Federal Tax 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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News Organization Bemoans Public's Lack of Knowledge on Issue It Rarely Mentioned

Oct 22, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

"What if a president cut Americans' income taxes by $116 billion and nobody noticed?" That's the lede on a recent New York Times article, one talking about a tax cut called Making Work Pay (MWP). President Obama's staff was instrumental in crafting and passing the MWP, which was part of the Recovery Act. The tax cut is stealthy, in that its design spreads the benefits out in small amounts, in each paycheck, as opposed to a single, larger payout at tax time. It was so stealthy that, as the Times article notes, few people know that Obama signed into law a tax cut affecting 95 percent of taxpayers. In fact, the MWP was so stealthy the Times barely mentioned it until this week. So why is the Times surprised no one knows about the tax cut?

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Has the Estate Tax Become an Issue on the Campaign Trail?

Oct 19, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

According to a recent Wall Street Journal article (subscription), it has. Despite not hearing much about the estate tax in debates or town hall meetings this fall, it seems the American Family Business Institute, deemed an "advocacy group" in the Journal piece, is circulating a pledge among congressional candidates calling for elimination of the tax. This seems to be enough for the Rupert Murdoch-owned daily banking pamphlet to announce that the estate tax is a midterm election issue.

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No Taxation without Information

The idea of providing taxpayers with an itemized receipt for their income taxes was recently proposed by Third Way, a center-left think tank. The proposal, which is not entirely new, has attracted considerable commentary. However, there are significant challenges to creating a simple and engaging taxpayer receipt that would provide meaningful transparency for federal spending.

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Modernization at IRS Could Help Reduce Tax Gap and Shrink Deficit

The estimated $345 billion in revenue that goes uncollected every year is a tempting target for deficit crusaders. However, closing the so-called tax gap is not a cure-all, and attempting to address the problem could create other tax compliance issues. Despite such potential complications, a new report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) has found that recent modernizations to the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) computer systems show promise in helping to close the tax gap while avoiding some of the problems that may arise from aggressive tax collection.

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Fiscal Commission to Produce Sensible Solutions to Debt/Deficit Dilemma Soon

Sep 30, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

Rainbows and Unicorns to Appear Shortly After

No, I'm just kidding. In fact, according to a Congressional Quarterly (subscription) article published yesterday, it looks like expected Republican congressional electoral gains this fall may completely gridlock what are already complicated negotiations within the commission over addressing our nation's problematic mid- to long-term fiscal issues.

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GOP 'Pledge' Is Simply a Way of Shutting Down a Large Part of Government

Sep 23, 2010 by Gary Bass*

As Yogi Berra's redundant saying goes, "It's déjà vu all over again." Back in 1994, congressional Republicans unveiled what they called the "Contract with America." The Contract was chock-full of policy proposals intended to shrink the size of government, kneecap agencies' ability to protect the public, and decrease the burden on taxpayers, especially the rich.

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News Media Badly Misreport Orszag

Sep 9, 2010 by Craig Jennings

Former White House budget director Peter Orszag's debut New York Times column has drawn a lot of attention because of its reference to the acceptability of temporarily extending the upper-income '01-'03 tax cuts.

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The Real Significance of Orszag's Column

Sep 7, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

Peter Orszag's first opinion piece in the New York Times has certainly made a splash, hasn't it? Media outlets are hyping that the former head of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has come out in defiance of the White House to argue that Congress should extend all the Bush Tax Cuts. Take a closer look at Orszag's column, though, and one will recognize this meme as a silly controversy distracting from the real issue raised in the piece.

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On That Terrible, Nebulous Economic Environment That's Forestalling Hiring

Sep 2, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

A few months ago, a cacophony of conservative voices began complaining about a hazy cloud of uncertainty looming on the economic horizon. Concerns over the Affordable Care Act, new regulations, and the possibility of new taxes, they claimed, explained continued high unemployment and a lagging recovery. Economist Dean Baker flags the latest example of this garbage meme in a Wall Street Journal article on the Obama administration's deliberations over new economic stimulus measures, and points out for the umpteenth time why it's wrong.

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Tax Cuts for the Rich will Make Rich People Richer

Aug 16, 2010 by Craig Jennings

Letting the '01-'03 tax cuts for upper-income households expire may or may not adversely affect job creation*, but at the end of the day, it's important to keep in mind that these tax cuts for the rich are just another means to transfer large piles of cash to people who already make boatloads of it.

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