historical aver­ages.

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Projections and Prophecy

Jan 30, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-SD) must be getting bored. He's been having hearings on long-term fiscal issues, but pretty much every speaker has been saying the exact same thing: there's huge problems in Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid, so we better start cutting benefits, and maybe find a way to raise revenues.

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Give With One Hand, Take With The Other

Jan 29, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has an big-time paper out on entitlement costs and the budget, where they both move forward the debate over future fiscal problems, and move it back. Laudably, they dispel the myth that there is an "entitlement" crisis. Many entitlement programs are actually going down in costs and getting more efficient. Just because the program is an entitlement doesn't mean it's got problems.

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Congressional Neglect Hits Timber-Dependent Communities

Jan 29, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Last year's Congress failed to reauthorize the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determiniation act, which provides a funding stream for rural areas suffering from the decline in the timber industry. Unless Congress acts soon, these rural communities may lose millions of federal funding. Oregon would be particularly hard-hit. The LA Times has more:

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Senate Wends its Way on Wage Bill

Jan 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The Senate has been making no concessions to the shortness of life in its deliberations on S. 2, the minimum wage bill.

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House and Senate Budget Cmtes: The Real CBO Picture

Jan 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The House and Senate Budget Committees have published succinct rejoinders to the CBO reported we blogged on here, providing warnings about the misleading, thought favorable, short-term deficit projection against the backdrop of the long term fiscal condition of the nation. My colleague Craig commends in particular this (Page 5 of the House document (Realistic Estimate Shows Bleak Deficit Outlook), graphic depiction of the distorted long term-picture painted by the Bush Administration.

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CBO Report: Reality Checks and Balanced Budgets

Jan 25, 2007 by Dana Chasin

CBO's "Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2008 to 2017," published yesterday, projects the federal budget deficit to fall from $248 to $172 billion this year, to be replaced by a $170 billion surplus in 2012. This forecast of a sudden surge into the black might be credible, "but virtually nobody ... believes it, says the Washington Post.

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Once Again, President and OMB Exaggerate Budget Claims

Jan 25, 2007 by Craig Jennings

With release of CBO's latest budget projection comes the latest edition of Tales from the OMB. OMB Director Rob Portman released this statement regarding CBO's projection of coming surpluses (more on that later, but I want to debunk this bit that really sticks in my craw): Two years ago the President laid out an ambitious goal to cut the deficit in half by 2009, and we met that goal three years early. This is, of course, remarkably similar to this week's episode of Presidential Budget Story Time, as encapsulated by this line in the president's SOTU speech:

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