Federal Budget Policy

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

New Challenge? Get In Line

Aug 9, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Bush ($): My suggestion would be that they revisit the process by which they spend gasoline money in the first place...From my perspective, the way it seems to have worked is that each member on that committee gets to set his or her own priority first, and then what's ever left over is spent to a funding formula.

read in full

Wild Mood Swings

Aug 9, 2007 by Craig Jennings

In his post about the president's call for a corporate tax cut, Matt asks: And what if an unhinged market was the root cause of all this trouble [a potential economic downturn]? I submit that the market is in fact completely hinged. That is: rapid expansion in financial markets (i.e. bubbles) is always followed by rapid contraction (i.e. bubble bursting). Oscillations between growth and contraction is the nature of the market.

read in full

President Bush Is A Total Drag, Man

Aug 8, 2007 by Matt Lewis

President Bush's position on the FY08 budget is that we must cut spending and avoid tax increases to balance the budget. Looking past the the rhetoric justifying all this nonsense, I'd call his position a pretty pessimistic way of thinking about government. It implies that we can't spend new money, even when solving problems requires new money.

read in full

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.

read in full

Highway and Bridge Repairs Cost Money

Aug 7, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The difference in priorities between Congress and the president became quite stark last week the I-35W bridge collapsed in Minneapolis. Although the president was quick to sign a bill authorizing $250 million in emergency spending to rebuild the bridge, he is far less concerned with the infrastructure in the rest of the nation. And this lack of concern is manifest in the budget fight between him and Congress. On the eve of passage of Transportation-HUD funding bill by House, the president issued a veto threat decrying increased funding for the interstate highway system:

read in full

Approps Update

Aug 7, 2007 by Craig Jennings

With the passage of the FY 2008 Defense spending bill (395-13), the House has cleared its plate of appropriations for the year.

read in full

Congress Approves Fiscally Responsible Expansion of Children's Health Insurance

During the week of July 30, the House and Senate passed different versions of a reauthorization and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that will expand health care coverage to millions of uninsured children across the country. The Senate version would extend coverage to about four million additional children, while the House version would add five million children and root out excess costs in the Medicare Advantage program, which privatizes health insurance but at a higher cost than traditional Medicare coverage.

read in full

Background Brief: House SCHIP Bill Would Reduce Subsidies to Insurance Companies

As part of its measure to expand SCHIP coverage to five million additional children, the House would limit payments to private health care providers under the Medicare Advantage program (MA). Over five years, the plan to limit these payments will offset part of the $50 billion cost of the SCHIP bill. More than just a revenue raiser, the House plan, Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act, would restore equity to Medicare and force private providers that participate in Medicare Advantage to compete with traditional Medicare on a level playing field.

read in full

Senate Committees OK Nussle

On July 31 and Aug. 2, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Budget Committees approved the nomination of former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) to serve as Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, by votes of 16-0 and 22-1, respectively. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a floor vote on the nomination for Sept. 4.

read in full

Senate Passes SCHIP

Aug 3, 2007 by Craig Jennings

By a veto-proof margin (68-31), the Senate passed a $35 billion expansion of SCHIP. Earlier this week, the House passed its version - a $50 billion expansion, partially offset by changes to Medicare. The president has threatened to veto both.

read in full