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

If You Were Betting on the Deficit...

Oct 12, 2007 by Craig Jennings

...whose numbers would you use? We've noted before (here, here, and here) OMB's propensity to make overly pessimistic projections of the deficit only to claim credit for "great improvements" when the actual deficit numbers are reported at the end of the fiscal year. Being the start of the fiscal year, it's time for the Administration to gaze upon its own unrealisitically high deficit projections and marvel at the reality of comparatively lower FY 2007's actual deficit. Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson, Jr.:

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Four-Year Internet Access Tax Ban Gains

Oct 11, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The House Judiciary Committee voted 38-0 yesterday to approve a bill extending the moratorium on the taxation of Internet access, due to expire Nov. 1, for four years, through November 2011. In an OMBW Watcher on the issue published yesterday, Internet Access Tax: The Immodest Moratorium, we noted House hyperbole about the impact of such a tax. The Judiciary Committee's ranking member, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX) offered his own yesterday:

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Despite 'Yea' Vote, Price Works to Stop SCHIP Expansion

Oct 11, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Rep. Deborah Pryce (R-OH) is circulating a letter among her 45 Republican colleagues who voted for SCHIP expansion criticizing Democrats for failing to give into the president's demand that more children go without health insurance. Matthew Yglesias is right on here: Thus Pryce et. al. get to signal to their child-hating paymasters that, despite their [yea] vote, they have big businesses [sic] back and are doing the very most they can within the confines of objective political constraints to make sure that working and middle class families get no help with their health care.

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Fiscal Responsibility Prevails in House Estate Tax Vote

Oct 11, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The reality of a $10 trillion national debt -- and the realization that a tax paid by the 30 thousand richest Americans (out of 300 million) helps contain it -- prevailed in yesterday's 212-196 House vote defeating a measure to repeal the estate tax. Not everyone sees it this way, of course. Among the unreconstructed fiscal ostriches is House Republican Whip Roy Blunt (MO), who commented after the vote that the estate tax is

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House Passes Repeal of Private Tax Collection Program!

Oct 10, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Great news- the House just passed HR 3056, which would repeal the program that privatizes tax collection. It won approval by 232-173 (roll call). The Bush administration says it will veto the bill. And the Senate has not begun serious work on a counterpart. But this is a necessary and big step forward nonetheless!

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Rangel Baffled by Reid, with Reason

Oct 10, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Or by Birnbaum, with an Assist by Industry Per this afternoon's Congress Daily ($) House Ways and Means chair Rangel (D-NY) spoke out about yesterday press reports (see our comment) that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has told industry officials that carried interest will not come before the Senate this year: I don't see how he could say that. ... It would be wrong to say that we're not looking at the discrepancy that exists between partnerships and corporations on the management of equity funds.

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Research Questions Cost-Efficiency of Privatization

Public debate over government contracting has centered largely on issues of accountability. But recent scholarship on the efficiency of using contractors to deliver government services shows that a broader discussion is warranted. The assumptions about the relative efficiency of government contracts are on shaky ground, and cost measurements show no clear advantage to private contractors. Holes in the Theory

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Congress, President Spar Over Children's Health Insurance

Congress overwhelmingly approved the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) reauthorization at the end of September, with $35 billion in new funding that would provide health care coverage for about four million more uninsured children. As expected, President Bush vetoed the reauthorization, and the House is scheduled to hold what promises to be a close override vote on Oct. 18.

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Internet Access Tax: The Immodest Moratorium

With a federal moratorium on state and local Internet access taxes set to expire on Nov. 1, Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee Chair Daniel Inouye (D-HI) withdrew a bill on Sept. 27 that would extend the tax moratorium rather than face the likelihood members would approve a Republican-backed permanent moratorium. Inouye said a compromise among those seeking an extension of the moratorium and those proposing a permanent ban had not yet been worked out. There has been no formal action in the House to date, other than a full Small Business Committee hearing on Oct.

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Walter Pincus Is The Best Reporter At The Washington Post, They Need To Stop Burying His Articles

Oct 10, 2007 by Matt Lewis

I don't know how I missed this article on Blackwater and all the taxpayer money it wastes in exorbitant wages and profits. Plus, there's this little gem about military wages: An unmarried sergeant given Iraq pay and relief from U.S. taxes makes about $83 to $85 a day, given time in service. A married sergeant with children makes about double that, $170 a day.

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