Entitlements

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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more news

Is It Ok To Say They're Lying?

Sep 26, 2007 by Matt Lewis

FactCheck.Org has a good rundown of the half-truths, dissembling, gaffes, disingenuous remarks and false claims (AKA lies) by the anti-SCHIP legions. Lying is what you do when you have a weak argument. However, it can be pretty effective, as we all know, when nobody checks you. For more, see the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities fact check, and the Democrat's fact check. Yeah, there's been a lot of dissembling.

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Two Ironies Of The SCHIP Debate

Sep 21, 2007 by Matt Lewis

President "Heckuva job, Brownie" Bush has cast himself as the defender of the poor against the greedy working class, which doesn't deserve help with their health insurance bills. I don't see how else you read statements like this.

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House, Senate Reach Deal on SCHIP

Sep 21, 2007 by Matt Lewis

See the press release, with policy details, on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's webpage.

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CBPP on President's Misleading SCHIP Stance

Sep 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, President Bush reiterated his veto threat for any SCHIP expansion today. His objection now is that: "I want...the Congress to be focused on making sure poor children get the health insurance they were promised. Instead, Congress has made a decision to expand [SCHIP] eligibility up to $80,000." But Congress has never made that decision. Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA):

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Undoing The Damage To Child Support Programs

Sep 19, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The National Women's Law Center is getting ready to send a letter to Congress demanding a reversal in the 2006 cuts to federal child support programs. OMB Watch has signed on- and you can sign on your organization on this website. The deadline for sign-ons is this Friday.

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The Less Partisan Part of the Glass

Sep 18, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Bipartisan Task Force for Responsible Fiscal Action Is the federal fiscal responsibility glass half-full or half-empty? Let's look first today at the part of the glass that is half full -- something fresh and new. After all, when was the last time the administration has done anything, the Treasury Secretary has said anything, or Congress has considered anything comprehensively addressing the nation's long-term fiscal imbalances?

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Take the BudgetBlog Reader Survey

Sep 18, 2007 by Craig Jennings

We here at the BudgetBlog would like to know what you think of our blog. Please take a moment to fill this short reader survey and give us your thoughts.

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Tell Congress To Pass Bill To Give More Kids Health Care!

Sep 14, 2007 by Matt Lewis

1-866-544-7573. That's the toll-free number you can call to urge your representatives in Congress to pass an expansion of SCHIP and Medicare reforms (for more on the House and Senate versions of the bill, read this Watcher article). Negotiations over those bills have stalled, and it's vital that Congress hear that they need to pass the most progressive expansion ppossible before the program's authorization expires on September 30th.

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Anchored SCHIP

Sep 13, 2007 by Matt Lewis

CQ (subscription) reports that negotiations over SCHIP between the Houe and Senate have stalled. Lawmakers left the Capitol on Wednesday in a stalemate over children's health insurance, increasing the likelihood of a short-term extension of the program's funding.

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Links

Sep 11, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Washington Monthly has two interesting articles on how to reduce the cost of health care- and at the same time, expand coverage and improve quality. Proof once again that there are humane and just ways to deal with the long-term fiscal gap. Jason Furman, of the Brookings Institution's Hamilton Project, testified to Congress on the real "dynamic" affect of the regressive Bush tax cuts- they'll be a net loss for three-quarters of all taxpayers, who'll be burdened with paying them off in taxes and benefit cuts over the long haul. In other words, tax cuts don't pay for themselves- people do.

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