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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Tough Negotiations Ahead for Tax Bill

House and Senate leadership have appointed conferees for long-awaited negotiations on the 2005 tax reconciliation bill. The conference, which will convene following the President's Day recess during the week of Feb. 27, will address differences between the versions of the bill passed by the House and Senate. An important issue of contention is the extension in the House version of tax cuts on capital gains and dividends, a move that would not only prove extremely costly but also disproportionately benefit the wealthiest Americans.

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Tax Cuts Do Not Add to the Treasury

Feb 22, 2006 by Guest Blogger

The other day Vice President Cheney said before a group of conservatives: "The evidence is in, it's time for everyone to admit that sensible tax cuts increase economic growth, and add to the federal treasury."

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House Conferees for Tax Reconciliation Bill

Feb 21, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Five conferees have been picked from the House for negotiations over the tax reconciliation bill. They are Reps. Dave Camp (R-MI), Pete Stark (D-CA), and Jim McCrery (R-LA), Ways and Means Committee ranking member Charles Rangel (D-NY), and Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas (R-CA). The House has five conferees to the Senate's three, which could potentially give House members a leg up in these negotiations.

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Budget Gimmicks in Bush's FY07 Proposal

Feb 19, 2006 by Guest Blogger

President Bush's FY 2007 budget includes two proposals that mask the true cost of extending the 2001 and 2003 tax cuts, which Bush claims to be one of his najor goals in 2006. As this Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report states,

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Tax Negotiations Expected After President's Day

Feb 15, 2006 by Guest Blogger

The Senate has appointed three conferees to the tax cut negotiations. They are Sens. Charles Grassley (R-IA), Max Baucus (D-MT), and Jon Kyl (R-AZ). The appointment of Kyl, who is an advocate of extending the investment tax cuts, is a sign that the leadership in the Senate supports this as well. Grassley said on Tuesday that the bill will not pass the Senate unless it includes both the alternative minimum tax protection as well as an extension of low rates for capital gains and dividends.

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Senate Gets Tied Up on the Tax Bill

Feb 14, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Today on the hill Senate Democrats tied up legislative business by lining up a series of votes on the tax reconcilation bill that caused other Senate business to be postponed or canceled. According to CNN.com, "The battle began when Democrats decided to use a routine procedure that sends the bill into final negotiations to make political points about President Bush's insistence on continuing tax cuts for investors." Republicans then countered these actions by matching the Democrats' motions one-for-one.

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Economic Report of the President Released

Feb 14, 2006 by Guest Blogger

February 13 President Bush issued his 2006 Economic Report to Congress. The eleven chapters cover many issue areas including the workforce, retirement savings, the U.S. tax system, and the financial services sector. The chapter on taxation discussed the U.S. tax system's high corporate tax rate and double taxation of corporate profits. This attention reflects the Bush administration's dedication to extending low investment tax rates.

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Frist Comments on Estate Tax Timeline

Feb 13, 2006 by Guest Blogger

In a speech on February 10 before the Conservative Political Action Conference, Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) says he plans to bring estate tax repeal legislation to the floor in May. The Senate had a cloture vote scheduled on the House bill last September, but it was postponed after Hurricane Katrina hit. Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have expressed skepticism in the past that a vote on full repeal would be able to garner the 60 votes necessary to pass.

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The Real Problem With The 2007 Budget

Feb 10, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Much has been made of the secret computer run published in the Washington Post yesterday that shows detailed and substantial program cuts over the next five years and the contrast between proposed increases for defense and military spending and cuts to pretty much every other domestic investment (read here, here, here, and here).

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Educated Opinions on the Budget

Feb 8, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Recently there have been some interesting op-eds on budget business in the Washington Post. Former CBO head Douglas Holtz-Eakin submitted an op-ed February 5 in which he discussed how increasingly booming entitlement programs need a "fundamental rethinking" that will dictate both the size of government as well as levels of taxation. E.J. Dionne, Jr. discusses in a February 7 column how "tax cutting is now the idol of the Republican shrine," and points out that sane budgeting will never happen unless deficit hawks work to turn popular opinion against this worship of tax cutting.

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