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

Longer-run Economic Performance

Jan 6, 2004 by Guest Blogger

Sustained Budget Deficits: Longer-Run U.S. Economic Performance and the Risk of Financial and Fiscal Disarray Robert E. Rubin, Peter Orszag, and Allen Sinai

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The Estate Tax and the Holocaust

Jan 6, 2004 by Guest Blogger

There was an interesting commentary in the Washington Post by Richard Cohen which followed up on the comments made last October by conservative Grover Norquist.

"...among other things, Norquist compared the estate tax to the Holocaust."

"...This is unbridled selfishness in the guise of ideology and makes wealth the moral equivalent of ethnicity or religion or even sexual preference. To Norquist, distinguishing between rich and poor is like making a selection at Auschwitz. It not only trivializes the Holocaust, it collapses all moral distinctions."

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Preview of 2005 Budget

Jan 5, 2004 by Guest Blogger

The NY times is reporting on some details of the 2005 budget according to "administration officials."

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Recent Budget Staff Publications

OMB Watch produces a wide range of analyses. All of the analyses are sorted by topic in our main section (follow the link, and click on the category on the left side.) In addition, since the summer of 2004, we have produced three series of major publications: Notes, Reports, and Perspecitves. Notes contain shorter analyses of current federal budget and economic trends and outcomes. Reports contain more detailed analyses or research on federal budget topics.

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Long-run Fiscal Condition of the US

Dec 22, 2003 by Adam Hughes*

A new report from the CBO shows just how harmful current tax policies have been to the long-run health of the country.

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Arizona Charities and the Estate Tax

Dec 22, 2003 by Guest Blogger

A story from the Arizona Republic

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Lost revenue from tax evasion

Dec 19, 2003 by Guest Blogger

The nation is loosing up to $40 billion in revenue per year from tax avoidance, according to a story in today's Washington Post.

The story also indicates that "...efforts to shift resources to the problem have slowed considerably, even as the extent of the problem has unfolded."

In fact, according to the story, last year the IRS commissioner admitted that "79 percent of identified taxpayers who use abusive devices such as offshore accounts are not pursued."

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The Omnibus Spending Bill and the Budget Process

Dec 17, 2003 by Guest Blogger

OMB Watch - The Omnibus Spending Bill and the Budget Process

The omnibus appropriations legislation is still pending. While most of the criticism about the bill has focused on the amount of "pork" it contains, the real problem is the seriously flawed budget process it reflects.

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