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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What Do Americans Think About Inequality? Part II

Sep 5, 2007 by Matt Lewis

As I wrote in Part I, Americans have a schizophrenic attitude toward inequality: mostly, we don't like it, but we also support policies that make it worse. How could that be?

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Bush Has No Conception of Magnitude of Budget

Sep 4, 2007 by Craig Jennings

President Bush, August 2, 2007: Unfortunately, Democratic leaders in Congress want to spend far more. Their budget calls for nearly $22 billion more in discretionary spending next year alone. These leaders have tried to downplay that figure. Yesterday one called this increase -- and I quote -- "a very small difference" from what I proposed. Only in Washington can $22 billion be called a very small difference. Far be it from me to suggest that $22 billion isn't a lot of money. I will, however, agree that a difference of $22 billion can be "a very small difference." Allow me to illustrate:

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What do Americans Think About Inequality? Part I

Sep 4, 2007 by Matt Lewis

It's a truism that Americans don't really seem to mind that inequality has increased so dramatically over the last three decades. After all, few policies have been enacted to reverse this trend, and American public opinion has generally become more conservative on fiscal policy. But in significant ways, public opinion studies don't support this truism. The public mostly opposes growing inequality, a fact that has held steady for the least three decades, with some variation in scope and intensity.

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JCT on Carried Interest

Sep 4, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Although it hasn't provided a scoring of the proposal by Rep. Sander Levin (D-MI) to close the carried interest tax loophole, the Joint Committee on Taxation released two documents yesterday on various aspects of the current tax treatment of carried interests. Present Law And Analysis Relating to Tax Treatment of Partnership Carried Interests and Related Issues, Part I provides:

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Statement on OMB Director Nominee Jim Nussle

WASHINGTON, Sept. 4, 2007—As the Senate prepares to vote later today on the nomination of Jim Nussle to serve as the director of the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), OMB Watch urges Senators to reflect on the significant budgetary and regulatory management review powers of the agency and on the ongoing oversight responsibility that Congress has regarding OMB.

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Sen. Sanders on OMB Director Nominee

Sep 4, 2007 by Matt Lewis

In the Huffington Post, Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) objects to OMB Director nominee Jim Nussle.

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WSJ Finds Differences, Similarities in Candidates Tax Policy

Aug 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Wall Street Journal has a good article on the top presidential candidate's position on taxes. It's subscription only, so here's an excerpted version: The 2008 presidential race is likely to produce a sharp debate over tax policy and its effects on individuals, estates, investments and corporations. But voters may have to wait for the general election to hear it. That is because there is substantial agreement on the biggest policy questions within each party's field of primary candidates. For now, those broad areas of consensus have left intraparty rivals to bicker at the margins.

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How The British Could Deal With Inequality

Aug 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

An article from The Guardian with some interesting ideas on how to reduce inequality, rather than just arrest its growth. Note the outrage expressed over the disparity between CEO and average worker pay in Britain, which is modest by U.S. standards.

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Budget Trouble at Justice Department

Aug 31, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Underfunding at the Justice Department is causing problems, via Think Progress. Whoever succeeds Alberto Gonzales as attorney general will face a long list of challenges at the Justice Department, from unfilled senior positions to sagging morale. One of the most pressing, according to dozens of current and former federal prosecutors, is a budget squeeze at U.S. attorneys' offices that has led to declines in crime prosecutions and delays in major investigations.

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Deservingness and Distributive Policy

Aug 30, 2007 by Matt Lewis

It's a slow August day in DC. So here's a case for why a conception of deservingness based on work, contribution, and family ought to be at the center of arguments challenging inequality.

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