Blog: The Fine Print / Open, Accountable Government

JEC Ranking Member Highlights Troubling Trend in Income Inequality

Jul 22, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Joint Economic Committee ranking member Jim Saxton (R-NJ) musters moral fibre to stand up for the downtrodden richest one percent among us to lament the growing burden that increasing shares of income are placing upon this voiceless group. It's true: According recently-released IRS data, while the richest one percent of taxpayers (as measured by adjusted gross income) saw their share of income grow from 20.8 percent to 22.1 percent from 2000 to 2006, they also saw their share income taxes climb from 37.4 to 39.9 in that same time.

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Claims of "Magical" Tax Cuts Continue

Jul 21, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released a new report discussing the oft-cited, and completely false claim that tax cuts pay for themselves. Even though this statement has been refuted many times, by CBPP, by outside academics, and even by President Bush's own Treasury Department, the claim continues to float around. CBPP does a nice job hammering home the facts again about the impact of tax cuts in a very digestible brief:

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New CBO Report Shows Dire Consequences of Bush Tax Cuts, AMT Patching

Jul 17, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The CBO has released a report detailing the effects of indexing the the AMT to inflation (i.e. "patching" it so that fewer households would pay it than otherwise anticipated) and extending the 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts without offsetting the revenue loss.

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Average Earnings Down for All Workers, Median Earnings Also Down for Full-Time Workers

Jul 17, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued a pair of data sets indicating that workers are still not seeing real (i.e. inflation adjusted) increases in pay. Yesterday's Real Earnings report, based on data from the payroll reports of private nonfarm establishments of earnings of both full-time and part-time workers holding production or nonsupervisory jobs, shows: Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.9 percent from May to June after

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Growth Nonetheless

Jul 15, 2008 by Craig Jennings

President Bush today: The growth [of the economy] is lower than we would have liked, but it was growth nonetheless. GDP is not the only thing that is growing. (click to enlarge) (click to enlarge)

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State Budget Problems Cause Economic Hardship

Jul 11, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has once again released an analysis of state government budget health, and the news continues to deteriorate. In their lastest analysis, they rank all 50 states according to changes in three main economic indicators - employment, poverty, and housing foreclosures. The report finds:

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Competiting Claims on Our Fiscal Future

Jul 11, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released a report from leading economists and budget experts criticing a recent paper from the Brookings Institute and the Heritage Foundation called "Taking Back Our Fiscal Future." From the CBPP

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New TPC Analysis of AMT Legislation

Jul 9, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Tax Policy Center has published a distributional analysis of the recently House-passed Alternative Minimum Tax legislation (H.R. 6275). The TPC has produced distributional estimates for H.R. 6275, the alternative minimum tax (AMT) patch legislation passed by the House on June 25, 2008. In addition, we have updated our estimates of the number of AMT taxpayers, AMT revenue, and the distribution of AMT liability. Finally, we have published an updated list of 12 key facts and projections about the AMT. Read the TPC Analysis

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Monthly Budget Review: June, 2008

Jul 8, 2008 by Craig Jennings

CBO has released its Monthly Budget Review for June. It finds that while the stimulus payments accounted for a $21 billion decline in monthly revenue (compared to last June), June's surplus would still have been lower than last year's when the rebates are accounted for. Details below.

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Fiscal Policy Agenda Returns to Washington

Jul 7, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The Fiscal Policy Team and Congress both return to action this week with a number of fiscal policy issues to be tackled during the next five weeks. Below is a rundown of issues coming up soon, with most of the action happening in the Senate:
  • Debate continues between Senate Democrats and Republicans over whether to offset the cost of a popular package of tax breaks called the "extenders." The latest development is that Senate Republicans are now challenging Democrats to offset the cost of the package with spending cuts rather than other tax increases. BNA ($)

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