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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Bush Administration Contradicts Itself on Tax Cuts

A 2006 Bush Treasury Department report debunks many of the recent claims that the President's supporters have made about tax cuts.

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Summary: Rangel-McCreary $1.3 Billion Tax Package

Feb 12, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

As of this writing, the House Ways and Means Committee is marking up a $1.3 billion tax package proposal co-sponsored by Committee chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) and ranking member Jim McCrery (R-LA). The package, H.R. 976 (the Small Business Tax Relief Act Of 2007), would accompany the House minimum wage bill when it is conferenced with the Senate bill, which combines a minimum wage hike and an $8.3 billion tax package. H.R. 976 is expected to clear the Committee today and the full House when it comes up for a vote, perhaps as early as this Wednesday.

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Dionne on President's Budget

Feb 9, 2007 by Matt Lewis

EJ Dionne's column on budget trade-offs and priorities is a good read. This president will defend tax cuts by any means necessary. It was one of those moments when a public official gives away a larger truth by offering what seems to be a throwaway line. Testifying this week on President Bush's budget, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. suggested he would not mind a bit if the Democratic Congress added money to prevent cutbacks in coverage under the federal government's children's health insurance program.

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Rangel, McCreary Crafting Min. Wage Tax Package

Feb 8, 2007 by Dana Chasin

As reported here yesterday, House Ways and Means chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) has agreed to offer a tax package counter-proposal to the Senate's $8.3 billion, ten-year package, approved last week as part of S. 2, the Senate minimum wage bill. Rangel is collaborating with Committee ranking member James McCreary (R-LA) to craft a package that will clear the Committee and the House quickly. Reports are that they will put a $1-1.5 billion proposal before the Committee for mark-up on Monday, but the elements of the package are still under discussion.

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Update: Monday Mark-Up for $1 B Rangel Tax Bill

Feb 7, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

This just in, per today's CongressDaily ($): House Ways and Means Chairman Rangel said this afternoon he would move to break the House-Senate stalemate over minimum wage legislation by marking up a small business tax bill next Monday [which] he expects it to be "in the vicinity of $1 billion." It will also include about $1 billion in offsets to make it revenue neutral. Rangel insisted for weeks on passage of a "clean" minimum wage bill -- one containing no tax breaks. Today, Rangel insisted that he will not let his arm be twisted in conference negotiations over the size of the tax package.

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Rangel to Offer Minimum Wage Bill Tax Compromise; Weighing Offsets, Objectives, and Opportunity Costs

Feb 7, 2007 by Dana Chasin

House Ways and Means Committee chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) has dropped subtle hints before, as we have noted, that he would consider a compromise on the $8.3 billion tax cut package the Senate attached to the minimum wage bill it passed last week. But speaking to reporters yesterday, Rangel now says he is "prepared to send something over there for [the Senate] to be able to attach a tax package" for the sake of getting the bill to the President's desk.

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More Wishful Thinking in the President's FY 08 Budget

Feb 7, 2007 by Dana Chasin

We have showcased a number of omissions, deceptions, and exaggerations this week within the president's FY 08 budget proposal, but another fine point was uncovered this week as well that missed our notice. It concerns assumptions for how much revenues will grow over the next five years.

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Ruth Marcus: Bush To Raise Taxes So He Can Claim He Won't Raise Taxes

Feb 7, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

In the Washington Post today, Ruth Marcus recognizes that Bush is relying on a tax increase via the AMT to claim that he can balance the budget without raising taxes. Looked at another way, what the Bush tax cuts give to taxpayers, the AMT grabs back. By 2012, if it isn't changed, the AMT would take back almost one-third of the Bush tax cuts...it would take back more than half of the tax cut for people making between $100,000 and $200,000.

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Senate Passes Minimum Wage Increase with Tax Cuts Added

On Feb. 1, the U.S. Senate wrapped up nearly two weeks of debate with a 94-3 vote to approve S. 2, the Fair Minimum Wage Act of 2007. The bill raises the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour by 2009 and extends $8.3 billion of existing small business tax breaks. The fate of the bill remains uncertain because House Democrats are reluctant to provide tax breaks for small business in exchange for passing a minimum wage hike.

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President's Budget Fails to Resolve Tax Gap

The president's legislative and budget proposals for tax enforcement will mostly serve to maintain the status quo and will not make a meaningful reduction in the $300 billion-plus tax gap.

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