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

Senate Votes to Stop Medicaid Changes

May 23, 2008 by Matthew Madia

Yesterday, the Senate passed an amendment to the war supplemental bill that will put the brakes on several controversial Medicaid regulations. The Bush administration has finalized, or is preparing to finalize, the regulations in an effort to cut federal funding for a variety of Medicaid programs administered by the states.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- May 23, 2008

May 23, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Supplemental -- Senate OKs $250 Bn in War, Domestic Funds:

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Surrealistic Surplus

May 22, 2008 by Dana Chasin

The unanticipated hiatus between this week's conference approval of the FY09 budget resolution and its formal adoption by Congress next month gives us some time to examine the assumptions underlying the deficit/surplus projections in both the resolution and the budget submitted by the President in February in depth prior to passage.

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Mission Creep at Club Fed?

May 22, 2008 by Craig Jennings

An op-ed in today's Washington Post, Fallout from a Bailout, examining the consequence of the Federal Reserve bailout of Bear, Stearns in March, breathlessly exclaims, "The world has changed because of a few snap decisions made one weekend in March." Maybe it takes someone with the unique perspective and insight of a former director of the Division of Monetary Affairs at the Federal Reserve Board to appreciate and alert us to this global cataclysm: "the Fed's action tipped the political balance toward providing direct subsidies to households having trouble meeting their mortgage payments."

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War Supplemental Update: Senate Approves Spending Amendments

May 22, 2008 by Craig Jennings

...lobbing it back over to the House The Senate has approved an amendment to the war supplemental spending bill (HR 2642) that would fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan through the end of Bush's presidency. The $165 billion spending measure was adopted 70-26.

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Time Running Out for Wesley Snipes

May 22, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Our friend Wesley Snipes looks like he is running out of options to avoid going to jail on June 3 for believing he was exempt from paying taxes (oh, and actually not paying taxes too). The Associated Press reports:

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Condition of State Budgets Continue to Decline

May 22, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The state of state budgets continues to deteriorate around the country. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released another update yesterday to their increasingly disturbing analysis, which now shows that 31 states are anticipating budget problems in 2009, with 27 projecting a budget shortfall. We continue to reiterate that this is pretty bad news as state budgets are far less flexible than the federal budget and usually are legally prohibited from running a deficit. From the CBPP update: 31 states anticipate budget problems. Of those:

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- May 22, 2008

May 22, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Budget -- Timing of Budget Resolution Vote Uncertain: Due to clerical and constitutional issues involving the farm bill, the FY09 budget resolution may not be brought to a House or Senate vote until after Congress returns in June from the weeklong Memorial Day recess. Of historical note, House passage of the resolution would increase the national debt limit to $10.615 trillion -- that's eleven figures, for the first time.

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House, Senate Set to Approve Budget Resolution

May 22, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The House and Senate are set to vote on the FY 2009 Congressional Budget Resolution today. OMB Watch sent letters of support for the resolution to both the House and Senate Budget Committees yesterday (House letter, Senate letter). The letters highlight the positive (and negative) aspects of the resolution, as well as the recent historical difficulty of enacting a budget resolution during an election year (hasn't happened since 2000).

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Senate Restricting Public Access to Contractor Data

May 21, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The U.S. Senate is moving to restrict public access to a new contractor misconduct database, part of a new proposal being spearheaded by the Project on Government Oversight and Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-MO). Apparently there is bipartisan objection to the proposal within the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee. Scott Amey at POGO has the rundown:

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