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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Amendments Bring Policy Debates to the Budget Resolution

On April 22, the Senate Budget Committee approved its Fiscal Year 2011 budget resolution, moving the chamber one step closer to setting spending limits for the coming appropriations process. The resolution provoked controversy, as it would cut spending levels below those in President Obama's budget request, which itself mandated a significant spending freeze on discretionary spending outside of defense and homeland security. The measure also frequently attracts contentious, policy-related amendments, and the current resolution is no exception.

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Treasury Begins to Sell Citigroup Stock

Apr 27, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

As discussed in a recent Watcher article, Treasury is starting to divest itself of Citigroup assets. The news came out on Monday, with Citi's stock price at $4.86, but at the close on Tuesday, the price had plunged to below $4.40 a share.

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Senate Budget Committee Passes Budget Resolution With Larger Spending Cuts

Apr 23, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

On Thursday, the Senate Budget Committee passed the FY2011 budget resolution on a 12-10 vote. As predicted, the resolution calls for $4 billion in discretionary spending cuts, on top of President Obama's budget, which already proposed a non-security discretionary spending freeze for the next few fiscal years. The Committee's budget resolution would reduce the deficit to $575 billion in 2015, down from its current level of $1.4 trillion. Since OMB Watch already came out against the President's budget proposal as fiscally irresponsible, it's disappointing that the Budget Committee felt it necessary to outdo the President in spending cuts at a time when unemployment is still in the double-digits.

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Senate Budget Resolution to Call for Freezing All Non-Security Discretionary Spending

Apr 21, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

Budget Committee Chairman Sen. Kent Conrad (D-SD), who released his mark for the Senate's budget resolution yesterday, is calling for $671 billion more in deficit reduction over the next five years compared to the president's budget proposal. Conrad achieves his reduction by jettisoning the president's selected discretionary caps and placing a freeze on all non-security discretionary spending over the next three fiscal years.

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Commentary: The Rocky Path toward a Budget Resolution

Regardless of which party is in power, springtime in the nation's capital always means one thing: budget debates. After the president submits his budget proposal in February, Congress has until April 15 to pass a budget resolution, a non-binding plan for the spending and revenue levels that congressional appropriations committees are to follow when creating the spending bills for the coming fiscal year. However, in election years, members of Congress are reluctant to go on record as increasing the federal budget deficit, especially since budget resolutions are not absolutely necessary to fund the federal government.

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The Economy is not the People

Apr 19, 2010 by Craig Jennings

In a post questioning the feasibility of "pay[ing] off our debt" by only raising taxes on those earning more that $250,000, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget (CRFB) tragically confuses "the economy" with "people." The answer to their query, by the way, "can Only Taxing Income Over $250,000 Pay Off Our Debt?" turns out to be "yes, yes we can pay off our debt."

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'Tax Freedom Day' is a Hoax

Apr 15, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

A recent report from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) attempts to clear up some confusion about the average American's tax burden propagated by the Tax Foundation, a center-right tax policy joint.

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OMB Watch Releases Fourth Quarter Recovery Act Data

Apr 15, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

Over on Fedspending.org, our government spending database, we just updated our Recovery Act tab to include the fourth quarter 2009 recipient reports. Users can now search through reports from February through December 2009, and can sort, sift and download it to their hearts' content. And be sure to check out some of our pre-cooked searches, including congressional districts ranked by Recovery Act spending and a list of the top 100 prime recipients.

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Obama Calls for Review of Mine Safety Policy

Apr 15, 2010 by Matthew Madia

In reaction to the West Virginia explosion that left 29 miners dead, President Obama called today for reform of mine safety laws and regulations and better enforcement of those regulations by the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA). His remarks are available on the White House website.

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CEA: No, Seriously, the Recovery Act is Working

Apr 15, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

I feel sorry for the economists over at the White House's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA). Every quarter, they run the numbers and find that the Recovery Act is significantly helping the economy. Last quarter, the CEA found that the Act increased GDP between 1½ and 3 percentage points and created between 1½ to 2 million jobs. This time around they found that it created between 2.2 and 2.8 million jobs and raised first quarter GDP between 2.5 and 2.9 percent. In other words, the Recovery Act is pretty consistently helping the economy improve, and in fact its effects may be growing. But no one listens to them! It must be a frustrating job.