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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Despite 'Yea' Vote, Price Works to Stop SCHIP Expansion

Oct 11, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) is circulating a letter among her 45 Republican colleagues who voted for SCHIP expansion criticizing Democrats for failing to give into the president's demand that more children go without health insurance. Matthew Yglesias is right on here: Thus Pryce et. al. get to signal to their child-hating paymasters that, despite their [yea] vote, they have big businesses [sic] back and are doing the very most they can within the confines of objective political constraints to make sure that working and middle class families get no help with their health care.

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Congress, President Spar Over Children's Health Insurance

Congress overwhelmingly approved the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization at the end of September, with $35 billion in new funding that would provide health care coverage for about four million more uninsured children. As expected, President Bush vetoed the reauthorization, and the House is scheduled to hold what promises to be a close override vote on Oct. 18.

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Deficits, War and Trade-Offs

Oct 10, 2007 by Matt Lewis

It is done: the deficit for FY2007 was $161 billion. Strangely, the President has yet to proclaim "mission accomplished" for "reducing" it from the inflated estimate he gave in his budget- $244 billion. Perhaps he isn't bragging because he didn't reduce it (or perhaps not).

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Congress Avoids Tough Questions of FY 2008 War Funding

President Bush and Congress continue to deny the fiscal realities of prosecuting two simultaneous wars that cost about $12 billion per month. By classifying the president's FY 2008 $193 billion war funding request an "emergency supplemental" and stifling discussion of war financing, Congress sidesteps the critical task of setting and adequately funding national priorities.

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Death of Environmentali$m

Oct 9, 2007 by Matt Lewis

When Ted Northouse and Michael Schellenberger wrote "Death of Environmentalism," it got people throughout the progressive policy community thinking about what might be wrong with their strategy for pushing policy. They've turned that article into a book that just came out. In it they put forward what they believe to be a politically viable way to solve global warming. TPM Cafe is currently debating it.

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In Support of Bush's SCHIP Veto

Oct 5, 2007 by Dana Chasin

President Bush's veto this week of the bill to provide private health care for five million additional children under SCHIP left even stalwart congressional conservatives such as Republican Sens. Orrin Hatch (UT) and Charles Grassley (IA) "sputtering in incomprehension." So riding to the rescue, providing the president with some points supporting the rational behind his veto comes an LA Times op-ed, The Cult of "For the Children", which seems to channel that great American...

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I'm Not Ready to Play Nice, I'm Not Ready To Back Down

Oct 5, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Democratic leaders are rejecting an SCHIP compromise with President Bush for now.

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Approps Update: Defense and 302(b) Allocation Situation Worked Out

Oct 5, 2007 by Craig Jennings

On Wednesday evening, the Senate passed, by voice vote, the FY 2008 Defense spending bill. Although both House and Senate versions have identical bottom lines, there are differences between the measures regarding funding levels for specific programs. CQ($) informs us that, according to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV), "Conferences have started." Additionally, Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) have worked out a "302(b) allocation situation." It looks like we could see a bill or two move to the president's desk soon. October 5, 2007 House Senate Conf. Cmte. President

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War Tax: It's Inevitable

Oct 4, 2007 by Matt Lewis

In a blog post last week, I wrote that "no politician worth their salt will support a massive progressive tax increase to pay off all the debt generated by the war." We here at OMB Watch believe in holding people accountable, so here goes: I was wrong. Rep. James McGovern (D-MA) has basically done just that, and he is a politician "worth his salt" (full disclosure: he's the co-chair of the board of the Congressional Hunger Center, which runs an amazing fellowship that first got me to Washington). He writes in the Boston Globe today:

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How Many Votes Are Really Needed to Override The President's SCHIP Veto?

Oct 4, 2007 by Craig Jennings

There seems to be some confusion in the press over how many votes will be needed to override President Bush's veto of the SCHIP bill. It's pretty much basic arithmetic. There are 435 members in the House. You need a 2/3rds majority of all voting members to overide a veto. So at most, 290 members will have to vote to override. That's all we know for sure.

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