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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

Economy and Jobs Watch: Corporate Profits at Record Highs, While Labor Compensation at 38-year Lows

Recent data show a major shift in the balance between corporate income and labor compensation. As a share of the economy labor compensation has not been this low in almost 40 years (since 1966), and after-tax corporate profits are at the highest levels ever recorded by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

read in full

Economy and Jobs Watch: Employment Struggling to Recover

Employment increased by a steady 288,000 jobs in April, the Department of Labor announced earlier this month. The unemployment rate remains steady at 5.6 percent as well.

read in full

Internet Tax Ban Going Nowhere

As reported in the last Watcher, on April 28 the Senate passed a four-year continuation of the now-expired Internet tax moratorium. Disagreements with the House make passage of the ban unlikely.

read in full

A Tax Cut a Week in the House

In spite of the "PayGo" logjam over whether or not tax cuts ought to be offset, which continues to prevent passage of a budget resolution, the House persists with its "a tax cut a week" schedule.

read in full

National Income share

May 7, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Recent data show a major shift in the balance between corporate income and labor compensation. As a share of the economy labor compensation has not been this low, and after-tax corporate profits have not been this high in (at least) 25 years.

Source: National Economic Trends (St. Louis Fed)

read in full

Estate Tax - Simulation Model

May 6, 2004 by Guest Blogger

With the support of the American's for a Fair Estate Tax coalition, The Tax Policy Center has recently developed a new, state of the art, micro-simulation model of the estate tax. This new tool will allow the TPC experts to simulate alternate scenarios for the estate tax, including various reform options such as changes to the exemption level, tax rates, and QFOBI changes.

read in full

Deeper into Debt

May 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The new request for military funding will put us another $25 billion in debt - still no revenue solution in sight.

read in full

Tax cuts don't "pay for themselves"

May 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Recently Rep. Jim Nussle, Chairman of the House Budget Committee, argued against applying PayGo to taxes since "tax cuts pay for themselves."

Perhaps he should have had a chat with the Whitehouse's cheif economist...

read in full

Watcher Newsletter May 4, 2004

May 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Watcher - May 3, 2004 Vol.5, No.9 -

Federal Budget

read in full

Economy and Jobs Watch: GDP Up, But Risks Remain

Gross domestic product (GDP) rose by a 4.2 percent annual rate in the first quarter, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis. This is about the same as the 4.1 percent rate from the last quarter of 2003, and shows the economy growing at a steady, if not exceptionally strong, rate. However, forecasters had expected growth to come in at a stronger 5 percent rate.

read in full