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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more news

The Social Security Trustees Report: End at Hand?

Apr 24, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The Board of Trustees of the Federal Old-Age and Survivors Insurance and Federal Disability Insurance Trust Funds (read: Social Security) released their annual report yesterday. It must be absolutely disturbing to prompt these remarks from Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson: Without change, rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues, and threaten America's future prosperity. I urge my friends in Congress to join me in a bipartisan effort to strengthen both programs for future retirees.

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Orszag: Long-Term Budget Problem is ALL Health Care

Apr 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Peter Orszag, speaking at a conference on budget issues held by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, gets the real long-term fiscal problem (emph. mine). ...the floor was given to CBO director Peter Orszag, who made the following three points.

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Smash Health Care Capitalism!

Apr 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Writing for the commie-pinko Washington Monthly, Philip Longman, a fellow at the unabashedly socialist New America Foundation, has foreseen the end of the capitalist health care market and the coming of socialized medicine in America.

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Keeping Government out of the Boardroom

Apr 20, 2007 by Craig Jennings

This week, the White House issued a statement asserting its opposition to the right of shareholders to voice an opinion about the way the companies they own should be run. The president takes issue with Rep. Barney Frank's (D-MA) Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act (H.R. 1257), which "would require that public companies ensure that shareholders have an annual nonbinding advisory vote on their company's executive compensation plans."

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Statement from Gary D. Bass on Privacy Violation in Government Data

WASHINGTON, April 20, 2007—It has become public information today that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been including Social Security numbers in a data field that identifies certain public financial transactions with government (e.g., loans). In response, OMB Watch has taken two actions. First, we have temporarily redacted the information in the USDA data field, which serves as a unique identifier, from our online service, FedSpending.org. Second, we call on the federal government to immediately remedy the privacy violation by providing a new unique identifier that does not contain personally identifiable information.

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OMB's Portman Still Drinking the Kool-Aid

Apr 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Rob Portman is in the Hill today, doing his best to spin the Congressional budget resolutions. One of his comments stands out: I'm disappointed that the budget pays for all that new spending with taxes, which I think will put at risk the very economic growth that has given us the increased revenues over the last few years to be able to reduce the deficit.

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Records for the Record

Apr 19, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Tuesday was Tax Day, and if anything it' a reminder that, as Americans, we're all united by at least one thing: a four-digit number, "1040." That's right - even the president and vice president are just like everybody else on Tax Day.

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Progressivity, Part II: The Payroll Perspective

Apr 18, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Following up on yesterday look at progressivity's tipping point: The Tax Policy Center released an article last week revealing that 65.9 percent of all "tax units" pay more payroll tax than income tax. The article notes that payroll tax is regressive with respect to current income -- the effective payroll tax rate falls as income rises. The income tax, in contrast, is progressive, even considering the deductions, loopholes, and other flattening provisions. Query: how long has the majority of taxpayers paid more in payroll than income tax, and whither is the trend tending?

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Polar Bears: Don't Ask, Don't Tell

New accusations of manipulating scientific information and gagging government scientists have arisen amidst the government's consideration of listing polar bears as an endangered species. Memos that censored scientists traveling to countries around the Arctic region and draft reports that were significantly altered in their final form have fueled these concerns. A leaked

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Congress Urged to Reform USA PATRIOT Act

Congress continues to exercise oversight of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) misuse of USA PATRIOT Act powers. The Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Property Rights held a hearing on the Department of Justice (DOJ) Inspector General report on the misreporting and abuse of National Security Letter (NSL) powers. A common theme from the four witnesses at the hearing was the need for Congress to reform the USA PATRIOT Act and curtail the FBI's NSL powers.

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