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

More on the Latest Attempt to Gut the Estate Tax

Jul 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Things are moving quickly in Congress this week as repeated, desperate attempts to pass a drastic reduction in the estate tax before the end of the year continue to unfold.

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Jul 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Last-Minute Attempt to Add Estate Tax to Pension Reforms Fails Household Debt: A Growing Challenge for American Families and Federal Policy

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Jul 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Congress has yet again taken up efforts to dismantle the estate tax. This time, the tricksy, anti-equity gang attempted to add estate tax reduction to the pension bill now being negotiated in conference. But, thanks to Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), who didn't want to see a highly controversial amendment deep-six the pension bill and professing concerns for transparency, refused to sign the conference report. From BNA (subscription required):

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Does The IRS Have It Out For Poor Americans?

Jul 26, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Just this morning I stumbled across this enlightening report released earlier this year from the folks up at Syracuse University who run the TRAC database. (For those who don't follow arcane data analysis groups as closely as OMB Watch does, TRAC is the Transactional Record Access Clearinghouse - a data gathering and analysis group that uses the Freedom of Information Act to access and analyze government information. See them at http://trac.syr.edu.)

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Federal Spending Database Legislation Gains Momentum

Jul 25, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Legislation to create a free, public, searchable database (S. 2590) containing grants and contracts spending information is gaining momentum in the Senate this week. OMB Watch testified in support of this bill at a subcommittee hearing last week of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and this week on Thursday the full HSGAC committee will mark up a consensus version of the bill. The bill is expected to pass the full committee unanimously.

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Last-Minute Attempt to Add Estate Tax to Pension Reforms Fails

Over the last week, Capitol Hill has been abuzz with speculation that House and Senate GOP leaders were engaging in a last-ditch effort to attach a provision gutting the estate tax to a sensitive and complicated pension reform conference report. The sneaky move failed, however, as Senate Majority Leader Bill First (R-TN) announced today he could not convince a number of key Republicans, particularly Sen. Olympia Snowe (R-ME), to support it. In related news, President Bush has moved to gut IRS estate tax enforcement.

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Household Debt: A Growing Challenge for American Families and Federal Policy

Mirroring the federal government's penchant for spending more money than it collects, the American public now has a negative net savings rate. Home prices, medical care, and college tuition are all growing faster than wages, and debt has become increasingly pervasive among American households. These are facts that have not escaped the attention of American consumers, 82 percent of whom now recognize household debt as a serious problem, according to a recent survey sponsored by the Center for American Progress.

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Support Grows for Contracts and Grants Disclosure

The financial and information management subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a July 18 hearing on the Federal Funding Accountability and Transparency Act (S. 2590). Support in the Senate for the bill that would create a free, searchable public database of government contracts and grants has surged in recent weeks, helping propel the issue forward.

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Congress Looks for New Ways to Cut Taxes

Jul 25, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Running out of ways to cut federal taxes, Congress looks to other jurisdictions. A bi-partisan effort to give federal tax breaks to corporations at the expense of the states has gained the attention of the Washington Post editorial board:

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Americans Concerned About Household Debt

Jul 25, 2006 by Craig Jennings

As real wages stagnate and as energy prices continue their steep climb, Americans have reached the bottom of their pockets and have found only credit cards. Going into debt is becoming increasingly common as many Americans see their wages fail to keep pace with inflation.

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