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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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 21, 2008

Apr 21, 2008 by Dana Chasin

In Congress This Week -- Farm Bill, Contracting Reform:

Farm Bill -- Following a one-week extension of the farm bill signed at the end of last week, Senate and House conferees plan to resume negotiations Tuesday, April 22 to reach a compromise on the five-year package which would renew U.S. agricultural programs. The sticking point remains finding $10 billion in new revenues to offset new spending in the bill.

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SCHIP Rules Imposed in 2007 Violated Law

Apr 21, 2008 by Matthew Madia

The Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service have concluded that rule changes imposed by the Bush administration on the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in 2007 violated federal law: BNA reports: In legal opinions released April 18, the Government Accountability Office and the Congressional Research Service said the SCHIP guidance is a rule for purposes of the Congressional Review Act (CRA) and so violates statutory requirements for congressional notice and review.

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Earmarks for Me, But Not for Thee

Apr 18, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Hurling invective at earmarks and deriding them all as wasteful "bridges to nowhere," is a popular theme these days. However, as Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has recently demonstrated, adopting a pox-on-all-earmarks position can quickly dissolve into a cafeteria-style earmark policy: "I like this earmark and this earmark, but not that one over there."

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Pottery Barn Rule Non-Operational?

Apr 18, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Sens. Ben Nelson (D-NE), Susan Collins (R-ME), and Evan Bayh (D-IN) are calling for war spending language that would shift some reconstruction costs to Iraqis. Their proposal would convert U.S. reconstruction funds from grants to loans. Citing Iraq's budget surplus and the U.S.'s deficit, Nelson said that Iraq must take fiscal responsibility for its reconstruction.

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Farm Bill PAYGO Deal May Be at Hand

Apr 18, 2008 by Dana Chasin

At 11:00 a.m. today, the Senate Finance Committee announced a new tax title to the farm bill, complete with offsets. The timing is propitious, because the one-month extension of the farm bill expires today. But agreement with the House is still unlikely to come today. The tax expenditures in the new tax title, which come to a total of $2.406 billion, are as follows:

Ethanol Package $1.226 billion
Schedule F Loss Limitation $0.456 billion
Optional Self-Employment Tax $0.124 billion
Other Farm-Related Tax Reform $0.600 billion

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 18, 2008

Apr 18, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Economy -- 9 in 10 Americans Negative on Economy: A Washington Post-ABC News poll shows that nine in 10 Americans -- including a wide majority of Republicans -- now give the economy a negative rating, with a majority saying it is in "poor" shape, the most to say so in more than 15 years. Republicans are even sour about the efficacy of the stimulus tax rebate, with 68 percent saying it will fail to abate the slowdown, an increase of 21 points since February. Story.

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I Will Gladly Pay You Tuesday

Apr 17, 2008 by Dana Chasin

For a Tax Cut Today Senate Finance Committee leaders Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Charles Grassley (R-IA) this afternoon proposed extending a raft of business tax breaks and providing a one-year AMT patch, but controversy is likely over the lack of offsets in the proposal. Story.

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Median Weekly Earnings Decline

Apr 17, 2008 by Craig Jennings

In yesterday's Daily Fiscal Policy Report, we noted that real average weekly earnings in March were up compared to February, while they were down compared to March, 2007. Today, the BLS released data on real median weekly earnings, which, like average weekly earnings, have declined since a year ago.

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More Fallout From Federal Budget Cuts

Apr 17, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

The Washington Post reported this morning that U.S. nuclear weapons labs are losing staff and not undertaking necessary and valuable research because of budget cuts. From the Post article: The directors of the nation's three national nuclear weapons laboratories say that budget cuts by Congress and the Bush administration have reduced their ability to carry out scientific research needed to ensure the reliability of the nation's nuclear arsenal in future years.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- April 17, 2008

Apr 17, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- Housing Starts Lowest in 17 Years: Housing starts tumbled nearly 12 percent in March to their lowest level since March 1991, with big declines in all four national regions, falling to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 947,000, a decline of 11.9 percent from February, according to a joint Commerce and Housing and Urban Development report released yesterady. The year-on-year decline is 36.5 percent. Story.

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