Revenue & Spending

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

President Bush: Veto Rhetoric vs. Fiscal Reality

Although Congress has not yet begun to consider any of the appropriations bills that will finance the federal government in FY 2009, the White House threatened to veto Democratic spending bills — even before any details were unveiled. With the flurry of veto threats late in his presidency, President Bush appears to be attempting to erase seven-plus years of reckless fiscal management of the federal government with token gestures that feign fiscal responsibility. Despite these recent actions, budget watchdogs say the Bush legacy on fiscal policy will be one of irresponsibility, inattention to detail, and futility.

read in full

Hi (Economist) Mom!

May 28, 2008 by Craig Jennings

I just wanted to alert readers of a new blog we've been reading: EconomistMom - "where analytical rigor meets a mother's intuition." Authored by economist and mom Diane Lim Rogers of the Concord Coalition, the blog's "particular focus [is] on the economics of fiscal responsibility," but Rogers also writes about broader issues. She's been on a roll lately, explaining the trap of the "largest tax increase in history" rhetoric, expressing frustration about the 'extenders' tax cuts, and righteously high-fiving Steven Pearlstein for his column that connects the dots of the various

read in full

DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- May 28, 2008

May 28, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- Consumer Confidence Drops to 16-Year Low: The Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index, based on a representative sample of 5,000 U.S. households, fell to its lowest level since October 1992.

read in full

House Relentless in Pursuing Contracting Reforms

In the last several weeks, the House has continued its efforts to address federal contracting reform. With bills stalling in the Senate, the House has begun to attach various reform provisions to legislative vehicles that are more likely to be enacted into law this year. Marrying these proposals to the war supplemental bill and the Defense Authorization bill, for example, greatly increases the chances these important reforms will be implemented in 2008.

read in full

War Supplemental Bill Awaits Final House Approval

When Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess, the House will take up the Senate's $250 billion supplemental war spending proposal. After the Senate added on $165 billion for war funding to the House's bill (which contained no money for the wars), it also tacked on some $10 billion in additional non-defense discretionary spending above the House's level of $21.1 billion. Although similar to the House version, the Senate's bill differs in a few key aspects, and the House will have to approve the Senate version or continue negotiating by amending it and passing it back to the upper chamber.

read in full

House Launches "Fighting Contracting Abuse" Caucus

May 27, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

CongressDaily is reporting ($) that a few members of the House of Representatives are forming the "Smart Contracting Caucus" to pursue what Rep. Tom Davis (R-VA) called "thoughtful federal procurement reform." But Dan Friedman at CongressDaily isn't buying the spin:

read in full

Collender: Pentagon IG Report Signals Fraud

May 27, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Federal budget sensei Stan Collender reads this WaPo story on the mismanagement of $15 billion Iraqi reconstruction funds and wonders if something more than incompetence isn't at work. The Pentagon's own inspector general confirmed that this lack of concern for procedural safeguards was blatant and commonplace. That makes it hard to come to any conclusion other than that they were ignored rather than expedited or poorly executed.

read in full

DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- May 27, 2008

May 27, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Housing -- Market Collapse Accelerates: Prices of single-family homes declined a record 14.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier. Year-to-year prices fell less than three percent during the worst drop in the last housing recession, according to the Standard & Poor's/Case Shiller national home price index, released this morning.

read in full

Earmark Skimming: It Costs Money ... to Spend Money

May 23, 2008 by Dana Chasin

When Sen. Ben Nelson (D-NE) heard from the Department of Defense that the agency was withholding 12 percent of a $1 million medical research earmark Nelson had secured for the University of Nebraska, he learned about a widespread but little-known practice among federal agencies -- taking a cut from earmarked funds, some for unrelated purposes as varied as staff salaries and postage stamps. Nelson dubbed it "earmark simming." This week, the New York Times reported on this practice. Apparently,

read in full

Congress Sends Bush Fair Share Act

May 23, 2008 by Craig Jennings

When the Senate unanimously approved the Heroes Earnings Assistance and Relief Tax (HEART) Act (HR 6081) on Thursday, two days after the House approved it 403-0, it also approved a measure that would force federal contractors employing American workers through offshore shell companies to pay Social Security and Medicaretaxes. If signed by the president, the bill's enactment would result in hundreds of billions of in new revenues.

read in full