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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

Proposed Changes Would Create Unbalanced, Flawed Budget Process

The president’s FY2005 budget contains several proposed changes to the congressional rules governing the process by which federal budget policy is legislated. These rules could have dramatic consequences for spending and tax policy over the next 5 years.

While, admittedly, changes in the budget process are not the most exciting of issues, the proposed process changes would likely cause large drops in domestic investments and a continuation of current tax policy and massive federal deficits. Download Full report (.pdf)

read in full

Upper-Income Tax cuts and jobs

Feb 24, 2004 by Guest Blogger

President Bush is arguing that reducing the top marginal rate would "fuel" job growth.

The problem with using the top marginal tax rate as a tool to cut taxes on "small" businesses is that 1) it misses most small businesses - less than 4% of businesses make enough to be taxed at the top individual rate, and 2) it reduces taxes on upper income individuals regardless of the source income - thus it does not target businesses efficiently.

read in full

Watcher Articles 2/24/04

Feb 24, 2004 by Guest Blogger

New articles from the Watcher newsletter:

OMB Watch - The Watcher - February 23, 2004 Vol.5, No. 4 -

Federal Budget

read in full

Budget Battles Loom

As the 2005 budget resolutions process gets on its way, spending for domestic programs could actually come out lower than the already grim projections set by President Bush’s budget proposal. Given that it is an election year both the president and Congress’ use of "spin" and shenanigans to mislead the American public will proceed. A big election year issue is budget deficits and the skyrocketing national debt – peaking now at $7 trillion.

read in full

Economy and Jobs Watch: Another Administration Projection Bites the Dust

Yet another economic projection by the administration is falling short – and in record time. Just a couple weeks after the publication of the Economic Report of the President, which forecasted 3.8 million* new jobs would be created in 2004, administration officials appears to be backing off the job estimates. The forecast was for 320,000 new jobs every month – a number most observers agree is exceptionally high. Job growth has not reached even half this level in any month over the past three years, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

read in full

U.S. Federal Debt Surpasses $7 Trillion

The U.S. Treasury recently announced that the federal debt subject to congressional limits has for the first time surpassed $7 trillion - approximately 62 percent of gross domestic product. In addition, in fiscal year 2003, over $300 billion was spent on paying interest on the debt.

read in full

2005 Budget update

Feb 20, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Update in the Post about the current budget debate:

read in full

Watcher Newsletter, Feb 10

Feb 11, 2004 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Watcher - February 9, 2004 Vol.5, No.3 -

read in full

OMB Account-level Data on Government Spending , 2005 Budget

Feb 9, 2004 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - OMB Account-level Data on Government Spending , 2005 Budget

The 2005 Budget submitted by the president last week only contained partial information for spending over the next 5 years. The spending proposals for specific programs are contained in a 1,000 page Office of Management and Budget (OMB) computer run that was provided to some members of Congress, but was not included in the budget documents originally made available to the public.

read in full

OMB Account-level Data on Government Spending, 2005-2009

The 2005 Budget submitted by the president last week only contained partial information for spending over the next 5 years. The spending proposals for specific programs are contained in a 1,000+ page Office of Management and Budget (OMB) computer run that was provided to some members of Congress, but was not included in the budget documents originally made available to the public.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has obtained these data and shared them with OMB Watch to post on our website.

read in full