Spending Transparency

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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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Senate Schedules Floor Vote for Nussle

Aug 7, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has announced that the Senate will vote on the nomination of Jim Nussle to be the new Director of the Office of Management and Budget on Monday, September 4 - the first day back from the August recess. Reid announced there will be three hours of debate on the nomination beginning at 2:30 pm. One hour each for the chairman and ranking member of the budget committee, and one hour controlled by Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). Sanders has announced a hold on Nussle's nomination because he has serious concerns about the nominee and his philosophical differences with the administration's fiscal policies. Sanders said: President Bush is completely out of touch with the economic realities facing working families in America. Bush needs to hear the truth, not an echo. He needs a budget director who will make him face the facts, not fan his fantasies.

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CBO's Monthly Budget Update - August 2007

Aug 7, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Receipts in July 2007 were about $10.5 billion (or 7 percent) higher than they were in July 2006, CBO estimates. Higher withholding for individual income and payroll taxes explains the gains, with an increase of almost $11 billion (or 8 percent). Net corporate receipts for the small number of companies that make income tax payments in July were lower by about $1 billion (or 10 percent). Outlays were $15 billion (or 8 percent) greater this July than they were last July, CBO estimates. Defense spending accounted for the strongest growth, up by about $6 billion

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Preaching To People Who Aren't In The Choir

Aug 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

I thought I'd point up an interesting article I read over the weekend in Reason, a libertarian magazine.

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Economic Recovery and Its Discontents

Aug 3, 2007 by Craig Jennings

This week's EPI Snapshot brings into focus who really benefited from the 2001-2005 economic recovery. Since the beginning of the recovery in 2001, the income share of the top 1% grew 3.6 percentage points to 21.8% in 2005, greater than the 16.1% income share of the entire bottom half of all U.S. households. Correspondingly, the income shares of the bottom half and the upper-middle class dropped, respectively, by 1.4 and 2.3 percentage points. As a result, the top 1% of households gained $268 billion of total income and the bottom 90% lost $272 billion since 2001.

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Krugman Hits One Out Of The Park

Aug 3, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Paul Krugman has a must-read, or maybe a I-highly-recommend-you-read-it column today. You can get it for free over at Economist's View. It begins: It's been a good Democrats, bad Democrats kind of week. The bill expanding children's health insurance that just passed in the House makes you want to stand up and cheer. Reports that Senator Charles Schumer opposes plans to close the hedge fund tax loophole make you want to sit down and cry.

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Congress Won't Let Little Piggy Go to Market

Aug 2, 2007 by Dana Chasin

According to comments by senior Treasury Department officials yesterday, the Senate's failure to raise the statutory national debt limit -- the House has done so -- threatens to constrain the nation's ability to meet its financing obligations. Treasury says the U.S. will reach its debt ceiling, currently $8.933 trillion, in early October.

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Samuelson Watch (Cont'd)

Aug 1, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Matt did a good job this morning of giving the business to Robert Samuelson. Economist/blogger Mark Thoma weighs in as well for good measure. Thoma makes the critical point:

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Heritage Seriously Concerned About Fiscal Responsibility- NOT!

Aug 1, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Heritage Foundation just put out a report on the fiscal responsibility-ness of the Senate's SCHIP bill. It's stupid, but it begins with the fair point that the legislation would sunset, in 2013, the funding increases it would set up.

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Robert Samuelson Is A Ruthless, Government-Hating Machine

Aug 1, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Robert Samuelson has yet another ridiculous column on the long-term fiscal gap. Here's a list of the things I don't like about it (in order of importance):
  • He excludes OMB Watch from a list of think tanks he'd invite to an intense think-session on the long term fiscal problem.

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OMB Watch: Support SCHIP Expansion

Jul 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

OMB Watch has put out letters urging support for the SCHIP expansion bills now moving in the House and Senate.
  • Senate letter
  • House letter
The Senate bill will probably get a vote either today or tomorrow, while the House will probably vote either tomorrow or Thursday.

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Large chemical companies a...

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Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

New scientific research shows that the current levels of...

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more resources
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