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

Not Changing the Food Stamp Program Is A Budget Cut

Nov 28, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has another important fact sheet up, this time on the Food Stamp program. Congress is considering leaving the program, which is up for reauthorization in the Farm Bill, unchanged. Work on the Farm Bill in the Senate has ground to a halt, and some folks in Congress are suggesting that they revisit the program the next time it comes up for reauthorization- 5 years from now.

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Investigating the Investigators

Nov 28, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Another chapter in the Lurita Doan investigation^* opens. In this latest installment of the Doan saga, Scott Bloch, the head of the Office of Special Council, which appointed the special prosecutor to investigate Doan, is being scrutinized for shredding documents related to an investigation into his own misconduct. (Got all that?)

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Columnists Fight Over Social Security

Nov 28, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Washington Post's Ruth Marcus has a column today on Social Security and fixing it. The column's more or less in response to this Paul Krugman column where he objects to addressing Social Security's projected shortfall now. If Marcus believes Social Security needs fixing, fine. But she should then devote far more columns to projected health care costs, which is an even bigger problem and demands greater effort to solve it, yet policymakers aren't really paying attention to it. This is what CBO basically recommends.

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WIC Budget Cuts in Omnibus Bill?

Nov 28, 2007 by Matt Lewis

USA Today reports that funding for WIC, a nutrition program that mainly serves pregnant women and infants, may be in jeopardy. Half a million people could be cut from a nutrition program for low-income young children, pregnant women and recent mothers next year because prices and caseloads have risen since President Bush proposed his 2008 budget in February.

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Giving Up On SCHIP?

Nov 27, 2007 by Matt Lewis

CQ (no subscription) is reporting that health care advocates are abandoning the SCHIP funding increase and asking for a one-year extension that maintains the level of service being offered now. Some states may not have enough money to provide insurance to everyone enrolled now if Congress doesn't do something soon.

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CMS Releases Plan To Make Medicare Payments More Efficient

Nov 27, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Center on Medicaid and Medicare Services (CMS), an agency in the US Department of Health and Human Services, just released a plan to make Medicare's payments to hospitals more efficient.

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New IRS Commissioner To Be Nominated

Nov 26, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The White House announced last week that it has plans to nominate Douglas Shulman to be the next IRS commissioner. It's now been about 6 months since the last commissioner, Mark Everson, left that post, which seems like a long time for such an important agency. Shulman is now the head of a financial industry group, so I'd assume, given no contradicting evidence, that that's where his sympathies lie. The Senate must confirm his nomination.

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President Bush's Budget Tantrum

Nov 26, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Today's New York Times editorial, Faux Fiscal Discipline, makes an important point. As a candidate in 2000, George W. Bush boasted that, after accounting for inflation and population growth, he'd exercised fiscal displine as Governor of Texas. By his own standard, then, when "adjusted for inflation and population, Congress' proposed increases amount to zero." And yet he has seen fit to issue veto threats against every congressional spending bill that does not cut spending in real terms as much as he proposes. The editorial concludes:

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Watcher: November 20, 2007

Nov 20, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Take a look at the articles on fiscal policy from the latest edition of our e-newsletter, The Watcher. White House Attempts To Entrench PART At Federal Agencies

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Heck of a Job FEMA

Nov 20, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

Last week, the Washington Post reported on more bad news coming out of FEMA. According to a Government Accountability Office report, FEMA has wasted over $30 million in contracts for housing (read: trailers) in the last year. Wow!

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