Memo to ABC's Gibson: Capital Gains Cuts Also Cut Revenues ... in each instance, when the [capital gains tax] rate dropped, revenues from the tax increased. The government took in more money. And in the 1980s, when the tax was increased to 28 percent, the revenues went down.... history shows that when you drop the capital-gains tax, the revenues go up.

OMB Watch released a statement on April 22 on the FY 2009 budget resolution negotiations. The statement urges both House and Senate negotiators to uphold the fiscally responsible principles promised by Democrats when they took over the majority in 2006. A key aspect of the ongoing budget negotiations is whether to offset the $70 billion cost of a one-year fix to the creep of the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT). The House version of the resolution offsets the costs while the Senate does not.

Scott Amey over at the Project on Government Oversight reminded us on Monday that there has been a lot of long overdue action in Washington this month to hold federal contractors more accountable. Scott has a nice summary of some of the bills garnering attention in the House and a few other snipits from the past few weeks related to federal contracting. (Read Scott's summary). Two of the bills Scott mentions (H.R. 5712 and H.R. 3033 will be considered on the House floor this week. Another one, H.R.

For the second time in as many weeks, the New York Times tries to make sense of the nation's housing crisis and editorializes in favor of expanded bankruptcy protection and against "voluntary" efforts to forestall further foreclosures and foster re-financings, but it flies in the face of the facts: Most important, Congress must not continue with efforts that have not worked to date, namely, appeals to the mortgage industry to act voluntarily to help distressed borrowers. Instead, lawmakers should allow bankrupt homeowners to have their mortgages modified under court protection.