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

We Should Import More from Sweden Than Just Furniture

Sep 16, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Swedes' public finance policies could do wonders for your home, life Via TaxProf Blog, we read a commentary in TaxAnalysts by tax guru David Cay Johnston pointing out a few facts the revenue haters would prefer be kept under wraps.

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Shocking Developments at the IRS

Sep 15, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

I came across more good news from the IRS today (well, Friday actually) and I'm not really sure what to do with myself. BNA reported late on Friday afternoon that Lisa McCaughey, a senior tax analyst with the Small Business/Self-Employed Division reported that the IRS is reducing the staggering number of audits they conduct each year of taxpayers who claim the earned income tax credit (EITC). Woohoo!

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Why Pay Full Price

Sep 11, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

There have been lots of stories today I was thinking about throwing up on the blog (DCAA shenangians, Interior Department MMS shenangians), but I "http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122109613823821913.html">settled on an article you might have overlooked in the Wall Street Journal about the continuing investigations Sen. Carl Levin (D-MI) and the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations (PSI) have been conducting on offshore tax evasion. I've posted a few times (see href="/article/blogs/entry/5326/49" target="_blank">here and here too) over the last few

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The Declining Return on Education

Sep 11, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Via Shaw Fremstad at Inclusionist, we read in the Wall Street Journal that even the highly educated have seen their real earnings decrease since 2000. The inflation-adjusted median salary for people with professional degrees [such as doctors and lawyers] was $89,602 in 2007, up about 3% from 2000, when the median salary was $87,158, according to the Census.

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With Bush Tax Cuts In Effect, Cost of Patching AMT Nearly Doubles

Sep 10, 2008 by Craig Jennings

In perusing CBO's latest budget forecast, I am once again taken by the magnitude of the 2001-2003 tax cuts (AKA the Bush tax cuts).

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Second Stimulus Package In The Works?

Sep 9, 2008 by Craig Jennings

CongressDaily and CQ are both reporting that Congressional Democratic leadership are signaling that they will attempt to move a second stimulus package before they adjourn for the year.

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CBO Predicts $409 Billion Deficit for FY 2008

Sep 9, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its update to the Budget and Economic Outlook for Fiscal Years 2008 to 2018. The report anticipates that at the end of the current fiscal year (Sept. 30), the federal deficit for FY 2008 will be $409 (about 3 percent of GDP), $51 billion more than it predicted in March.

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Rising Unemployment Adds to Struggling Economy

When the Labor Department released its monthly unemployment and jobs data on Sept. 5, it reported that the unemployment rate for the month of August was 6.1 percent. The 0.4 percentage point increase over the prior month has pushed the unemployment rate to a five-year high and is the latest indication that the economy continues to deteriorate.

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CBO Releases Monthly Budget Review

Sep 8, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released their Monthly Budget Review on Friday last week, showing lots of red ink for the federal government in FY 2008.

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Notes from the Economy: Jobs and Unemployment

Sep 5, 2008 by Craig Jennings

This morning's release of jobs and unemployment data continue the streak of unhappy economic data. In August, the unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent from July's 5.7 percent. The jobless rate has not been this high since Sept. 2003. Employers surveyed by the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that they had cut 84,000 jobs since July. However, the 17,000 jobs added governments hides the 101,000 job losses in the private job market. Since January, private employers have reduced payrolls by over 750,000 jobs.

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