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

Pre-PAYGO Patch Fails on 205-207 Vote

Dec 8, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

This afternoon, the House defeated, 205-207, an amendment by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-MA) to require oil companies with royalty-free offshore leases to renegotiate those deals before winning new leases in certain areas. Rep. Charles Rangel (D-NY), the House Ways and Means ranking Democrat, had added language to the amandment, CQ ($) reports "to allow a 2007 “patch” for the alternative minimum tax that would have cost $48 billion."

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House Extends Oversight of Iraq Reconstruction Funds

Dec 8, 2006 by Craig Jennings

In a stroke of good judgment, the House has decided that oversight of $38 billion in Iraq reconstruction funds is, in fact, something that should be conducted beyond next year. CQ (no link): The House by voice vote cleared S 4046, to extend the term of a special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction until 10 months after 80 percent of Iraq reconstruction funding has been spent -- a threshold expected to be reached in late 2008. A provision of the fiscal 2007 defense authorization law set Oct. 1, 2007, as the end of the inspector general's term.

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Perverse Priorities in the Tax Extenders Package

Dec 8, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Though popular, the tax extenders package that seems headed for approval today is not without its perverse aspects. For instance, a funding patch for the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) was stripped out of the package, at the same time that funding for Health Savings Accounts (HSA) was added. SCHIP benefits low-income children- HSAs the wealthy and privileged. For more, see this statement by Robert Greenstein of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorites. It has been known all year that without additional SCHIP funding, 17 states would face SCHIP

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Tax Package -- Almost a Wrap

Dec 7, 2006 by Dana Chasin

As business draws to a close on the penultimate day of the 109th Congress, House and Senate negotiators have substantially agreed on the terms of a tax extenders package. Cost: $45 billion over 10 years. The package features a broader array of tax break extensions and modifications than had been part of the package in the reconciliation, pension, and trifecta bills earlier in the year (the largest element of which is the R&D credit, at $16.5 billion). Cost: $35.9 billion It also includes:

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"Anything Goes" at Interior Department. Anything.

Dec 7, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Back in September, you may recall a series of reports based on an internal investigation of the Interior Department that, essentially, showed that gas and oil companies were getting away with skimping on royalty payments. Interior just wasn't auditing these companies enough to compel the royalties they owed for extracting natural resources from public property. Now, CBS News reports that not only were they not auditing enough, they didn't actually do the auditing they said they did. Interior misrepresented the number of audits they had been doing all along!

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Iraq Study Group: President Should Cease Emergency Funding Requests for War

Dec 7, 2006 by Craig Jennings

The Iraq Study Group, a bipartisan panel convened to ascertain the Iraq war and recommend courses of action, released its report yesterday. Recommendation 72 of the ISG is that:

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CBO Directors Gloomy about Health Care

Dec 6, 2006 by Matt Lewis

CongressDaily AM($) picked up a meeting of three former CBO directors who aren't very optimistic about the nation's fiscal health. Pessimistic about Congress' willingness to address looming fiscal shortfalls in federal healthcare and Social Security programs, three former CBO directors said Tuesday the outlook is bleak for heading off the problems.

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Tax Extenders: a Hail Mary, then Time to Punt?

Dec 6, 2006 by Dana Chasin

House-Senate negotiations on the oft-deferred tax extenders package broke down today. With adjournment for the year expected by week's end, prospects now look more likely for a lump of coal than a compromise. The sticking point: a provision to forestall a scheduled five percent cut in Medicare payments to physicians, scheduled to take effect in January. The provision would cost an estimated $10.8-12 billion over five years. Still, the Senate may float the provision, along with numerous trade measures -- "a Hail Mary pass" over to the house, in the words of one Senate GOP aid.

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From Earmark to Earful: the Iraq Study Group

Dec 6, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

This morning, we witnessed a remarkable moment in American history: a sitting President's policy castigated and condemned in person by members of a highly-respected bipartisan group -- including a former Supreme Court Justice, former Secretaries of State, and former Presidential Chiefs of Staff -- over military policy relating to one of the five or six major wars ever undertaken by this country. And to think, that group, the Iraq Study Group, was created by a tiny earmark inserted into a war supplemental bill by a rank-and-file Republican member of the House. As the New York Times put it:

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