Open, Accountable Government

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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CBO's Report on Bush's FY09 Budget Projections

Mar 3, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Today, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released a publication, Preliminary Analysis of the President's Budget Request for 2009, that showed some key differences with the administration regarding budget deficit projections. If enacted, the report indicates, the president's budget would:

produce growing deficits of $396 billion in 2008 and $342 billion in 2009, 2.8 percent and 2.3 percent, respectively, of gross domestic product (GDP). By comparison, the deficit in 2007 totaled 1.2 percent of GDP

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The $3 Trillion War

Mar 3, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Testifying before the Joint Economic Committee on Thursday, Nobel Laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz said that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan could cost more than $3 trillion. Stiglitz's testimony is based on research that was released as a book, The Three Trillion Dollar War, on Friday. Coauthored with Harvard University professor Linda Bilmes, the book estimates that when interest expenses on the deficit spending used to finance the war and other costs, like health care benefits for wounded veterans, are calculated, the wars' costs could range from $5 to $7 trillion. McClatchy:

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Bush: Let the Next Guy/Gal Clean It Up

Feb 26, 2008 by Craig Jennings

PGL at Angry Bear flags this Dean Baker post in which Baker notes that We will almost certainly end the Bush years with a higher debt to GDP ratio than we had at the start of the Clinton presidency. That is not a disaster, but the next administration will not have the luxury of allowing the debt to increase in the same way. PGL includes a version of this chart and comments: (click on image to enlarge)

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The Economic Costs of War

Feb 26, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Following Craig's post below covering the Feb. 8 CRS report on the fiscal costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, today's Center for American Progress (CAP) report on "The Economic Costs of War" is timely. As total war costs rocket toward the $1 trillion mark, it is instructive to recall the reasonable cost projections in the $200-300 billion range offered in 2002 and 2003 by General Shinseki and Senior Economic Advisor Lawrence Lindsey -- and how quickly thereafter they were relieved of their positions. Even more outlandish, the CAP report recalls, are these...

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State Budgets Getting Worse and Worse and Worse...

Feb 25, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities continues to churn out updates to their analysis first released in January detailing the increasingly poor state of state budgets around the country, and things are not getting better. The most recent update adds one more state (Oklahoma) to the list of states facing a budget crunch in 2009. Now there are 21 states that are projecting budget gaps in 2009. The updated summary stats from CBPP: More than half of states anticipate budget problems, according to this updated analysis of state fiscal conditions.

21 states now project budget gaps for 2009. Oklahoma joins this list.
The combined budget shortfall for these 21 states is now at least $36 billion due to changes in the estimates for California and Illinois, and the addition of an estimate for Oklahoma.
4 states say they will have 2009 deficits, but have released no further information. Oklahoma leaves this list because it has now released an estimate.
3 other states project budget gaps for 2010 and beyond.

CBPP: 21 STATES FACE TOTAL BUDGET SHORTFALL OF AT LEAST $36 BILLION IN 2009

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Worker Earnings Continue Decline

Feb 21, 2008 by Craig Jennings

According to yesterday's BLS Real Earnings report, for the fourth month in a row, workers saw a year-over-year decline in their paychecks. In January workers saw their pay drop by 0.5% from Dec. 2007 and 1.4% from Jan. 2007. Although a recession has not been officially declared, for millions of wage earners it certainly feels like one. (click to enlarge)

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OMB Reports $508 Million in E-Gov Savings; Congress Remains Doubtful

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a report to Congress Feb. 14 that calculates the benefits of President Bush's 24 E-Government (E-Gov) Initiatives at approximately $508 million in Fiscal Year 2007, based on agencies' estimates. Congressional skepticism of the Initiatives, and subsequent reluctance to fund them, led OMB to develop a questionable funding mechanism using agency contributions from their annual budgets.

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CDC Watering Down Great Lakes Report on Toxics

After significantly delaying the release of a report that identifies alarming toxic health risks for the Great Lakes region, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) is now reportedly planning to release a substantially modified document.

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House Forces Expiration of Protect America Act

During the week of Feb. 11, the White House and Democrats in Congress exchanged blows over whether and how to extend the surveillance powers of the Protect America Act of 2007 (PAA). The Senate's approach, the FISA Amendments Act (S. 2248), included a provision granting immunity for telecommunications companies that helped the government monitor citizens through its warrantless wiretapping program. The House leadership, opposed to immunity for telecommunications companies, refused to consider the bill. Instead, House leaders wanted to pass a three-week extension of PAA powers to give themselves time to resolve differences with the Senate, but House Republicans blocked the move. As a result, the PAA expired at midnight Eastern time on Feb. 16. Despite the expiration, the government still has numerous surveillance tools available as debate continues.

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EPA Bucks White House and Plans for Registry on Greenhouse Gases

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has started work on a draft rule creating mandatory greenhouse gas reporting requirements, even though President Bush's proposed FY 2009 budget does not provide funding for the rulemaking.

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