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

Meet You at the Corner of Wall and Main

Aug 22, 2007 by Dana Chasin

There's a complex relationship between the condition of the nation's capital markets and its macroeconomic performance. Equally complex is the parallel relationship between monetary policy set by the Fed the via interest rates and money supply and the far broader distributive fiscal policy options at the disposal of lawmakers. The past month's heavy losses among big, institutional investors coming at a time when the GDP has been contracting over the last couple of quarters are generating a spate of thought and opinion about this relationship.

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Links

Aug 22, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Lots of good stuff came out today.

A Congressional Research Service (CRS, aka the super-authoritative researchers who members of Congress ask to do reports for them, but typically the reports aren't available to the public) comparison of the House and Senate SCHIP bills
The House Budget Committee's breakdown of how some of Bush's proposed budget cuts would impact each state
A knowledgeable article in the Washington Post about the

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Calling The President's Bluff

Aug 22, 2007 by Matt Lewis

A popular topic of discussion among the budget folk here at OMB Watch is the mystery of President Bush's veto threats, which he's made against just about every remotely progressive piece of legislation being considered by Congress. His party just lost an election, and President Nixon was better liked. Where does he get off trying to stymie Congress?

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Watcher: August 21, 2007

Aug 22, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Year in Fiscal Policy...So Far Has Congress made good on its many promises regarding fiscal policy this session? Carried Interest Issue Gathering Momentum in Congress

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Private Spies

Aug 21, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Walter Pincus had a story last weekend about a huge new batch of contracts being issued by the Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA)- the Pentagon's not-so-mini CIA. Definitely worth a read, but before you do, take a look at this June article in Salon.com about intelligence agencies and their increasing use of contractors.

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Not That Crazy: Bush to Sign Lobbying/Ethics Bill

Aug 21, 2007 by Dana Chasin

White House officials confirmed yesterday that President Bush now plans to sign the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007. The confirmation ends several weeks of speculation about his intentions, with some observers (my colleagues among them) expressing bewildered disbelief at Bush's repeated references to his "serious concerns" about the bill and his unwillingness to rule out a pocket veto of it.

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Unprecedented Drop in Incomes "Not Surprising"

Aug 21, 2007 by Craig Jennings

The always-edifying David Cay Johnston writes about the latest income data from IRS: Americans earned a smaller average income in 2005 than in 2000, the fifth consecutive year that they had to make ends meet with less money than at the peak of the last economic expansion, new government data shows.

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Bush: Insured Children Are an Abomination

Aug 21, 2007 by Craig Jennings

What is with this guy? The Bush administration, engaged in a battle with Congress over whether a popular children's health insurance program should be expanded, has announced new policies that will make it harder for states to insure all but the lowest-income children.

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The Year in Fiscal Policy...So Far

After the elections in November 2006, with a new majority and low public confidence in Congress following multiple lobbying and ethics scandals, members vowed to restore integrity and responsibility to the legislative process, particularly in fiscal policy. Congress pledged it would prioritize funding for domestic needs and abide by pay-as-you-go rules for new mandatory spending and taxes. It would shed light on the earmarking process and spend more time minding the people's business in Washington.

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Carried Interest Issue Gathering Momentum in Congress

Congress's tax-writing committees have focused increasing attention this summer on a hitherto little-noticed tax preference enjoyed by private equity and other fund managers that allows them to pay capital gains rates (15 percent) on "carried interest" income they are paid to manage investment funds they do not own. This is significantly lower than the income tax rate that would otherwise be assessed, which could be as high as 35 percent. As Congress moves to take action to close this loophole, nonprofit advocacy groups are mobilizing to support a fix to this unfair aspect of the tax code.

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