OMB Watch, a nonprofit research and advocacy group that seeks to promote government accountability and citizen participation, strongly supports the Fair Taxes for All Coalition in its opposition to the Bush tax cut proposal. The Bush tax cut plan is inequitable and too expensive. It will primarily benefit the wealthiest Americans and the cost will unwisely use up the budget surplus without properly investing in our future. In fact, the Bush tax plan is likely to cause actual cuts in important government services and activities that benefit us all.

On June 28, the day Congress is planning to leave for the July 4 recess, Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill has warned that the government will run out of money to pay its bills unless Congress increases the limit on how much the Treasury can borrow. This means parts of government, if not all of it, will no longer properly function, and government will default on its bills. This has been publicly described as a showdown between the Bush administration and Congress, but in fact it is really a showdown between Bush and the Republicans in the House.

A successful nonprofit briefing on the estate tax was held on June 6. A press briefing to release the results of a nationwide poll by Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research will be held Wednesday, June 12.

As people around the country bring last-minute work on their tax returns to a close today, the House Republican leaders are gearing up for their annual "Tax Freedom" day – a time for denigrating government spending and the taxes that enable the government to provide the services that help support the country. This year, the legislative focus of their Tax Freedom day is likely to be the introduction, on April 18, of legislation to make permanent last year’s $1.35 trillion tax cut, which expires (or "sunsets") at the end of 2010.