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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Congress Passes Sweeping Lobbying and Ethics Reforms

After a year-long debate and negotiations over enacting lobbying and ethics reforms, Congress finally passed the Honest Leadership and Open Government Act of 2007 (S. 1). While not an ideal set of reforms, the new law is the most significant lobbying and ethics reform in a decade and should make important strides in increasing accountability and transparency in Washington.

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CBO's Monthly Budget Update - August 2007

Aug 7, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Receipts in July 2007 were about $10.5 billion (or 7 percent) higher than they were in July 2006, CBO estimates. Higher withholding for individual income and payroll taxes explains the gains, with an increase of almost $11 billion (or 8 percent). Net corporate receipts for the small number of companies that make income tax payments in July were lower by about $1 billion (or 10 percent). Outlays were $15 billion (or 8 percent) greater this July than they were last July, CBO estimates. Defense spending accounted for the strongest growth, up by about $6 billion

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Good, But Not Perfect, Article On Privatization

Aug 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

There's a thin line between being a whiner and having high expectations. So at risk of sounding like a whiner, here's quick examination of what was otherwise an enlightening article in the New Yorker on student loans. In the following paragraph, the author is attempting to explain the causes of waste and graft in the student loan industry, which is basically a privatization scheme, with government providing money and loan guarantees, and private lenders doing the business.

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Congress Approves Fiscally Responsible Expansion of Children's Health Insurance

During the week of July 30, the House and Senate passed different versions of a reauthorization and expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) that will expand health care coverage to millions of uninsured children across the country. The Senate version would extend coverage to about four million additional children, while the House version would add five million children and root out excess costs in the Medicare Advantage program, which privatizes health insurance but at a higher cost than traditional Medicare coverage.

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Background Brief: House SCHIP Bill Would Reduce Subsidies to Insurance Companies

As part of its measure to expand SCHIP coverage to five million additional children, the House would limit payments to private health care providers under the Medicare Advantage program (MA). Over five years, the plan to limit these payments will offset part of the $50 billion cost of the SCHIP bill. More than just a revenue raiser, the House plan, Children's Health and Medicare Protection (CHAMP) Act, would restore equity to Medicare and force private providers that participate in Medicare Advantage to compete with traditional Medicare on a level playing field.

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Senate Committees OK Nussle

On July 31 and Aug. 2, the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Budget Committees approved the nomination of former Rep. Jim Nussle (R-IA) to serve as Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Director, by votes of 16-0 and 22-1, respectively. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) has scheduled a floor vote on the nomination for Sept. 4.

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Preaching To People Who Aren't In The Choir

Aug 6, 2007 by Matt Lewis

I thought I'd point up an interesting article I read over the weekend in Reason, a libertarian magazine.

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Economic Recovery and Its Discontents

Aug 3, 2007 by Craig Jennings

This week's EPI Snapshot brings into focus who really benefited from the 2001-2005 economic recovery. Since the beginning of the recovery in 2001, the income share of the top 1% grew 3.6 percentage points to 21.8% in 2005, greater than the 16.1% income share of the entire bottom half of all U.S. households. Correspondingly, the income shares of the bottom half and the upper-middle class dropped, respectively, by 1.4 and 2.3 percentage points. As a result, the top 1% of households gained $268 billion of total income and the bottom 90% lost $272 billion since 2001.

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Bush & Lobby/Ethics Reform -- See:Yellowcake File

Aug 3, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Some people regard the lobbying and ethics bill passed by Congress yesterday as the most significant congressional reform measure adopted in years. Bloomberg reported yesterday that "The U.S. Senate passed legislation that lawmakers said will provide the most sweeping changes in ethics rules in a generation."

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"Carry", Part II: WaPo's Excellent Front-Page Story

Aug 3, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Jeffrey Birnbaum and Lori Montgomery's front-page story in today's Washington Post, Wall Street's Lucrative Tax Break Is Under Fire is dense and lengthy (1500 words) reading. But if you're trying to get a grip on the carried interest tax loophole issue -- particularly its legal/regulatory historical underpinnings -- it's the best place to start. The crux of the article puts the case for closing the loophole in straightforward terms:

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