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

Orszag on PART: Exactly!

Jan 21, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

I wanted to follow up on Craig's post from earlier today about OMB Director Peter Orszag's confirmation hearing last week. In addition to some rational, fact-based statements on federal contracting, Orszag also made some pretty insightful comments during the hearing about the Bush administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART). Orszag's comments mirrored some of the concerns OMB Watch has had about the PART for years.

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Orszag to Contract Use of Contractors

Jan 21, 2009 by Craig Jennings

In his confirmation hearing in front the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee last week, then-OMB Director nominee Peter Orszag (confirmed on Tuesday) made some encouraging remarks about curtailing the use of contractors to perform governmental work.

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Stimulus Through Tax Evasion

Jan 16, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Reading more about the tax provisions in the stimulus has done nothing to settle my stomach.

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Senate Votes Against Withholding TARP Funds

Jan 15, 2009 by Craig Jennings

CQ Politics:

By 42-52, the Senate rejected a resolution of disapproval (S J Res 5) designed to block release of the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

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First Look at House Stimulus Legislation

Jan 15, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Update:
The House Appropriations Committee has released the legislative text of the stimulus bill.

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AMT as Economic Stimulus? That's Just Crazy!

Jan 15, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

Yesterday afternoon I came across a crazy headline in the CQ Midday Update email we get here at the Budget Brigade and I had to read it twice because I couldn't believe it. "AMT 'Patch' May Be Added to Economic Recovery Package," it read. Hmmm...that just seems crazy, totally crazy. What exactly does patching the Alternative Minimum Tax have to do with economic recovery? I'll tell you - absolutely nothing.

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Revised SCHIP Legislation Passes House

Jan 14, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

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Notes from the Economy: The Bush Record

Jan 14, 2009 by Craig Jennings

"It's almost a lost economic decade." -- Mark Zandi, co-founder of and chief economist at Moody's Economy.com

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IRS Audits Decrease, But More High-Income Returns Scrutinized

Jan 14, 2009 by Adam Hughes*

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has decreased the number of audits it performs in 2008, but is auditing more upper-income filers. From the article:

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Obama to Drop Some Business Tax Cuts from Stimulus

Jan 13, 2009 by Craig Jennings

Well, this is certainly good news (sorry, BNA email, no link):

Aides to President-elect Obama agreed late Jan. 12 to drop an unpopular idea to provide a $3,000 tax credit for companies hiring new workers from the economic stimulus package, Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) told BNA.

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