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 REVIEW -- 02-21-08

Feb 21, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- Slow Growth Ahead Says Fed:

The Federal Reserve yesterday revised growth estimates downward to the 1.3 to 2 percent range for this year, compared to its 1.8 to 2.5 percent estimate in October. Despite yesterday's CPI figures, a 50 bp rate cut at the Mar. 18 FMOC meeting "would likely not contribute to an increase in inflation pressures"...
But yesterday's inflation figures pose a problem for the Fed which, on one hand, does not want to vitiate the effect of the stimulus package but, on the other, is on the lookout for... That '70s Look: Stagflation

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Coal Mine Safety Shortchanged by Years of Budget Cuts

Congress created the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) in 1977, placing a new federal focus on miner safety and health. However, the agency's budget and staffing levels have been cut over the past three decades. The budget for MSHA's coal mine safety and health program has been particularly abused. In the past two years, a spike in coal mine fatalities and high-profile coal mine disasters have prompted many Americans and Congress to look to MSHA to improve miner safety, but years of budget cuts and the loss of qualified employees have left the agency struggling to fulfill its mission.

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OMB Reports $508 Million in E-Gov Savings; Congress Remains Doubtful

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) released a report to Congress Feb. 14 that calculates the benefits of President Bush's 24 E-Government (E-Gov) Initiatives at approximately $508 million in Fiscal Year 2007, based on agencies' estimates. Congressional skepticism of the Initiatives, and subsequent reluctance to fund them, led OMB to develop a questionable funding mechanism using agency contributions from their annual budgets.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REVIEW -- -02-20-08

Feb 20, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Economy -- CPI up 4.3 percent, Year-on-Year: Per the Washington Post this morning: On the day after oil closed at a record high of more than $100 a barrel, new federal data show that... The consumer price index was 4.3 percent higher last month compared to January a year ago.

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Contracting Shenannigans: Before and After

Feb 20, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Two stories this morning that bookend contracting scandals we've been following over the past few months. First, wrapping up an extensive bribery scandal, the Washington Post reports former Defense contractor Brent Wilkes, who was convicted in November of 13 felony crimes including bribery, conspiracy and fraud for giving gifts to former representative Randy 'Duke' Cunningham (R-CA), was sentenced to 12 years in federal prison. And second, opening up what might be another front in the post-Katrina contracting scandals, the Associated Press reports the Federal Emergency Management Agency "misspent millions of dollars it received from selling used travel trailers" using the funds for "tree-removal services, agency decals and banners and global positioning systems" instead of returning the funds to the U.S.. Treasury, as required by law. The news article is based on a Homeland Security Inspector General's report to be released this Friday.

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Assessing the Fiscal Stimulus Package

President Bush signed a two-year, $168 billion fiscal stimulus package on Feb. 13 — the largest legislative initiative ever designed to ease an economic slowdown. Although it was passed by overwhelming margins in the House (385-35) and Senate (81-16), there was considerable debate on how to structure the package so as to maximize its efficacy and stimulative impact on the economy.

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Emergency War Spending Lacks Transparency, Increasingly Used for Non-Emergency Items

The Bush administration's emergency supplemental spending requests for the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have lacked the transparency that normally accompanies the appropriations process, according to a new report from the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). In addition, the CBO war spending report, however constrained by available data, revealed the composition of the war funding requests has been evolving into broader Defense Department spending initiatives, such as acquiring next-generation aircraft and replacing aging aircraft.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REVIEW -- 02-19-08

Feb 19, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- Sector for Stimulus 2.0?

Housing Hardball -- Why not go to the slowdown's source, some legislators ask? With foreclosures skyrocketing in certain parts of the country and home values falling almost everywhere, some in Washington are pushing a follow-up stimulus package aimed at shoring up the housing sector...

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Multiple Rules Work in Concert to Undermine Medicaid

Feb 15, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Bush administration is pursuing or has achieved several policy goals that work to cut social support services by reducing federal funding for Medicaid programs. The Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) has released all of these policies — three proposed rules, one interim final rule, and two final rules — in the past nine months.

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Walker Departs GAO to Walk His Talk Elsewhere

Feb 15, 2008 by Dana Chasin

GAO chief and U.S. Comptroller General David Walker announced plans today to become president and CEO of the Peterson Foundation established by renown deficit hawk Pete Peterson, former Commerce Secretary and chair of the Concord Coalition (and, to be fair, beneficiary of millions of federal dollars in carried interest tax breaks). Peterson will contribute $1 billion to the organization over the next several years. Walker had been head of GAO since November 1998. With characteristic modesty, Walker puts his move in perspective:

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