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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War Supp: What's Up with That?

Jun 18, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Hoyer eyeing Thursday for House vote; GI Bill offset included (Updated below) By cancelling approps markups this week, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) has cleared the deck for floor consideration of that chamber's latest revision of the war supplemental spending package. With the exception of additional funds for midwest region's recent flooding disaster (speculation is $2 billion-ish), the House bill is shaping up to look pretty much like the original sent to the Senate oh-so-long ago:

Fulfillment of the remaining war funding request for FY 2008 and part of FY 2009

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Plus Ca Change All Over Again on Extenders

Jun 17, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

McConnell, Kyl, & Grassley Browbeat Biz-Boys The Senate again today defeated a cloture motion (to permit voting) on the bill to extend a raft of popular tax breaks, by a vote of 52-44.

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Senate Extenders Cloture Re-Vote Imminent

Jun 16, 2008 by Dana Chasin

If at First You Don't Succeed... Last week, a bid by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to invoke cloture (to stop debate and allow voting) on the Senate tax break extender bill fell short by ten votes (see background squib). But it appears that the Senate will vote on the cloture motion again later this afternoon.

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The PAYGO Pact of 2008

Jun 12, 2008 by Dana Chasin

How Many Pay-Fors Can Dance on the Head of an Extenders Bill? Call it solomonic, metaphysical, ingenious, or disengenuous, but it appears that a great PAYGO Pact of 2008 is in the offing.

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Flat Tax Advocates Misrepresent (Misunderstand?) Flat Tax

Jun 11, 2008 by Craig Jennings

House Republican leadership are attempting to get their caucus to coalesce around a two-tier flat tax. The flat-tax proposal is expected to resemble a measure (HR 3818) sponsored by Rep. Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, the ranking Republican on the Budget Committee, to allow taxpayers to opt out of the current income tax system and opt into a two-tier flat tax. Sen. McCain, R-Ariz., has said he supports "giving Americans a choice between filing under the current system or using a two-rate flat tax with generous deductions."

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We're Pleased with Pay-Fors in Extender Package

Jun 11, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Corporate Community Copacetic Congressional Quarterly has obtained a preliminary draft of a letter from 300 Americans companies from Apple to Xerox expressing a support for a package extending expiring tax breaks -- paid for by the curtailing of some big-ticket corporate tax cuts. According to the early draft, the companies indicated that the House bill

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CBPP: Tax Extenders Need Comprehensive Review

Jun 10, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has a helpful policy brief out today that runs through all the reasons the upcoming package of tax cuts -- popularly referred to as the "extenders" package -- should be offset. We couldn't agree with CBPP more. In their brief, they make four main points, the last of which is probably the most important:

Congress should pay for the tax extenders, as its budget rules require.
Arguments against applying PAYGO to the extenders bill do not withstand scrutiny..
The offsets in the House-passed bill are reasonable policy.

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The Health Care Entitlement That Must Not Be Named

Jun 3, 2008 by Craig Jennings

In a post over at inclusionist, Shawn Fremstad makes a crucial point about federal health care spending. In fact, the 2nd biggest health care entitlement isn't Medicaid, it's the $200+ billion tax break for employer-sponsored health insurance. The health insurance tax break costs around $30 billion more than Medicaid and, if my recollection is correct, is increasing at a faster rate than either Medicaid or Medicare. It's also, unlike Medicare or Medicaid, a regressive tax subsidy that provides more benefits for the wealthy.

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Five Years of Bush Tax Cuts, Another Five Years Increasing Inequality

May 29, 2008 by Craig Jennings

When the Treasury Department released a stack of propaganda analyses yesterday on the 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts, they also promulgated a press release to accompany their reports. While their message was nothing more than years-old, warmed over talking points, it has provided yet another opportunity to talk about the continual deepening of income inequality in the United States.

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Looking at Taxes in a Hysterical Perspective

May 29, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Yesterday was apparently the fifth anniversary of a momentous occasion in American history. And another day in infamy approaches. On the off-chance that Americans somehow overlooked the fact that noteworthy tax legislation was signed by President Bush on May 28, 2003 -- and this blog stands guilty on that score -- the administration saw fit to mark the moment with a flurry of papers and pronouncements, including: