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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Debt Ceiling

Jun 23, 2004 by Guest Blogger

It appears that Congress is attempting to sneak in a debt ceiling increase into the defense authorization bill.

Currently, we are expected to hit the legal debt limit sometime before the election. However, in an effort to avoid a potentially embarassing stand-alone vote on the increase, it looks like they will try to slip the debt increase under the cover of another bill.

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Estate Tax - Consequences of Reform Options

Jun 17, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Tax Policy Center has recently created an extremely sophisticated microsimulation model of the estate tax. A recent presentation to American's for a Fair Estate Tax highlights some of the important implications of various reform options.

A longer analysis will be produced by the Tax Policy Center in the Near Future, but the presentation gives some preliminary results.

A Model of the Estate Tax, by Len Burman, Bill Gale, and Jeff Rohaly (.ppt)

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No Budget - But Appropriations Are Moving Forward

In spite of the lack of a budget resolution, Congress is moving forward with the appropriations process.

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Beware of Bad Economic Policy - The Balanced Budget Amendment Set to Return

The long-ago defeated proposal for a balanced budget amendment is rearing its ugly head once again. Unable to pass a budget this year and desperate to create the appearance of being fiscally responsible, the Republican leaders in the House of Representatives are promising a vote on the measure.

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Budget Resolution Update

As of June 1, there is still no budget resolution, even as the appropriations process is scheduled to begin.

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Economy and Jobs Watch: Major Cuts to Domestic Services are on the Horizon

The White House's Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has instructed government agencies to plan for cuts to a wide range of domestic programs. In a memo dated May 19, 2004, (download pdf), the White House told agencies to prepare their budgets for fiscal year (FY) 2006 consistent with the FY 2005 budget proposal -- specifically, to "[a]ssume accounts are funded at the 2006 level specified in the 2005 Budget database." The database refers to the

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