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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Appropriations Breakdown Threatens Federal Investments

As the FY 2009 appropriations process grinds to a halt, a new OMB Watch analysis of the past nine fiscal years reveals that the nation's priorities are better served when Congress and the president work together to complete the annual appropriations process. Congress's abandonment of the FY 2009 appropriations process increases the risk that the resources critical to vital government supports will be further constrained as both sides of the aisle simply refuse to work toward agreement on FY 2009 appropriations legislation.

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Claims of "Magical" Tax Cuts Continue

Jul 21, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has released a new report discussing the oft-cited, and completely false claim that tax cuts pay for themselves. Even though this statement has been refuted many times, by CBPP, by outside academics, and even by President Bush's own Treasury Department, the claim continues to float around. CBPP does a nice job hammering home the facts again about the impact of tax cuts in a very digestible brief:

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Talk About Low Expectations

Jul 21, 2008 by Craig Jennings

With the Congressional appropriations process grinding to a halt in the House and the future of FY 2009 appropriations bills in doubt, Democratic leaders announced ($) last week that they absolutely intend to pass one appropriations bill before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1 - the Defense Department appropriations bill. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said that she knows the bill will be passed because, "that is our responsibility." Apparently she doesn't feel the same responsibility to pass the other 11 appropriations bills on time. Hmmmm.....

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Bloch Deputy: Very Existence of the Office of Special Counsel "At Risk"

Jul 18, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The office in charge of overseeing employment practices of the Executive is a complete mess.

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New CBO Report Shows Dire Consequences of Bush Tax Cuts, AMT Patching

Jul 17, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The CBO has released a report detailing the effects of indexing the the AMT to inflation (i.e. "patching" it so that fewer households would pay it than otherwise anticipated) and extending the 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts without offsetting the revenue loss.

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Average Earnings Down for All Workers, Median Earnings Also Down for Full-Time Workers

Jul 17, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has issued a pair of data sets indicating that workers are still not seeing real (i.e. inflation adjusted) increases in pay. Yesterday's Real Earnings report, based on data from the payroll reports of private nonfarm establishments of earnings of both full-time and part-time workers holding production or nonsupervisory jobs, shows: Real average weekly earnings fell by 0.9 percent from May to June after

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Republicans Inch Toward Fiscal Responsibility

Jul 16, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), Senate Finance Committee ranking member Charles Grassley (R-IA), and a pair of their caucus members are promulgating ($) new language on legislation that would extend a bevy of tax cuts for another year (collectively known as "extenders") and a one-year AMT patch. The total cost of the bill would be $130 billion; the AMT portion of the measure is about $62 billion.

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Stimulus Part Deux: Coming to Congress Near You

Jul 15, 2008 by Craig Jennings

A second stimulus package may be in the works. Yesterday, CQ Politics reported that Senate Appropriations Chair Robert Byrd (D-WV) may announce on Thursday that his committee will markup another stimulus package. Today, CQ Politics is reporting that House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD) is also considering such a package.

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Growth Nonetheless

Jul 15, 2008 by Craig Jennings

President Bush today: The growth [of the economy] is lower than we would have liked, but it was growth nonetheless. GDP is not the only thing that is growing. (click to enlarge) (click to enlarge)

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Congress Moves Toward Suspending Competitive Sourcing

Jul 14, 2008 by Craig Jennings

If signed into law, the FY 2009 Financial Services and General Government Appropriations bill approved by the Senate Appropriations Committee would stop the Executive from joining the race to the bottom for cheap labor.

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