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

OMB Watch Pans Deficit Commission Plan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2010—OMB Watch today panned the plan proposed by the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to reshape the nation’s fiscal priorities. While the plan contains some praiseworthy provisions targeted at the tax code and the federal budget process, overall, it represents an unfortunate step backward in meeting the needs of the nation’s working families.

read in full

Check Sky for Pigs, Senate Passes Food Safety Bill

Nov 30, 2010 by Matthew Madia

After a long and frustrating journey, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act cleared the Senate today in a bipartisan 73-25 vote.

read in full

Commentary: Earmark Ban's Potential Impacts Unclear

Earmarks took center stage during the week of Nov. 15 when congressional Republicans pledged to "ban" the controversial appropriations tool in a bid to answer the supposed call of midterm voters to reform Washington. Long used by members of Congress to guide federal spending toward certain projects, earmarks can be seen by the public as a form of corruption. While proponents of the ban argue that eliminating earmarks is good for both transparency and the budget, critics of the ban argue this is not necessarily the case.

read in full

Millions Face Loss of Unemployment Insurance

On Nov. 18, the House failed to pass a three-month extension of unemployment insurance (UI), putting the benefits of nearly 2 million Americans in jeopardy. With funds for federal benefits set to expire Nov. 30, the failure to enact an extension sets up a post-Thanksgiving battle between UI extension advocates and deficit hawks. Complicating matters, the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts will likely encroach upon the UI benefits extension dispute, increasing the likelihood that many citizens will be cut off from help as the holiday season begins.

read in full

Lew Confirmed as OMB Director as Landrieu Releases Hold

Nov 19, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

Last night Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) released her hold on Jack Lew's nomination to head the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), allowing his nomination to come to the floor of the Senate for a vote. Landrieu first placed the hold almost two months ago, in an effort to force the Obama administration to end its deepwater drilling moratorium. However, after the administration gave in to her demands and ended the moratorium, Landrieu then said her hold was actually because the administration was not approving enough drilling permits in general. Lew's nomination has been in limbo ever since.

read in full

Fiscal Commission Releases Draft Proposal, World Flips Out

Nov 11, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

Remember that Fiscal Commission (officially the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform) President Obama created back in February, which he tasked with balancing the budget by 2015? Turns out solving the nation’s fiscal crisis isn’t quite as easy as it sounds. Yesterday, the Commission’s two co-chairs released a proposal of sorts, a draft of a plan that would bring down the deficit to 2 percent of GDP by 2014, and lower the national debt to 34 percent of GDP by 2040. The co-chairs trumpeted those figures, but the plan was greeted by almost universal ire, since it attacks sacred cows on both the left and the right. Anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist threatened that Republicans who supported the proposal would be breaking their “no tax” pledge. Richard Trumka, head of the AFL-CIO, said the plan “tells working Americans to ‘Drop Dead.’”

read in full

In Lame-Duck Session, Emboldened Republicans Face Tough Fiscal Choices

While the 2010 midterm elections swept in a significant Republican majority in the House and a larger Republican minority in the Senate, Congress will face a great deal of important fiscal legislation that it must address before the newly elected members begin their terms in 2011. With annual appropriations bills and the expiration of the Bush tax cuts pending in the upcoming lame-duck session, the focus will be on the Republican minority in the Senate and whether it decides to block key legislation or work with Democrats to address unfinished business.

read in full

What the American People Want

Nov 3, 2010 by Craig Jennings

After securing a Republican majority in the House of Representatives, the top two House Republicans -- Speaker of the House-to-be John Boehner (R-OH) and Marjority Leader-to-be Eric Cantor (R-VA) -- offered their governing philosophy: Listen to the American people.

read in full

CRS: Permanently Extending Bush Tax Cuts to Cost $5 Trillion

Nov 1, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

In a report released last week, the Congressional Research Service (CRS) revised the total cost of permanently extending all of the Bush tax cuts to $5.048 trillion over the next ten years. The revised amount, which is significantly higher than the $2.8 trillion figure CRS reported in September, takes into account the cost of servicing the debt due to lost revenue and indexing the alternative minimum tax (AMT) to inflation.*

read in full

News Organization Bemoans Public's Lack of Knowledge on Issue It Rarely Mentioned

Oct 22, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

"What if a president cut Americans' income taxes by $116 billion and nobody noticed?" That's the lede on a recent New York Times article, one talking about a tax cut called Making Work Pay (MWP). President Obama's staff was instrumental in crafting and passing the MWP, which was part of the Recovery Act. The tax cut is stealthy, in that its design spreads the benefits out in small amounts, in each paycheck, as opposed to a single, larger payout at tax time. It was so stealthy that, as the Times article notes, few people know that Obama signed into law a tax cut affecting 95 percent of taxpayers. In fact, the MWP was so stealthy the Times barely mentioned it until this week. So why is the Times surprised no one knows about the tax cut?