Federal Debt and Deficit

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

No Budget is Better than the Senate Budget

The budget resolution approved last week by the Senate Budget Committee has nothing good to recommend it. It will hand more tax breaks to the extremely wealthy while slashing assistance to low-income working families and children. Funds for education, housing, the environment and a host of other services that benefit ordinary Americans will also be cut. Ironically, in spite of all these cuts, the committee?s resolution will increase -- not reduce -- the deficit.

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Watcher Articles 2/24/04

Feb 24, 2004 by Guest Blogger

New articles from the Watcher newsletter:

OMB Watch - The Watcher - February 23, 2004 Vol.5, No. 4 -

Federal Budget

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U.S. Federal Debt Surpasses $7 Trillion

The U.S. Treasury recently announced that the federal debt subject to congressional limits has for the first time surpassed $7 trillion - approximately 62 percent of gross domestic product. In addition, in fiscal year 2003, over $300 billion was spent on paying interest on the debt.

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Watcher Newsletter, Feb 10

Feb 11, 2004 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Watcher - February 9, 2004 Vol.5, No.3 -

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Budget Process in the Service of Tax Cuts

It is important to remember the magnitude of the federal budget process on the outcome of community results. While budget process issues are often arcane and sometimes difficult to determine the affects on results, in the case of several of the president’s proposals, the purpose is very clear—to make tax cuts easier to pass and expansion of government services more difficult.

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The Misleading 2005 Budget

It’s hard to know how much emphasis should be put on the president’s 2005 Budget. On one hand, it lays out the president’s main policy objectives – mainly tax cuts for upper income individuals, increases in defense spending, and real cuts for many domestic services. On the other hand, the cost estimates, deficit forecasts, and other analyses are fundamentally misleading.

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Economy and Jobs Watch: GDP, Employment, and the Federal Reserve

Release of two new pieces of economic data showed that the economy, while growing, is still below expectations.

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OMB?s Revised Cost of Medicare Prescription Drug Benefits Raises Questions

During last year’s debate on the Prescription Drug and Medicare Improvement Act of 2003, Congress used an outlay cost estimate of $395 billion for the new program. However, in the president’s 2005 budget, the 10-year outlay cost was estimated to be $534 billion – 35 percent greater than the initial estimate. See Table S-13, Page 387, 2005 budget..

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2005 Federal Budget Continues Fiscal Decline

OMB Watch has released a new report providing an analysis of the president’s budget that describes the fiscal chaos created by the president’s proposals. The report is entitled "2005 Federal Budget Continues Fiscal Decline."

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2005 Federal Budget Continues Fiscal Decline

Feb 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch has released a new report entitled "2005 Federal Budget Continues Fiscal Decline."

The report finds that even if we take the numbers in the budget at face value, there is considerable fiscal decline in the federal budget, including:

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