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...

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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

Do I Dare to Legislate? How Much do Vetoes Hurt?

Nov 6, 2007 by Dana Chasin

... and other in-appropriate paralyzing questions Another part of the Collender article that Matt blogs on below concerns the role or strategy (if such exists) of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and congressional leadership regarding the FY 2008 budget process. Collender's perspective:

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We Have a Flag on the Play

Nov 6, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Roughing the passer, on CQ. That's a 15-yard penalty for this lede ($):

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Is All Discretionary Funding Really Discretionary?

Nov 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

What is discretionary spending? Well, in theory, it's spending that Congress should be able raise and lower with relatively greater ease than the other kind of spending, called mandatory spending. Discretionary programs' importance tends to change. Defense spending, for example, is discretionary. During war, we need to spend a great deal on defense; during peace, much less.

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AMT: Mother of All Tax Bills and Progeny

On Oct. 25, after a gestation period of nearly nine months, House Ways and Means Committee Chair Charles Rangel (D-NY) finally unveiled the Tax Reduction and Reform Act of 2007 (H.R. 3970), his self-described "mother of all tax bills." The Rangel bill is a $930 billion, multi-faceted tax reform package that seeks to abolish the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) on a revenue-neutral basis. The measure redistributes the tax burden away from lower- and middle-class taxpayers and toward the wealthy beneficiaries of the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003.

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Congress to Send Labor/HHS Appropriations to President While SCHIP Conflict Continues

President Bush is soon expected to veto a congressionally approved version of the Labor/Health and Human Services/Education (Labor/HHS) appropriations bill, which funds an array of human needs programs. It is still uncertain if there is enough support in the House to override the president's veto. Meanwhile, enough Republican opposition remains to a proposed reauthorization of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that the months-old conflict over the program drags on.

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Conferees Approve Defense Approps

Nov 6, 2007 by Craig Jennings

CQ Alerts us that: House-Senate conferees agreed on a $459.3 billion Defense spending measure for fiscal 2008 (HR 3222) that includes a continuing resolution to temporarily fund all government operations after Nov. 16 but does not include funds for military operations in Iraq. November 6, 2007 House Senate Conf. Cmte. President Cmte. Floor $ Agriculture 18.8 18.7 $ Commerce-Justice- Science 53.6 54.6 54.6 Defense 459.6 459.6 459.6 459.3 $ Energy & Water 31.6 32.3 Financial Services 21.4 21.8 $ Homeland Security 36.3

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Critical Labor/HHS Vote Today

Nov 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The House is expected to vote on the Labor/HHS/Education/MilCon/VA appropriations bill today. This is probably the most important vote on the bill. If it doesn't receive veto-proof support now, it probably won't get it after the President vetoes the bill. So call or email your representative now and urge them to support the bill!

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Do Budget Cuts Lead to Excessive Contracting?

Nov 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Among the many interesting points in Stan Collender's column today (subscription only), there's this one about contracting and budget cuts:

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Internet Access Tax: Spilled Milk and Silver Linings

Nov 5, 2007 by Dana Chasin

On Oct. 31, President Bush signed the seven-year extension of the state and local Internet access tax moratorium, an issue we've written about here, here, and originally here. In that original blog, Cybertax: A Digital Divide of Historic Proportions, we quoted Mark Murphy, Fiscal Policy Analyst , Department of Research and Collective Bargaining Services of American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), as follows:

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Approps Pickle for President over Labor/VA Pairing

Nov 5, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Mitch McConnell Risks Paying the Price of Obstruction An article ($) in Congressional Quarterly today reports on the legislative prospects of a measure pairing the Labor-HHS and Military Construction/VA spending bills. The article indicates that the measure is expected to be filed today. But

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