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

Deficit Fix-ation: AMT = Allowing More Taxation?

Feb 6, 2007 by Dana Chasin

President Bush's FY 2008 budget proposal provides numerous projections calculated to prove the plausibility of his overall goal of eliminating the deficit budget by 2012 -- the only problem being the implausibility of the projections themselves. We have highlighted in our commentary on the budget and elsewhere some of the more conspicuously convenient calculations regarding war spending and AMT reform. CBPP expands upon the latter point in a paper released today, and relates it to a more plausibile assumption -- the extension of Bush's 2001 and 2003 tax cuts -- arguing that

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LA Times: Budget Doesn't Account for Troop Increase

Feb 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

LA Times reports that the President left out another key expenditure: the cost of the troop increase in Iraq. The Bush administration's $142-billion war budget for next year leaves out money for the planned troop buildup in Iraq, a strong indication that the Pentagon views the increase as a short-term tactic to stem the escalating violence in Baghdad.

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TRI Changes are Major Issue at EPA Oversight Hearing

The Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) changes to the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) were a prominent issue at the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee's (EPW) Feb. 6 EPA oversight hearing. The three-panel hearing also addressed the closure of EPA libraries, the elimination of perchlorate testing, and the agency's current consideration of revoking the air quality standard for lead.

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Senate Passes Minimum Wage Increase with Tax Cuts Added

On Feb. 1, the U.S. Senate wrapped up nearly two weeks of debate with a 94-3 vote to approve S. 2, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The bill raises the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by 2009 and extends $8.3 billion of existing small business tax breaks. The fate of the bill remains uncertain because House Democrats are reluctant to provide tax breaks for small business in exchange for passing a minimum wage hike.

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OMB Watch Critical of Proposed Chemical Security Rule

In response to the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) proposed interim chemical security rule, OMB Watch will submit comments to DHS that argue for increased transparency and stronger protections at thousands of facilities across the country.

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Federal Contractors: The Invisible, Unaccountable Agency

The incredible growth in the amount of money spent by the federal government on contractors, with almost no corresponding increase in oversight or management, was highlighted in a recent New York Times article, "In Washington, Contractors Take on Biggest Role Ever." According to the article, the amount spent on federal contracts has doubled since 2000, from $207 billion to $400 billion. The lack of sufficient government oversight has led to a virtual free reign for contractors, who are not answerable to the public and have not been called to account by the federal government.

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Recommended Budget Analyses

Feb 6, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Check out these breakdowns of the President's budget:

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Center for American Progress
National Priorities Project
Coalition on Human Needs

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OMB Watch Release Preliminary Budget Analysis

Feb 5, 2007 by Matt Lewis

OMB Watch has released a preliminary analysis of the President's FY 08 Budget request. President's Budget Full of Cheap Rhetoric; Wrong Priorities President Favors Tax Cuts for the Wealthy over Domestic Needs Check back here for additional analyses and commentary on the budget as the week progresses.

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President's Budget Takes Aim at Nation's Health

Feb 5, 2007 by Craig Jennings

President Bush's 2008 budget, to be released this morning, proposes to eliminate the deficit by 2012 with many spending cuts in various national health and well-being programs.

$101.5 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over five years
$223 million reduction in spending on the Children's Health Insurance Program, with cuts deep enough over five years to eliminate coverage for half of the children enrolled today
$99 million savings by eliminating a childhood obesity prevention program

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If CBO Can Do It, So Can - and Should - OMB Do It

Feb 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Based on the president's recent announcement of his plan to deploy an additional 21,000 troops to Iraq, CBO has released a report detailing the projected costs of such an escalation. CBO Director, Peter Orszag, predicts that the president's plan to increase troop levels could cost as much as $27 billion.

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