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

Tell Congress: Don't Gut the Estate Tax!

Dec 9, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

As you could probably tell from our post on Tuesday, we think the recent compromise unnecessarily harms the estate tax, helping millionaires and making the tax code even more regressive. But we need your help to convince Congress that gutting the estate tax is bad policy. Below is a copy of an action alert we just sent out; if you didn't get it, please take a second to read through it and call your senators and representatives. Tell them to fight for a strong estate tax!

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Obama Tax Cut Compromise Capitulates on Estate Tax

Dec 7, 2010 by Gary Bass*

President Obama's tax cut deal with congressional Republicans, if enacted by Congress, will achieve what President George W. Bush could not get done: create a path to effectively kill the estate tax.

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Colbert Reminds Us What the Estate Tax is Really About

Dec 2, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

On The Colbert Report yesterday, host Stephen Colbert mocked conservative pundits and politicians ginning up fear over the return of the estate tax in 2011. Recently, conservatives have been bemoaning the potential impacts of a returning estate tax on the decision-making processes of families with wealthy relatives near death. Colbert empathized with "all those innocent, God-fearing people who are willing to kill Nana for the extra cash."

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$3.3 Trillion Deficit Reduction Plan Set to Take Effect Jan. 1

Dec 2, 2010 by Craig Jennings

One deficit plan that's not getting much attention, and one which can easily pass a Republican-controlled Congress, is the one that the Republican-controlled Congress approved in 2001 (and further augmented in 2003): The 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts.

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President’s Deficit Commission Releases Not-So-Great Final Proposal

Dec 1, 2010 by Sam Rosen-Amy

At long last, after months of meetings and deliberation, the much-hyped National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform (the Deficit Commission) released its final report earlier today. Tasked by the President to slash the budget deficit by 2015, the Commission had until today to release a plan. If fourteen of the eighteen members of the Commission vote to approve it, the then-leaders of the House and Senate (Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV)) agreed to bring the plan up for a vote.

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OMB Watch Pans Deficit Commission Plan

WASHINGTON, Dec. 1, 2010—OMB Watch today panned the plan proposed by the co-chairs of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform to reshape the nation’s fiscal priorities. While the plan contains some praiseworthy provisions targeted at the tax code and the federal budget process, overall, it represents an unfortunate step backward in meeting the needs of the nation’s working families.

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Check Sky for Pigs, Senate Passes Food Safety Bill

Nov 30, 2010 by Matthew Madia

After a long and frustrating journey, the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act cleared the Senate today in a bipartisan 73-25 vote.

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Commentary: Earmark Ban's Potential Impacts Unclear

Earmarks took center stage during the week of Nov. 15 when congressional Republicans pledged to "ban" the controversial appropriations tool in a bid to answer the supposed call of midterm voters to reform Washington. Long used by members of Congress to guide federal spending toward certain projects, earmarks can be seen by the public as a form of corruption. While proponents of the ban argue that eliminating earmarks is good for both transparency and the budget, critics of the ban argue this is not necessarily the case.

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Millions Face Loss of Unemployment Insurance

On Nov. 18, the House failed to pass a three-month extension of unemployment insurance (UI), putting the benefits of nearly 2 million Americans in jeopardy. With funds for federal benefits set to expire Nov. 30, the failure to enact an extension sets up a post-Thanksgiving battle between UI extension advocates and deficit hawks. Complicating matters, the debate over extending the Bush tax cuts will likely encroach upon the UI benefits extension dispute, increasing the likelihood that many citizens will be cut off from help as the holiday season begins.

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Conservatives should get Their Facts Straight before Criticizing QE2

Nov 19, 2010 by Gary Therkildsen*

It seems the Federal Reserve's latest proposed move to stimulate the economy and reduce unemployment isn't that popular with the GOP. On Wednesday, the party's leadership sent a letter to Federal Reserve Chair Ben Bernanke expressing concern that the plan to purchase an additional $600 billion worth of U.S. Treasury bonds might produce “hard-to-control, long-term inflation.” Nothing in the available economic data, however, even hints at an uptick in inflation.

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