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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Coconut Road Earmark Defies Laws of Physics

Jan 9, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

There was a great post yesterday on the NY Times editorial blog about the so-called "Coconut Road" scandal from the 2006 transportation reauthorization bill (for details on the scandal, see the Times coverage from June and October.) The long and short of it is that a questionable earmark was removed from the final version of the transportation reauthorization bill by vote and then, magically it seems, appeared in the text of the bill anyway. From the Times yesterday: Congress rejected [the] Coconut Road [earmark] in the final legislation. But then it resurfaced — apparently via some congressional staffer's clerical sleight of hand — in the suspiciously altered final law. The mystery is how the will of Congress came to be so thwarted, and it deserves solving. The appearance of this earmark after it was struck from the final version of the transportation bill is a violation of congressional processes and horrendously unethical to say the least. And as the Times correctly points out, the fact that nobody except Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) really cares about this is probably even worse. Congress needs to do better.

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Pelosi Says Dems Will Propose Stimulus Package

Jan 9, 2008 by Craig Jennings

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) announced yesterday that Democrats are moving forward with an economic stimulus package. Although she remains vague about such a proposal, Pelosi indicated that it would be targeted to low- and middle-income individuals. A press release at her website says that the package will "assist hard-hit families by promoting consumer confidence, economic growth, and job creation" and will be designed to provide "economic security for those with the greatest economic hardships..."

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The 2010 Spending Debate

Jan 8, 2008 by Matt Lewis

Today's my last day at OMB Watch and the BudgetBlog. I've had a great time here, and I might be starting up my own blog- we'll see, but for now, I thought I'd leave a parting thought. The great 2010 tax cut debate, where we'll decide what do to with the expiring Bush tax cuts will be the most important budget issue for some time to come (Iraq being a close second). Without that revenue, a progressive agenda will have a hard time going anywhere.

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On the Importance of Keeping Taxes Low and Certain

Jan 8, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The rhetoric coming out of the White House the past couple of days regarding a possible economic stimulus package is truly baffling. Speaking to Union League Club of Chicago yesterday, referring to "mixed" economic indicators, Bush said: [M]ost importantly the smartest thing we can do is to keep taxes low....I've worked with Congress to cut taxes, and pro-growth economic policies work. I don't get it. It's important to keep taxes low to keep the economy moving so that when the economy slows down we can continue to keep taxes low to keep the economy moving?

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Fiscal Policy in Response to Economic Downturns, Pt. 1: What is Fiscal Policy and Why Use It?

Jan 8, 2008 by Craig Jennings

On Friday of last week (January 4), the Bureau of Labor Statistics released December employment data showing that the unemployment rate had jumped from 4.7 percent to 5.0 percent, causing many economists to predict a higher probability of recession in the coming quarters. Attention is now focused on policy makers in anticipation of an offering of some sort fiscal policy response. This series will lay out the basic mechanics of fiscal policy in response to economic downturns.

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Temporary and Targeted: The Basics of an Economic Stimulus Package

The release of dismal national jobs data on Jan. 4 has prompted rumblings from politicians in Washington about the need for an "economic stimulus package." On Jan. 7, President Bush and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson delivered separate speeches on the state of the economy, in which they addressed the basic outlines of a fiscal policy designed to mitigate the effects of a possible recession. Bush announced he is taking a stay-the-course approach while economists from across the political spectrum are calling for some type of stimulus package. The president could still offer a plan in his State of the Union speech at the end of January.

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Economic Slowdown Taking a Toll on Budget Deficit

Jan 8, 2008 by Dana Chasin

According to the CBO Budget Review, released yesterday: The federal budget deficit was about $107 billion in the first quarter of fiscal year 2008, CBO estimates—about $27 billion more than in the same period last year. Outlays have risen by 9 percent compared with their level in the first three months of [fiscal year] 2007, whereas revenues have grown by about 6 percent. The deficit increase is attributed to:

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The Bush Administration Still Doesn't Care About Children

Jan 7, 2008 by Matt Lewis

Bush is preventing some states from opening up Medicaid to more children. The New York Times: The Bush administration is imposing restrictions on the ability of states to expand eligibility for Medicaid, in an effort to prevent them from offering coverage to families of modest incomes who, the administration argues, may have access to private health insurance. The restrictions mirror those the administration placed on the State Children's Health Insurance Program in August after states tried to broaden eligibility for it as well.

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A Rebirth of Keynes?

Jan 3, 2008 by Matt Lewis

Joseph Stiglitz sees stagflation on the horizon. If it does hit, what's a fiscal policy wonk to do? For those who think that a well-managed globalisation has the potential to benefit both developed and developing countries, and who believe in global social justice and the importance of democracy (and the vibrant middle class that supports it), all of this is bad news. Economic adjustments of this magnitude are always painful, but the economic pain is greater today because the winners are less prone to spend.

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Bring The Money Home

Jan 2, 2008 by Matt Lewis

The Bush administration has consistently tried to make the war in Iraq seem like a costless effort. But we pay for every dollar spent in Iraq, particularly in terms of opportunity costs. Every dollar spent in Iraq is lost potential spending in domestic programs.

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