Inequality and Poverty

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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OECD Report: Inequality Threat to Propsperity

May 31, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development released its biannual Economic Survey of the United States this week. The report itself will make for good summertime reading on the beach, but it's mention of income inequality makes it especially exciting. Policies and global trends that have made the economy more open, flexible and dynamic — thereby boosting productivity and overall prosperity — may have increased inequality. If unaddressed, concerns about inequality have the potential for eroding support for such policies.

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JCT Score: Min Wage $4.8 bn. Tax Package

May 25, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The Joint Committee on Taxation's 10-year score of the $4.8 billion "Small Business and Work Opportunity Tax Act," adopted by Congress yesterday as part of the $120 billion war spending supplemental bill (now awaiting the president's signature) is: here.

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Some Concrete Costs of the War Debate

May 16, 2007 by Matt Lewis

It's taking a while for Congress and the President to work out their differences over the war funding bill. This wait isn't harming the troops, but it is costing people money. That's because there's a minimum wage raise attached to the war funding bill. It raises it from $5.15 to $5.85 60 days after enactment, and then to $6.15 a year after enactment, and $7.25 after two years.

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Humble Submission For the CAP-Inclusion Debate

May 7, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Responding to the new CAP anti-poverty plan, the folks at Inclusionist.org have started up an interesting debate on how to talk about, think about, and address poverty. This post should get you caught up. Call me a kool-aid drinker, but I'm taken in by the Inclusionist people. I like the way they think, perhaps more so than the way they name things. I mean, the term "inclusion" just sounds too social, when we're really talking about pocketbook, security, and opportunity issues. Their work's cut out for them on that front, if they ever want the term and their definition of it to become mainstream.

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Responsibility in Lending

May 4, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Responding to the subprime lending market meltdown, Charles Schumer (D-NY) is proposing legislation that would give $300 million to community groups that can help troubled borrowers restructure their mortgage debt. And not only would Shcumer's bill change some mortgage lending regulations, it asks for mortgage lenders to kick in $600 million of their funds. Of course mortgage lenders, as spoken for by Mortgage Bankers Association Chairman John M. Robbins, are having none of this.

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BudgetBlog - Now in RSS!

May 4, 2007 by Craig Jennings

If you use a newsreader, you can subscribe the BudgetBlog. You can find the feed here. RSS? What's that?

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CAP's Strategy for Cutting Poverty in Half over 10 Years

Apr 27, 2007 by Dana Chasin

A report released on April 25 by the Center for American Progress (CAP) Task Force on Poverty examines the problem and consequences of poverty in America. According to the report:

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Keeping Government out of the Boardroom

Apr 20, 2007 by Craig Jennings

This week, the White House issued a statement asserting its opposition to the right of shareholders to voice an opinion about the way the companies they own should be run. The president takes issue with Rep. Barney Frank's (D-MA) Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act (H.R. 1257), which "would require that public companies ensure that shareholders have an annual nonbinding advisory vote on their company's executive compensation plans."

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Records for the Record

Apr 19, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Tuesday was Tax Day, and if anything it' a reminder that, as Americans, we're all united by at least one thing: a four-digit number, "1040." That's right - even the president and vice president are just like everybody else on Tax Day.

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Progressivity, Part II: The Payroll Perspective

Apr 18, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Following up on yesterday look at progressivity's tipping point: The Tax Policy Center released an article last week revealing that 65.9 percent of all "tax units" pay more payroll tax than income tax. The article notes that payroll tax is regressive with respect to current income -- the effective payroll tax rate falls as income rises. The income tax, in contrast, is progressive, even considering the deductions, loopholes, and other flattening provisions. Query: how long has the majority of taxpayers paid more in payroll than income tax, and whither is the trend tending?

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