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

FedSpending Spotlight: Skyrocketing Contracts, Less Competition

Lurita Doan, the new head of the General Services Administration (GSA), recently complained about the growth of Government-wide Acquisition Contracts (GWACs) and the loss of contracting efficiency. Data from FedSpending.org reinforces these efficiency concerns by revealing the fast growth in federal contracts and, specifically, the remarkable growth of contracts for which there was little to no competition.

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A Fiscal Policy Review of the 109th Congress

With just a few short post-election, lame-duck weeks left, the 109th Congress will leave behind a legacy of woefully inadequate action on fiscal policy. With a set of fiscal challenges that included the need for comprehensive tax reform, concerns over Social Security insolvency, large and growing deficits, the 109th Congress' list of accomplishments is almost non-existent.

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Citizens for Tax Justice Give Congress, President Failing Marks on Tax Policy

The last six years of fiscal policy under the Bush Administration have been a bad deal for 99 percent of Americans, according to two reports released last week by Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). The first of the reports, The Bush Tax Cuts: Is Your State Better Off?, examines who in each state has benefited from Bush's tax policy. To more accurately represent the long-term effects of the tax cuts, the report not only shows the size of the tax breaks received by each income group, but also the disproportionate share of the increased national debt that each group must pay off.

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Treasury Reports Quarter-Trillion Dollar Deficit; President Still Obscures Fiscal Problems

When the Treasury Department closed the books on Fiscal year 2006 on Sept. 30, one number precipitated a furious round of back-slaps and high-fives in the halls of the White House and the Office of Management and Budget - $248 billion. President Bush had no compunction about expressing glee about the nearly quarter-trillion dollar federal budget deficit for FY2006.

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Pelosi Era Tax Law Campaign Funnies

Oct 23, 2006 by Dana Chasin

By contrast, a presentation uncluttered by facts and figures but featuring some surprising camera angles, purporting to depict the likely consequences of tax policy in the Pelosi era, is offered for the amusement of a few and the edification of still fewer. The Taxman Cometh... Playing now at http://www.americaweakly.com/.

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Bush Era Tax Law Facts & Figures

Oct 23, 2006 by Dana Chasin

Today, the non-partisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center released a succinct but comprehensive analysis of Bush-era tax legislation as well as the future of the estate tax and alternative minimum tax. Among the summaries and data presented are progressivity and distribution measures of the major tax bills passed in 2001, 2003, 2004, and 2006. It’s like the Cliff's Notes of tax policy thus far in the 21st century.

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How To Use FedSpending.org

Oct 23, 2006 by Matthew Madia

Recent media reports have shown a few of the many ways to use FedSpending.org, our new online database that lets you track how the federal government spends money. Some articles have used FedSpending to show the local impact of federal spending. An article in the Washington Examiner used FedSpending.org to calculate the total amount of all contracts that are handled by companies in the Washington, DC area. And a report in the Salt Lake City Tribune covered total federal dollars that Utah received.

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Kennedy Says Min. Wage Hike Top Priority

Oct 23, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) has promised (CQ-$$) the swift passage of a minimum wage bill if the Democrats take power. Prospective House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi has made a similar promise. Kennedy, who would be chairman of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee if the Democrats can gain six seats Nov. 7, said he would try to follow Pelosi’s example. While a Democratic-controlled House could easily pass a minimum wage increase, opposition from conservatives in the Senate would make quick action more difficult.

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Heritage Gets Desperate

Oct 23, 2006 by Matthew Madia

The Heritage Foundation blog put an irresponsible bit of nonsense on their blog last week. Drawing on an unscientific, informal poll of the readers of Federal Times, the author concludes that there is still much waste in federal programs that can only be rooted out with more competition from the private sector.

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Earmarks and Headaches -- A SIC Solution?

Oct 20, 2006 by Dana Chasin

The debate over the efficacy and even-handedness of the new House earmarks disclosure rule continues. The rule requires that earmarks’ sponsors be identified by name in legislation and conference reports. It expires when the 109th COngress adjourns, unless re-adopted by the new House next year. The issues of the definition of earmarks and whether any tax expenditures would really qualify are reviewed in a meaty article today by BNA.

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