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

America Continues to Drown in Debt

Jul 23, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Those wacky legislators in Congress are at it again. Democrats have added language to once again increase the national debt ceiling, or debt limit, which is the maximum amount of debt the federal government can issue. Democrats added language to a housing relief bill increasing the limit by another $800 billion to an astounding $10.615 trillion (that's trillion with a "t").

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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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BudgetBlog on Hiatus for Holiday: Happy Fourth Everyone!

Jun 27, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Happy Fourth of July! Just wanted to let our loyal BudgetBlog readers know we're going on a short hiatus next week. With Congress heading out of town for a short summer recess and the upcoming Fourth of July holiday next week, the Fiscal Policy team is heading out of town in order to escape the heat for some well-deserved vacation. This means, though, that the BudgetBlog will be dormant next week. But don't despair. Craig and I will return in one short week on July 7 to continue to bring you all the news, gossip, information, and analysis on federal fiscal policy you've come to expect.

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GAO Report Finds Private Medicare Providers Prefer Profits Over Providing Better Service

Jun 26, 2008 by Craig Jennings

A recently released GAO report finds that (surprise!) Medicare Advantage providers predicted lower profit margins in 2005 than actually materialized.

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Everybody Needs to Pay Their Taxes...Everybody!

Jun 24, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Our friends over at the Government Accountability Office released another great report a week or two ago concerning how Medicare providers (hospitals, nursing homes, and doctors) are failing to pay federal taxes to the tune of at least $2 billion a year. Findings from the report:

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Social Security Can Wait. Really.

Jun 23, 2008 by Craig Jennings

A "Brookings Alert" in my inbox this morning directs me to an op-ed by Brookings Senior Fellow Alice M. Rivlin and U. Mich Prof. John W. Kingdon entitled "Next President and Congress: Tackle Social Security First." Oy. I'm going to outsource this one to Shawn Fremstad over at Inclusion.

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CBO Monthly Budget Review: May, 2008

Jun 6, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The good folks over at the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their monthly budget review yesterday. Some highlights of the number crunching in the report are below:

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Media Coverage of Obama-Coburn Bill

Jun 5, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Below are blog and news stories discussing the introduction yesterday of a new transparency bill cosponsored by Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL) and Tom Coburn (R-OK). Given the bill was introduced at the same time as Obama was wrapping up the Democratic nomination for president, the coverage was not bad.

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Obama-Coburn Continue Transparency March

Jun 4, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Sens. Barack Obama (D-IL), Tom Coburn (R-OK), Tom Carper (D-DE), and John McCain (R-AZ) introduced new legislation on June 3 as a follow-up to the 2006 Transparency Act. The bill, the Strengthening Transparency and Accountability in Federal Spending Act (S. 3077), would augment the 2006 law but go further, making important new data more easily accessible to the public and making it easier for citizens to hold our government accountable for the fiscal stewardship of our shared resources.

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