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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A Fiscal Policy Review of the 109th Congress

With just a few short post-election, lame-duck weeks left, the 109th Congress will leave behind a legacy of woefully inadequate action on fiscal policy. With a set of fiscal challenges that included the need for comprehensive tax reform, concerns over Social Security insolvency, large and growing deficits, the 109th Congress' list of accomplishments is almost non-existent.

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Citizens for Tax Justice Give Congress, President Failing Marks on Tax Policy

The last six years of fiscal policy under the Bush Administration have been a bad deal for 99 percent of Americans, according to two reports released last week by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). The first of the reports, The Bush Tax Cuts: Is Your State Better Off?, examines who in each state has benefited from Bush's tax policy. To more accurately represent the long-term effects of the tax cuts, the report not only shows the size of the tax breaks received by each income group, but also the disproportionate share of the increased national debt that each group must pay off.

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Treasury Reports Quarter-Trillion Dollar Deficit; President Still Obscures Fiscal Problems

When the Treasury Department closed the books on Fiscal year 2006 on Sept. 30, one number precipitated a furious round of back-slaps and high-fives in the halls of the White House and the Office of Management and Budget - $248 billion. President Bush had no compunction about expressing glee about the nearly quarter-trillion dollar federal budget deficit for FY2006.

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Pelosi Era Tax Law Campaign Funnies

Oct 23, 2006 by Dana Chasin

By contrast, a presentation uncluttered by facts and figures but featuring some surprising camera angles, purporting to depict the likely consequences of tax policy in the Pelosi era, is offered for the amusement of a few and the edification of still fewer. The Taxman Cometh... Playing now at http://www.americaweakly.com/.

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Bush Era Tax Law Facts & Figures

Oct 23, 2006 by Dana Chasin

Today, the non-partisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center released a succinct but comprehensive analysis of Bush-era tax legislation as well as the future of the estate tax and alternative minimum tax. Among the summaries and data presented are progressivity and distribution measures of the major tax bills passed in 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2006. It’s like the Cliff's Notes of tax policy thus far in the 21st century.

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Looking Ahead to the 110th Congress: Pt. 2 (Taxes)

Oct 19, 2006 by Dana Chasin

In a survey of likely tax policy priorities in the 110th Congress in the event of a Democratic takeover, the National Journal (subs. req'd.) examines recent piecemeal statements by as-ifs House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Finance chair Max Baucus (D-MT), and (let’s see how this looks) House Ways and Means Committee chair Charles Rangel (D-NY). Lo and behold, there is no evidence at all supporting the GOP's gleeful and unremitting alarm on the campaign front about 'the Democrats’ grand plan' to raise your taxes. Of course, there seems to be no plan at all.

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Midterm Murmers: "Read Our Lips, No New Tax Cuts" ?

Oct 19, 2006 by Dana Chasin

Our Matt Lewis referred target="_blank">below to a target="_blank">Washington Post article this week speculating about whether Administration tax policy can be credited with lowering the budget deficit. Midstream, that article also offhandedly mentions that “subtleties of that argument have been lost on the campaign trail.” So, what economic issues are voters thinking about? No idle question, 19 days before the midterm elections.

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Broder Moderately Displeased with Fiscal Policy

Oct 19, 2006 by Matthew Madia

David Broder today gives this year's Congress and the Bush Administration bad marks for fiscal policy. His bottom line: the economy isn't growing enough. Still, a chart that is part of the National Journal story gives pause. It compares the economic performance of the first 5 1/2 years of this Bush administration with identical periods under Presidents Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton. Personal income after inflation and taxes rose 22.7 percent under Reagan, 20.4 percent under Clinton and only 14.1 percent under Bush.

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Reporting Deficit

Oct 18, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Washington Post ran a good article on the tax cuts and the deficit yesterday- lots of interesting quotes from credible folks with different opinions. Here's a great quote on the forces driving the lower deficit:

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Congressional Tax Report Card from CTJ

Oct 17, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Citizen's for Tax Justice has recently released a report card reviewing Congress' voting record on tax policy over the last six years. From the CTJ release: [The CTJ] Congressional Tax Report Card looks at the five key tax votes in the House and Senate that have produced major changes to the federal tax system, dramatically affecting tax fairness, revenues and budget deficits, plus one additional vote on an important recent tax bill that Congress narrowly rejected.

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