Earmarks

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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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 3, 2008

Apr 3, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Housing/Stimulus -- Senate Readies Its Package: Senate leadership announced late yesterday that a compromise had been reached between Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL) on a stimulus package nominally targeted to the nation's slumping housing sector. Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs Committee chief Sen. Max Baucus unveiled a tax title to the housing bill. Cost: $10.8 bill. Offsets: none.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 2, 2008

Apr 2, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Housing Stimulus -- Possible Senate Vote on Dodd-Shelby: A Senate vote on the Dodd-Shelby housing stimulus bill may come as early this afternoon, pending negotiations by Sens. Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Richard Shelby (R-AL), chair and ranking member of the Senate Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee. New York Times: Regarding the bipartisan support for the bill, Senator Majority Leader Harry Reid : "This is not April Fool's," he said. "This is serious business."

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 1, 2008

Apr 1, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- Treasury Unveils Financial Reg. Plan: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson unveiled the administration's plan for the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial institution regulatory structure in over 70 years. But Paulson may have bitten off more than he can chew. The plan does not address the current housing or financial market crises. Wall Street Journal.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- Mar. 31, 2008

Mar 31, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Housing -- Reid May Attempt to Move Housing Bill This Week: Hoping that the higher profile of the mortgage meltdown will prompt a few Senators to change their votes, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) may bring up his housing assistance package for consideration this week.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- Mar. 26, 2008

Mar 26, 2008 by Dana Chasin

CMS Trustees Report -- Two Views: The CMS Trustees annual report, issued yesterday, reported that Medicare's hospital insurance trust fund would be exhausted in 2019, while Social Security's reserves would be depleted in 2041, yielded two analytic perspectives (and see more, here and here) --

The administration: "Without change, rising costs will drive government spending to unprecedented levels, consume nearly all projected federal revenues and threaten America's future prosperity." -- Treasury Secretary Paulson

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New Site in Town: Capitalgainsandgames.com

Mar 25, 2008 by Dana Chasin

A collaboration of Stan Collender, Pete Davis, Andrew Samwick and Troy K. Schneider, Capitalgainsandgames.com presents a bridge between the Washington and the Wall Street perspectives on federal fiscal policy, with a new and improved look.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- Mar. 25, 2008

Mar 25, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Housing -- Home Prices Down 10.7% in 12 Mos.: A glut of foreclosed homes of historic proportions is starting to drive down U.S. home prices faster as lenders put more properties on the market and buyers show signs of interest. The value of single-family homes plummeted 10.7 percent in January compared to a year previous, per a closely watched survey of 20 major metropolitan regions. Story.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- Mar. 24, 2008

Mar 24, 2008 by Dana Chasin

National Debt -- Might Reach Limit by Election Day: A new CBO estimate of the projected national debt shows that the statutory debt limit might be reached by election day, rather than in 2009, per the previous estimate -- mostly due to expected decreases in corporate tax revenues. Under the "Gephardt" rule in the House, the debt ceiling increase in the budget resolution boosting the limit to $10.2 trillion goes into effect without a stand-alone vote. A Senate vote would still be required for a House bill raising the debt ceiling to become law.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REVIEW -- Mar. 21, 2008

Mar 21, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- The Metastasizing Recession: Policymakers in Washington face the growing challenge of tracking the shifting contours of the nation's economic slowdown as they attempt to design legislative and administrative responses to it. "The economic downturn is seeping into new parts of the country that seemed insulated only months ago." Times. Graphs.

Unemployment Claims at Four-Year High:The number of Americans filing first-time claims for unemployment insurance rose last week and the total number on benefit rolls reached the highest since August 2004. Bloomberg

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GAO Report Examines Overuse of Supplemental Spending

In a recently released report, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) examined ten years of supplemental spending (FY 1997-FY 2006) and found not only a five-fold increase in the amount of expenditures funded through the supplemental process, but also that procedures that enable legislative deliberation are bypassed when Congress funds government operations through supplemental spending. Supplemental spending has become an alternative funding process, parallel to the normal annual appropriations process. This allows certain expenditures to elide close congressional and public scrutiny and allows Congress to escape debate over federal funding priorities.

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