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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Who Pays What Taxes?

Two new reports highlight just who is paying taxes. One report shows 61 percent of U.S. controlled corporations paid no taxes between 1996 and 2000.

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Comparison of House and Senate Budget Plans

The budget resolution plan passed by the House Budget Committee is far worse than the Senate plan. Nevertheless, the "fiscal discipline" of both plans is based on huge cuts in domestic spending for programs and services that most Americans value in order to extend tax cuts to wealthier Americans.

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Americans For a Fair Estate Tax Statement on the Budget

Mar 10, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Senate is currently debating a 5-year budget plan that accelerates repeal of the estate tax to 2009. Here is the statement from Americans for a Fair Estate Tax on the proposed budget.

Statement on Senate Action on Estate Tax in FY2005 Budget

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Bad Budget Rule Changes Could Still be Proposed

The Senate budget being debated this week includes only a two-year cap on appropriations, and continues Senate pay-go rules that apply to both entitlement increases and tax cuts. However, concern over other changes in budget rules remains.

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No Budget is Better than the Senate Budget

The budget resolution approved last week by the Senate Budget Committee has nothing good to recommend it. It will hand more tax breaks to the extremely wealthy while slashing assistance to low-income working families and children. Funds for education, housing, the environment and a host of other services that benefit ordinary Americans will also be cut. Ironically, in spite of all these cuts, the committee?s resolution will increase -- not reduce -- the deficit.

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Senate's Budget

Mar 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The Senate Budget Committee has reported out a budget which includes includes $80.6 billion in tax cuts which would have reconciliation protection. Of this, around 3 billion is for repeal of the estate tax in 2009. The low cost figure is likely due to the fact that most of the revenue effects would take place outside of the 5 year budget window in 2010. The remaining $77 billion is used for the 3 "middle class" tax cuts - child credit, 10% bracket, and marriage penalty.

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Cost of Estate Tax Repeal

Mar 3, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Acording to the Joint Committee on Taxation, making permanent an estate tax repeal would cost $206 billion over the next ten years.

See x-14-04r.pdf (application/pdf Object)

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Upper-Income Tax cuts and jobs

Feb 24, 2004 by Guest Blogger

President Bush is arguing that reducing the top marginal rate would "fuel" job growth.

The problem with using the top marginal tax rate as a tool to cut taxes on "small" businesses is that 1) it misses most small businesses - less than 4% of businesses make enough to be taxed at the top individual rate, and 2) it reduces taxes on upper income individuals regardless of the source income - thus it does not target businesses efficiently.

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Watcher Articles 2/24/04

Feb 24, 2004 by Guest Blogger

New articles from the Watcher newsletter:

OMB Watch - The Watcher - February 23, 2004 Vol.5, No. 4 -

Federal Budget

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Budget Battles Loom

As the 2005 budget resolutions process gets on its way, spending for domestic programs could actually come out lower than the already grim projections set by President Bush’s budget proposal. Given that it is an election year both the president and Congress’ use of "spin" and shenanigans to mislead the American public will proceed. A big election year issue is budget deficits and the skyrocketing national debt – peaking now at $7 trillion.

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