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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more news

Time for Miracles?

Nov 6, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

In an op-ed today in the San Fransico Chronicle, Bill Frenzel and Leon Panetta call for a "Budget Summit" to hash out the difficult budget issues:

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A New Direction on Tax Policy?

Nov 2, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Today's Washington Post profiles a House race in Connecticut where the Republican incumbent, Rep. Nancy L. Johnson, is hitching her candidacy to tax cuts. Problem is, nobody seems to care.

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GAO to Investigate Interior's Royalty Program

Nov 2, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Some good news: The Government Accountability Office (GAO) will be investigating the Interior Department's decision to drop claims that Chevron has been cooking the books, as well as the entire program for oil royalty collection. And let's give credit where it's due, as the Republican leader of the House Government Reform Committee, Darrel Issa (R-CA), ordered the investigation.

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Oil Giant Evades Investigation

Oct 31, 2006 by Matt Lewis

The New York Times leads today with a fascinating article about the Interior Department dropping a claim that oil-giant Chevron is underpaying royalties.

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New Everson: We Only Politicize Tax Collection A Little

Oct 30, 2006 by Matt Lewis

About-face! From BNA ($): Political considerations were one of the factors the Internal Revenue Service considered when deciding to delay enforcement actions for Hurricane Katrina victims--but not the main concern, Commissioner Mark Everson said in a news briefing Oct. 27. The upcoming November elections played only a small role in the decision to once again postpone the Oct. 16 deadline for about 1.2 million victims to file their 2005 tax returns, he said.

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The Rule of (Loop)Holes: Stop Digging

Oct 30, 2006 by Dana Chasin

An editorial in this week's Sunday New York Times ("Future Tax Shock") exposes a flagrant absurdity in President Bush's scaring voters about tax increases under a Democratic Congress.

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Banking (on) Policy Changes in the 110th Congress

Oct 27, 2006 by Dana Chasin

Regardless of the outcome of the midterm elections, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) will take over as Senate Banking Committee chair or ranking member, succeeding retiring Sen. Paul Sarbanes (D-MD). Says the National Journal, Dodd has been a champion of the federal government’s terrorism risk insurance program and can be expected to defend it against Bush Administration attacks. He is likely to be a strong voice on behalf of consumer and investor protection and against deceptive lending and credit card marketing practices.

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IRS Commish Losing Mind?

Oct 27, 2006 by Matt Lewis

This is just ridiculous (emph. mine). The commissioner of internal revenue has ordered his agency to delay collecting back taxes from Hurricane Katrina victims until after the Nov. 7 elections and the holiday season, saying he did so in part to avoid negative publicity. The commissioner, Mark W. Everson, who has close ties to the White House, said in an interview that postponing collections until after the midterm elections, along with postponing notices to people who failed to file tax returns, was a routine effort to avoid casting the Internal Revenue Service in a bad light.

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A Robust Lame-Duck: Fair or Fowl?

Oct 26, 2006 by Dana Chasin

Per Congressional Quarterly, the latest speculation from House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) on what to expect in the post-election lame-duck session, the swan song for the 109th Congress: Boehner continues to expect that the lame-duck session will extend well into December. And, while he was unwilling to predict a possible closing date, he nodded positively when asked whether the session could extend until the week before Christmas, as was the case last year.

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Midterm Elections: The Wall Street Perspective

Oct 24, 2006 by Dana Chasin

With the advent of a potential overhaul of Congress at the hands of voters on November 7, we are witnessing some hysterical predictions by a highly-placed Executive Branch official of "an immense tax increase and the economy would sustain a major hit.'' But, as this Bloomberg article published today reports, "Stock-market investors aren't buying it." Why isn't Wall Street in the grip of fear that a Democratic Congress would unilaterally roll back the Bush tax cuts and move aggressively to regulate the economy?

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