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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Analysis: Rep. Paul Ryan's FY 2012 Budget Resolution

Like all congressional budget resolutions, House Budget Committee Chair Paul Ryan's (R-WI) fiscal year (FY) 2012 Budget Resolution is not simply a chart of preferred spending and revenue levels, it's also a political statement guided by ideology. And Ryan's ideology demands that the federal government divert ever increasing sums from middle- and low-income families to big business and high-income families.

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Fight Over Policy Riders May Shut Down Government

Apr 6, 2011 by Matthew Madia

The battle over a handful of conservative policy priorities has pushed the federal government to the precipice of a shut down.

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The Long, Downhill Road to a 2011 Budget

Appropriations for fiscal year (FY) 2011 are now six months late. The fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2010, but the nation is not much closer to having a budget than it was back then. As Congress comes face-to-face with the expiration of the current stop-gap spending bill, the budget's downward march may have stopped, but the possibility of a government shutdown still lingers.

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Transparency at Risk in Budget Debate

Penny-pinching fever has engulfed Washington, with both parties eager to root out perceived wasteful spending. Several proposals look for savings in the government's information dissemination programs. While some of the proposals are carefully targeted reductions, others would slash funding indiscriminately with damaging consequences to some innovative transparency projects and programs.

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Improper Payments Provide Opportunity, Challenge to Administration

In fiscal year (FY) 2010, the federal government disbursed a little more than $125 billion in improper payments to the public, up from roughly $110 billion in FY 2009. Though total improper payment dollars have increased, the federal government is getting better at preventing these wasteful disbursements. Indeed, most federal agencies are only now finalizing implementation of the Obama administration's improper payments reduction effort, which began in late 2009.

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'Tax Freedom Day' Still a Sham

Apr 1, 2011 by Gary Therkildsen*

His tummy hurts because he's been binging on right-wing economic propaganda.

On Wednesday, the Tax Foundation released their estimate for this year's "Tax Freedom Day" (TFD). For those not familiar with the right-leaning organization's annual made-up holiday, it marks when, according to the Tax Foundation, Americans will have "earned enough money to pay this year's tax obligations at the federal, state, and local levels." As is always the case with TFD, it's an exceptionally simplistic and misleading way to look at taxes.

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Federal Spending Anxiety to Shut Off Spending Info Website

Apr 1, 2011 by Craig Jennings

At a time when federal spending is the top concern of everyone in Washington, Congress is about to turn off the federal website that tells us where those federal funds are going.

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The Balanced Budget Amendment That Isn’t About Balancing the Budget

Mar 31, 2011 by Sam Rosen-Amy

In a move hearkening back to the Clinton era, Senate Republicans introduced a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution earlier today. All 47 members of the caucus are cosponsoring the bill, a strong show of force. But here’s the thing: this balanced budget amendment isn’t about balancing the budget.

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Cloaked in Good Government Garb, Sunset Commission Would Fast Track Spending Cuts

On March 16, Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX) proposed a controversial amendment to a small business reauthorization bill. The amendment would create a so-called "sunset commission," which is designed to identify and eliminate federal programs deemed unnecessary. The commission, billed as a "good government" measure by proponents, would likely operate behind closed doors, usurping the traditional oversight role of key congressional committees and potentially eliminating important programs.

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Non-Competed Contracts Down Slightly in FY 2010

In February, the Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) completed an audit examining the agency's use of non-competed contracts in fiscal year (FY) 2010. The audit finds DHS significantly reduced its use of these risky contracting vehicles, lowering both the total real contracting dollars spent and the percentage of contracting dollars spent on sole-source contracts. An examination of other federal agencies' non-competed contract spending reveals a similar, though less dramatic, trend.

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