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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First Jackson, Now Lurita Doan Falls

Apr 30, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

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Reported Details of War Supplemental Procedures

Apr 29, 2008 by Craig Jennings

CQ is reporting that House Democratic leadership is going to move a war supplemental spending bill to the House floor next week. A Democratic aide says that the current strategy is to offer three votes: one war spending, one on domestic spending, and one on war policy. In the Senate, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) is setting the state for floor action immediately following House passage.

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Lack of Action in Congress on Pivotal Fiscal Policy Issues

Congress continues to wrestle with a number of high-profile budget and financial bills that will have broad impact on citizens throughout the United States and around the world, including legislation on war funding, economic stimulus, housing, and the last budget of the Bush presidency. Despite significant congressional rhetoric and media coverage of these efforts, Congress has made little real progress on reaching compromise or instituting policies.

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Recessions Are Local

Apr 29, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The BEA will release 1st quarter GDP figures tomorrow, and the BLS will release employment data on Friday. To be sure, these will be carefully-watched figures as the nation holds its breath waiting to see if we're moving closer to the R-word. But these are national data, and it becomes easy to overlook the fact that some areas within the nation are currently in throes of economic turmoil. This morning's release of metropolitan employment data reminds us that, regardless of what happens in aggregate, many Americans are already living a recession.

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Contract Reform Takes Center Stage in House

A group of reform bills that would bring accountability and transparency to the federal contracting process has been approved by the House in the last few months, potentially setting the stage for federal contracting reform to be a major area of legislative action in the remaining months of the 110th Congress.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 29, 2008

Apr 29, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Unemployment -- Job Loss Strain on Gov't Health Programs: A Kaiser Family Foundation study released yesterday indicates that each percentage-point rise in unemployment during the economic downturn would swell the uninsured by 1.1 million, the New York Times reports. Such an increased in the number of uninsured would require an additional $3.4 billion in spending for Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, with $1.4 billion of it from the states. Story.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 27, 2008

Apr 28, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Stimulus 1.0 -- First Checks Going Out Today: The first of 130 million tax "rebate" checks provided under the first stimulus package signed in February will be going out today, earlier than previously announced. The rebates - up to $600 for an individual, $1,200 for a couple and an additional $300 for each dependent child are the biggest part of $168 billion stimulus. Story.

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Fiscal Policy Final Exam

Apr 25, 2008 by Dana Chasin

OK, folks, it's finals time. Two-part question. The following statement was propounded by former CBO Director Douglas Holtz-Eakin on a recent conference call in his capacity as economic adviser to one of the three presidential candidates.

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Federal Decisions Impact State Budgets

Apr 25, 2008 by Craig Jennings

There were a slew of articles today from around the country about the impact of federal budget cuts on local communities, particularly for local education programs (see below). These articles detail the impact of cuts on a wide variety of programs and constituencies, from summer school to youth vocational education, from a rape crisis hotline to arts and music classes, from school counseling to early-reading instruction.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 25, 2008

Apr 25, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- Home Sales, Values Plunge: A key cause of the economic slowdown worsened last month as the Departments of Commerce and Housing and Urban Development reported yesterday that home sales fell to their lowest levels in over 16 years. Home sales have dropped 36.6 percent in the last twelve months. Home prices are down 11.3 percent during the same period. Among the fiscal impacts of the housing sector contraction: state coffers suffer as property tax revenues shrink along with values and foreclosures reduce the net number of homeowners. Sad Stats.

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