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

OMB Watch Set to Launch FedSpending v2.0

Feb 22, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

OMB Watch will be releasing an updated version of our popular website FedSpending.org later today. FedSpending.org allows users to search and download extensive information about government spending going back to FY 2000, from contracts to grants, loans, insurance payments, and direct spending. Below are some preview screenshots of the new look and features of the website. The new site will go live later this afternoon. Be sure to check it out and explore the new features. New FedSpending.org Homepage with Features(click to englarge) Added Summary Outputs with Trend Chart(click to englarge)

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Watcher: February 21, 2007

Feb 21, 2007 by Matt Lewis

Congress Finally Finishes FY 07 Appropriations Congress Seeks to End IRS Privatization Program Squabbling Over Tax Cuts Continues to Delay Minimum Wage Increase

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Snow Hints at Administration Sincerity re AMT Reform

Feb 21, 2007 by Dana Chasin

At a press conference last week, White House press secretary Tony Snow applies the administration's familiar "let's you and him fight" strategy (that's worked so well to paralyze the entitlement reform discussion) to AMT reform:

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Class Wars in the Budget

Feb 21, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Bush budget proposal assumed the repeal of the estate tax. Sen. Bernie Sanders's office juxtaposed what certain families would get from a repealed estate tax with assorted proposed cuts to social programs. Matt Taibbi of Rolling Stone summed up the comparisons thusly: Sanders's office came up with some interesting numbers here. If the Estate Tax were to be repealed completely, the estimated savings to just one family -- the Walton family, the heirs to the Wal-Mart fortune -- would be about $32.7 billion dollars over the next ten years.

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Congress Seeks to End IRS Privatization Program

Legislation has been introduced in the House and Senate that would halt an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) program that outsources certain tax collection responsibilities to private companies. The costly and dangerous program has been soundly criticized by Congress, the IRS National Taxpayer Advocate, and outside consumer groups since it began last fall.

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Congress Finally Finishes FY 07 Appropriations

It took four extra months and a new Congress, but on Feb. 14, lawmakers finished the FY 2007 appropriations cycle when the Senate passed H.J.Res. 20. The $463.5 billion spending bill passed 81-15. The President signed the bill the next day, just in time to prevent a government shutdown.

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Squabbling Over Tax Cuts Continues to Delay Minimum Wage Increase

On Feb. 16, by a vote of 360-45, the U.S. House of Representatives passed H.R. 976, a ten-year, $1.3 billion package of offset tax cuts designed to accompany a $2.10 per hour increase in the minimum wage. On Feb. 1, the Senate adopted S. 2 — including its own set of offset tax cuts totaling $8.3 billion over ten years. The two tax packages differ markedly in size and content, and S. 2 includes the minimum wage hike while H.R. 976 comprises only the tax provisions, which could complicate the procedural road ahead.

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A Reich-Minded View of Balanced Budgets

Feb 21, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Former Clinton administration Secretary of Labor Robert Reich blogged last week about Why Balancing the Budget is a Stupid Idea. It's almost impossible to agree or disagree with his reasoning, because he doesn't provide any. Oh, well, perhaps this part supports his argument:

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OMB Watch Teams up with Sunlight's Open House Project

Feb 20, 2007 by Dana Chasin

OMB Watch is collaborating with the Sunlight Foundation in its "Open House" project to help the U.S. House of Representatives innovate and expand in its internet-based efforts to engage greater numbers of American citizens in the political process. The project will also issue recommendations on how the House can, via the internet, become increasingly transparent to citizens.

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Minimum Wage Rates, State-by-State

Feb 20, 2007 by Dana Chasin

A set of Wall Street Journal graphics under the heading "Minimum Wage Debate" provides the following data:

minimum wages by state
median income by state
poverty rates by state
proportion in each state directly affected by minimum wage

Among other things, the graphics make clear that a majority of states now have minimum wage rates greather than the federal standard, that the nation's wealthiest cities and states tend to have the highest minimum wage rates, and that workers in the poorest states are most affected by changes in the minimum wage rate.

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