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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Supplemental Surprise: Senate Boosts Wage Tax Package

Mar 27, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The saga of the supplemental continues, as the Senate rejected an amendment by Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS) this afternoon, by a 48-50 vote, to strip language requiring the U.S. to start withdrawing troops from Iraq within four month, with the goal of removing all troops by March 31, 2008.

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Rangel To Push Privatization Repeal

Mar 27, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Good news on the IRS privatization front- Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Charles Rangel (D-NY) has stated his intention to repeal the IRS privatization program and in the meantime has asked that IRS not issue any more contracts to private debt collectors. Rep. Rangel's interest is most likely in moving forward with H.R. 695, a bill co-sponsored by Reps. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Steve Rothman (D-NJ) with bipartisan support that would end the privatization program once and for all. Again, this is great news, and we hope that Rep. Rangel moves forward on this issue soon.

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Senate Budget Debate: A Glance Back at the Estate Tax

Mar 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

In her recent blog Estate Tax: The Senate Does the Right Thing Rejecting Kyl and Nelson Amendments, Linda Beale, law professor at Wayne State University Law School, expresses gratitude that the Senate did not adopt any of the three estate tax amendments it voted on last week during its budget resolution deliberations. Professor Beale goes on to add:

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What to do about one-sided budget debate?

Mar 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Dean Baker makes an interesting point on how the debate over the long-term budget imbalance is very one-sided. There are many experts who think that the problem really is that the health care system is broken and that the solution is to fix it, but they rarely get public attention.

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Senate Rejects Estate Tax Rollbacks

Mar 23, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Senate has just completed roll-call votes on the following estate tax amendments:

Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE), to allow the Finance Committee to craft deficit-neutral legislation to reform the estate tax by establishing an individual exemption of $5 million and a tax rate of 35 percent for the portion of estates above this amount. Rejected, 25-74.

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CBPP: Tax Cuts Bad For The Economy

Mar 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is arguing that repealing the tax cuts would be good for the economy. Bush & Co. like to claim that the tax cuts are magic, and that failing to extend them will be a disaster for the economy. They're wrong, and it's great that CBPP is pointing this out.

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Grassley Relents; Won't Block Small Bus. Tax Conference

Mar 20, 2007 by Dana Chasin

According to Congressional Quarterly ($), Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA) has dropped his earlier insistence on pre-conferencing the differences between the House ($1.3 billion) and the Senate ($8.3 billion) minimum wage bill small business tax cuts. Grassley and Committee chair Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) apparently plan to offer an amendment to the supplemental appropriations bill on the Senate floor that would pull the Senate-passed wage measure from the supplemental and push it into a conference with the House. (Robert Novak missed this one, by the way.)

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NYT: Medicare Turns Blind Eye To Tax Debt

Mar 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Some 21,000 health professional who participate in Medicare owe more than $1.3 billion in backtaxes, the NYT reports today. All the money would have been recovered if Medicare officials had decided to participate in a program that withholds government payments to contractors who owe backtaxes. The Defense Department and many civilian agencies take part in the program.

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Understanding PAYGO: Questions and Answers

The 110th Congress has brought attention once again to a well-known but little-understood fiscal responsibility mechanism: the pay-as-you-go rule, or PAYGO. The House has already enacted a PAYGO rule. The Senate has introduced a PAYGO bill (S. 10), and is expected to pass its own PAYGO rule in the FY 2008 Budget Resolution, which is now being considered in the Senate.

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Senate Committee Adopts $2.9 Billion Budget Resolution; Floor Action Ahead

On March 15, the Senate Budget Committee approved a $2.9 billion budget resolution for Fiscal Year 2008 on a 12-11 party-line vote. The full Senate is expected to take up the measure on March 20, with 50 hours of debate, votes on numerous amendments, and a final vote scheduled before the end of the week. The House Budget Committee is set to mark up its own budget resolution, with floor action likely the week of March 26. (Click here for links to resolution summary and details.)

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