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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A Closer Look At Inequality in America

Apr 12, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Former Clinton economic advisor and current Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Gene Sperling takes a closer look at economic inequality in America in his most recent column for Bloomberg News. Sperling unpacks the recent statements by Secretary of Treasury John Snow that income inequality has actually shrunk under President Bush and explains why a closer look at the numbers shows it is difficult to back up such a claim. Bloomberg News: A Disappointing Decade for Inequality

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Krugman Responds to Secretary Snow's Assertions

Mar 24, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Following up on yesterday's post regarding income inequality, Paul Krugman has an op-ed in today's NY Times in which he challenges Secretary Snow's recent comments on income inequality going down between 2000 and 2003. As Krugman points out, even though the economy grew fast in 2004, few families saw the benefits of this growth. Instead, the rich got richer. As he says, "Forbes tells us that the compensation of chief executives at the 500 largest corporations rose 54 percent in 2004." Most others he says, have not seen their incomes rise. He says:

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The Debate on Income Inequality

Mar 23, 2006 by Guest Blogger

The Treasury has measured that the income gap has grown narrower between 2000 and 2003, with Secretary John Snow telling reporters yesterday, "There has been a decline in the inequality." This statement is based on the fact that in 2003, the top 5 percent of Americans earned earned 15.4 percent of the nation's after-tax income in 2003, down from 19 percent in 2000. The bottom 20 percent earned 2.5 percent of all U.S. after-tax income, up from 2.3 percent in 2000. The Treasury data also shows, however, that the gap was larger in 2003 than it was in 1990.

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Income Inequality Has Intensified Under Bush

Though the Bush administration continues to laud the strength of the economy and the success of its economic and tax policies, a large percentage of Americans are continuing to struggle to make ends meet as income growth has become increasingly concentrated at the top of the income scale. Income inequality, in fact, is at an all-time high, illustrating that current tax, budget, and wage and employment policies are all not working in favor of average American families.

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OMB Watch Statement On Debt Ceiling Increase

Mar 17, 2006 by Matthew Madia

OMB Watch released a statement yesterday about the vote in the Senate to increase the nation's debt limit for the fourth time in the last five years. Read the statement

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Senate Vote on the Debt Limit Increase

Mar 15, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Senate will likely vote to increase the debt limit at some point tomorrow. Below are some good articles on the issue. New York Times: Senate Could Vote Thursday to Hike Debt Limit Los Angeles Times: Senate Stalls Debt-Ceiling Decision The Hill: Debt Limit Vote Seen as Budget Reform Lever When $8 Trillion Isn't Enough

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Update on Budget Resolution Amendments

Mar 15, 2006 by Guest Blogger

As of 2:00 PM today the Senate had yet to vote on the Harkin-Specter amendment, which would provide an additional $7 billion over the President’s budget request — allowing Congress to fund the FY07 Labor-HHS bill at the level enacted two years ago, in FY05. A one-pager on the amendment, made available by Senator Harkin's office, is available here.Among many points made, the one-pager says:

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Time Running Out to Raise Debt Limit

Mar 7, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Secretary of the Treasury John Snow sent a letter to Congress Monday saying he has taken "all prudent and legal actions” to stay under the $8.184 trillion debt limit and again strongly urged passage of an increase “immediately." Congress, which must act or else they could default on payments to bond holders or fail to make other scheduled government payments, will most likely pass a debt limit increase. This will mark the fourth time the debt limit has needed to be increased under President Bush. If this new hike is approved, the limit will have jumped by $3 trillion since he took office.

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Monthly Budget Review Released

Mar 7, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Congressional Budget Office released the Monthly Budget Review yesterday, reporting that the government incurred a $219 billion deficit in the first five months of FY 2006. The CBO is estimating a total deficit for FY2006 to be $371 billion. The deficit in February was $121 billion, which is $7 billion more than the deficit recorded in February 2005.

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CBO's Analysis of the President's Budget

Mar 6, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Congressional Budget Office has completed a preliminary analysis of the President's FY07 Budget.

Analysis
Supplemental Data

The report found that the President's proposal will:

Spend about $925 billion on discretionary programs in FY07;
Add $35 billion to the CBO's current deficit projections, putting the deficit projection at $371 billion;
Reduce revenues by nearly $9 billion for FY07;
Reduce revenues by $282 billion from 2007-2011 if some of the President's expiring 2001 and 2003 tax provisions are extended;

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