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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IRS Revises EITC Certification Program

On August 5, the IRS announced significant changes in its proposed pilot program to require pre-certification of EITC taxfilers. (See previous entry for more information.)

The changes include:

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Revenue Loss and Social Security

Bill Gale notes that the the size of the revenue loss from the recent tax cuts would have been more than enough to shore up Social Secuty and Medicare.

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Another below average GDP report

The Bureau of Economic analysis announced Real GDP grew at a 2.4% annual rate in the second quarter of 2003. This is below the 3.2% average over the past 10 years.

Unfortunately, if you take out federal spending on national defense, the economy only grew at a 0.7% rate.

Click the image below for a larger version:

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Watcher Articles

Children Bear Brunt of Federal Tax Cuts

In the absence of federal assistance, childcare, education, and children’s health programs are being slashed across the country despite their popularity and effectiveness.

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State Crisis are Spilling Over

From the NY Times...

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A Forward Look at the Budget

How long can OMB's Rosy Scenario keep telling those pretty lies?

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Budget Cuts Strain State, County and Municipal Public Health Departments

The "invisible" infrastructure of the U.S. public health system is crumbling.

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The Earned Income Tax Credit "Pre-Certification" Plan Opposed by Senate Democrats

Efforts to stop the proposed "pre-certification" of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) recipients have growing support in the Senate.

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Still No Extension of Child Tax Credit for Low-Income Families

As 25 million families begin receiving their checks from the IRS for the $400 per child increases in the child tax credit, House Democrats used a series of procedural floor votes on July 23 to bring attention to the fact that no progress has been made to extend the credit to low-income families.

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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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more resources