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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Federal Contractors: The Invisible, Unaccountable Agency

The incredible growth in the amount of money spent by the federal government on contractors, with almost no corresponding increase in oversight or management, was highlighted in a recent New York Times article, "In Washington, Contractors Take on Biggest Role Ever." According to the article, the amount spent on federal contracts has doubled since 2000, from $207 billion to $400 billion. The lack of sufficient government oversight has led to a virtual free reign for contractors, who are not answerable to the public and have not been called to account by the federal government.

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House Passes FY 2007 Spending Resolution that Restores Some Funding

On Jan. 31, the House cleared a $463.5 billion joint resolution that boosts spending or maintains service levels in health, education and housing programs while staying under a tight budget cap. The resolution also makes $10 billion worth of cuts in 60 programs and eliminates earmark language from bills that were drafted but not passed during the last Congress. If the Senate passes the resolution, the new Congress will finish the FY 2007 budget bills, which the last session of Congress failed to do.

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FY08 Budget Encounters GOP Skepticism in Congress

Feb 6, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The President's FY 2008 budget submission to Congress was only hours old yesterday when senior Republicans in both the Senate and House stopped just short of declaring it still-born: Senate Budget Committee ranking member Judd Gregg (R-NH): Unfortunately, I don't think it has got a whole lot of legs... The White House is afraid of taxes and the Democrats are afraid of controlling spending. Rep. Michael Castle (R-DE):

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OMB Watch Release Preliminary Budget Analysis

Feb 5, 2007 by Matt Lewis

OMB Watch has released a preliminary analysis of the President's FY 08 Budget request. President's Budget Full of Cheap Rhetoric; Wrong Priorities President Favors Tax Cuts for the Wealthy over Domestic Needs Check back here for additional analyses and commentary on the budget as the week progresses.

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President's Budget Takes Aim at Nation's Health

Feb 5, 2007 by Craig Jennings

President Bush's 2008 budget, to be released this morning, proposes to eliminate the deficit by 2012 with many spending cuts in various national health and well-being programs.

$101.5 billion in cuts to Medicare and Medicaid over five years
$223 million reduction in spending on the Children's Health Insurance Program, with cuts deep enough over five years to eliminate coverage for half of the children enrolled today
$99 million savings by eliminating a childhood obesity prevention program

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Bush Drops War Bomb: Supplemental ($100 bn.), Budget ($145 bn.) Requests Set for Monday

Feb 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

This afternoon, CNN is reporting that, next Monday, the Bush administration will ask for:

supplemental funding of $100 billion for military and diplomatic operations in Iraq and Afghanistan (bringing total war appropriations for 2007 to about $170 billion) as well as
$145 billion, budgeted for FY2008 and broken down into detailed form (but subject to a supplemental of its own)

according to National Security Adviser Stephen J. Hadley.

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If CBO Can Do It, So Can - and Should - OMB Do It

Feb 2, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Based on the president's recent announcement of his plan to deploy an additional 21,000 troops to Iraq, CBO has released a report detailing the projected costs of such an escalation. CBO Director, Peter Orszag, predicts that the president's plan to increase troop levels could cost as much as $27 billion.

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Bush's FY2008 Budget: Guidelines and Laughlines

Feb 2, 2007 by Dana Chasin

David Broder's column in yesterday's Post, Deficit Day Of Reckoning? dutifully recounts the Democratic congressional leadership's guidelines for fiscal responsibility, sent to President Bush in a Jan. 26 letter. The letters urges that Bush's FY 2008 budget, due next Monday, Feb. 5:

account realistically for projected federal costs
realistically project short- and long-term deficits
provide detail throughout the entire budget period so that the choices required to meet the budget goals are clear

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Detailed Accounting of House-Passed FY2007 CR

Feb 1, 2007 by Dana Chasin

For a breakout of the funding levels in H. J. Res. 20 -- the $463.5 "CRomnibus" spending package passed by the House yesterday -- by Appropriations subcommittee, click here ($, unfortunately). And for a program-by-program accounting of the funding increases/decreases from FY06, enacted, click here ($).

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That Settles It

Feb 1, 2007 by Matt Lewis

President Bush on Congressional war powers, in an interview with an incredulous Wall Street Journal editorial board (emphasis mine): WSJ: There's a lot of discussion in Congress about putting caps on troop levels or defunding or saying you can't deploy, as commander in chief, troops in Baghdad. Do you think Congress has the constitutional authority . . . GWB: I think they have the authority to defund, use their funding power . . . WSJ: You do?

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