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...

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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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Update on Long-term Proactive Initiative

We thought you would like to know about an exciting and promising new effort aimed at stimulating the development of a long-term, proactive initiative on federal tax and budget policy.

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Internet Tax Ban Going Nowhere

As reported in the last Watcher, on April 28 the Senate passed a four-year continuation of the now-expired Internet tax moratorium. Disagreements with the House make passage of the ban unlikely.

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A Tax Cut a Week in the House

In spite of the "PayGo" logjam over whether or not tax cuts ought to be offset, which continues to prevent passage of a budget resolution, the House persists with its "a tax cut a week" schedule.

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May 6, 2004 by Guest Blogger

With the support of the American's for a Fair Estate Tax coalition, The Tax Policy Center has recently developed a new, state of the art, micro-simulation model of the estate tax. This new tool will allow the TPC experts to simulate alternate scenarios for the estate tax, including various reform options such as changes to the exemption level, tax rates, and QFOBI changes.

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Deeper into Debt

May 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The new request for military funding will put us another $25 billion in debt - still no revenue solution in sight.

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Tax cuts don't "pay for themselves"

May 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Recently Rep. Jim Nussle, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, argued against applying PayGo to taxes since "tax cuts pay for themselves."

Perhaps he should have had a chat with the Whitehouse's cheif economist...

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Watcher Newsletter May 4, 2004

May 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Watcher - May 3, 2004 Vol.5, No.9 -

Federal Budget

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Senate Votes to Continue Internet Tax Ban

On April 29, under heavy pressure by the telecommunications industry, the Senate voted 93-3 on S. 150 a bill that extends the moratorium on Internet access taxes for four years from its expiration date of November 1, 2003.

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Will There Be a Budget Resolution?

"Paygo" rules, once a little-known budget technicality, are now proving to be the main impediment in reaching a budget resolution for FY 2005, which begins on October 1, 2004.

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