New Posts

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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House Foreclosure Legislation Meets GOP Ambiguity

Despite a worsening housing crisis across the country, Congress continues to move slowly to enact legislation intended to ease the burden for homeowners. On May 8, the House adopted comprehensive legislation (H.R. 3221) that would seek to reduce foreclosures in the face of an administration veto threat issued just days before. But Senate negotiations between the chair and ranking member of the Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs Committee have gone on for weeks, with no deal in sight. Most members' eagerness to pass a bill to address the crisis before Memorial Day has thus far been thwarted by key GOP leaders in Congress and some in the Bush administration.

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Gas Tax Holiday Would Yield Little for Consumers

Increasing gasoline prices have spurred federal lawmakers to propose policies designed to help consumers at the pump. One such proposal that has garnered considerable attention is a "gas tax holiday." Unfortunately, this proposal would do little for consumers because it would be unlikely to lower the price of gas.

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Gas Tax Laugh Tracks

The gas tax holiday proposed by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Hillary Clinton (D-NY) has been universally panned by experts, economists and elitists of all political stripes. Now comes a novel objection from perhaps the most famous of all pundits, certainly one with a bigger media footprint than all the others who have opined to date. "The gas tax holiday? It doesn't go far enough!" grouses Stephen Colbert. His argument is neatly laid out in a presentation made to "nation," in Stephen Colbert's Gas Tax Holiday.

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Fed Chief's Opinions on Foreclosure Remedies Differ from Frank Bill Oponents

Congressional opposition to the Frank housing bill is coalescing around apparently dubious propositions ($). [Antonia Ferrier, spokeswoman for House Minority Whip Roy Blunt (R-MO)] also took aim at the [Rep. Barney] Frank proposal. "This bill perversely rewards those who borrowed more than they could afford — their monthly mortgage payments get reduced with the government footing the bill. How is that fair to the millions of Americans who worked hard and paid their mortgages on time? And who ends up holding the bag if all goes south? No surprise, the American taxpayer."

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PSA: Gas Tax Scam Making Its Way Through the Internet

If you find an email that looks like this in your inbox, delete it! It is a scam. We are top officials of the United States Senate Government who are interested in importation of oil into our country with funds that are presently trapped in the FEDERAL TRANSPORTATION TRUST FUND dedicated to improving transportation. We wish to send this money to overseas accounts in the MIDDLE EAST but cannot due to restrictions in Congress Transportation Equity Act requiring that this money must be spent to build roads, bridges and high speed trains.

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Expert Support For Gas Tax Holiday "Nonexistent"

Early Reviews Give the Idea a Handful of Thumbs-Down As a follow-up to the comments of Messrs. Mankiw and Berman regarding the notion of suspending the federal gas tax during the summer months, we submit for your consideration the substantiation offered by Sam Stein, Political Reporter at the Huffington Post, for the proposition that Expert Support For Gas Tax Holiday Appears Nonexistent, to wit:
  • Tom Friedman of the Times: "so ridiculous...it takes your breath away"

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Lack of Action in Congress on Pivotal Fiscal Policy Issues

Congress continues to wrestle with a number of high-profile budget and financial bills that will have broad impact on citizens throughout the United States and around the world, including legislation on war funding, economic stimulus, housing, and the last budget of the Bush presidency. Despite significant congressional rhetoric and media coverage of these efforts, Congress has made little real progress on reaching compromise or instituting policies.

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Recessions Are Local

The BEA will release 1st quarter GDP figures tomorrow, and the BLS will release employment data on Friday. To be sure, these will be carefully-watched figures as the nation holds its breath waiting to see if we're moving closer to the R-word. But these are national data, and it becomes easy to overlook the fact that some areas within the nation are currently in throes of economic turmoil. This morning's release of metropolitan employment data reminds us that, regardless of what happens in aggregate, many Americans are already living a recession.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 27, 2008

Stimulus 1.0 -- First Checks Going Out Today: The first of 130 million tax "rebate" checks provided under the first stimulus package signed in February will be going out today, earlier than previously announced. The rebates - up to $600 for an individual, $1,200 for a couple and an additional $300 for each dependent child are the biggest part of $168 billion stimulus. Story.

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Wesley Snipes Gets Three Years for Tax Evasion

On Friday, actor Wesley Snipes was sentenced to three years in prison for failing to pay federal income taxes for close to ten years. Snipes could have been sentenced to up to 16 years if he had been convicted of all charges, but he was not convicted of tax fraud and conspiracy back in February. He owes close to $20 million according to the IRS. Snipes maintains he was dupped, but the judge thought otherwise:

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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