Spending Transparency

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

Debt on Arrival -- Take II

Sep 21, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Sometime before its Columbus Day recess, the Senate will vote on legislation to raise the ceiling on the national debt to nearly $10 trillion. Treasury Secretary Paulson wrote congressional leaders on Wednesday that the statutory limit of $8.965 trillion would be reached Oct. 1. Last week, the Senate Finance Committee OK'ed boosting the debt limit by $850 billion to $9.815 trillion. The House did likewise without a roll call vote (under the so-called 'Gephardt' or 'Hastert' rule) when it adopted the fiscal 2008 budget resolution in May.

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In Local News...Payday Loan Interest Rates Capped!

Sep 21, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The DC city council has capped payday loan rates...via DMIblog. The D.C. Council voted 12 to 1 yesterday to approve legislation that would require payday loan stores to charge the same annual percentage rate as banks and credit unions, a limit that the payday lending industry says will put them out of business in the city.

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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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Poverty and the Media

Sep 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Over a three year period (that included the Hurricane Katrina disaster), did the ABC nightly news run more stories about Michael Jackson or poverty? If you guessed Michael Jackson, you'd be right. See FAIR's study on poverty stories on network news shows for more.

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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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Bush Tax Theory

Sep 19, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Alan Greenspan hit a hornet's nest when he disparaged the Bush fiscal policy record in his new book. Responding to Greenspan's comments, President Bush, yesterday: "I would also argue that cutting taxes made a significant difference, not only in dealing with a recession and an attack on our country, but it also made a significant difference in dealing with the deficit because the growing economy yielded more tax revenues, which allowed us to shrink the deficit." Vice President Cheney, today:

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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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What Do Americans Think About Inequality? Addendum

Sep 18, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Studying public opinion on economic inequality can make you both hopeful and cynical. On the one hand, we sincerely don't like extreme and rising inequality, for uniquely American reasons. But on the other, we support legislation -the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts being most notable- that make society even more unequal. And we don't support a lot of legislation that would level the playing field.

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