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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

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...

read in full

more news

Congressional Budget Chairs to Bush: Budget War Costs

Jan 3, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Over the holidays, incoming Senate Budget Committee chair Kent Conrad (D-ND), the incoming House Budget Committee chair John Spratt (D-SC), and the Senate Budget Committee chair Judd Gregg (R-NH) sent a letter to President Bush reminding him to include the full costs of the Iraq and Afghanistan military operations in his regular budget submission for FY 2008, expected on or about February 7, 2007. The letter opens:

read in full

Humbled Bush Writes in WSJ

Jan 3, 2007 by Matt Lewis

President Bush has fired the opening shot of the 2007 budget battle, writing an op-ed in today's WSJ. The piece is mostly PR, which is an encouraging sign that the President is more interested in repairing his image than pursuing harmful policy. Substance-wise, the President is not asking for much more than the continuation of the status quo. Some notable budgetary policies and goals mentioned in the op-ed:

No new taxes: "Now is not the time to raise taxes on the American people."

read in full

GOP Running From Estate Tax?

Jan 3, 2007 by Adam Hughes*

CongressDaily ($) is reporting that House Republicans are drafting their own minimum wage increase legislation that will not include an estate tax provision. Here's the key passage: The decision to pass on the estate tax reflects an effort on the part of Republicans to avoid heated partisan conflicts such as the pitched battle over the so-called trifecta bill last year, according to aides. Looks like the GOP has decided the "trifecta" strategy from last year wasn't such a winner for them.

read in full

Interior Shows Waste in Oil Royalty Program

Dec 22, 2006 by Matt Lewis

The latest in a NYT series on how well the federal government treats the oil and gas industry shows just how wasteful this nice treatment is. The article focuses on an Interior Department study that found almost no benefit to giving energy companies a royalty break for drilling on public property. Over 40 years, these breaks will cost around $48 billion- and probably won't produce a drop of oil that wouldn't have otherwise been pumped. The report estimates that the current incentives would have a tiny impact that is far exceeded by swings in market prices.

read in full

Financial Improprieties at Homeland Security?

Dec 22, 2006 by Dana Chasin

The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General released a report Wednesday in which Auditor KPMG warned the Department of multiple potential violations of a fiscal law barring agencies from spending money in excess of appropriations. On top of that, the New York Times reports today that: KPMG LLP said for the third straight year that it could not provide an opinion on the balance sheet of the $40.3 billion department, the second-largest federal agency, because of its lax financial controls and oversight.

read in full

WSJ's Misleading Article on Domestic Spending

Dec 22, 2006 by Matt Lewis

The Wall Street Journal writes today that Democrats are going to have a tough time enacting their spending priorities, whatever they may be. True enough. But a key statement in the article is very misleading. But cutting costs isn't easy. Spending on nonsecurity discretionary programs has increased by about 23% since Mr. Bush took office. The White House -- prodded by conservative Republicans on Capitol Hill -- has tried to trim spending and asked Congress to cut some nonsecurity discretionary spending for 2006 and 2007.

read in full

CTJ's AMT Reform Proposasl

Dec 21, 2006 by Dana Chasin

AMT reform is a thorny issue, discussed at length here, which will confront Congress in 2007. Now comes A Progressive Solution to the AMT Problem from Citizens for Tax Justice (CTJ). The key elements of their four-year, revenue-neutral plan:

extend the 2006 AMT exemptions through 2010, indexed for inflation
remove the 15 percent tax rate on capital gains and dividends, treating from capital gains them the same as other income, but only for AMT purposes

read in full

PAYGO and Progressive Legislaiton

Dec 21, 2006 by Matt Lewis

If you're interested in how PAYGO might affect progressive legislation, check out this discussion at Inclusionist.org that I chimed in on. And read the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities statement on PAYGO that got the ball rolling. It's got good background info on PAYGO for anyone who's new to the issue.

read in full

Bush Kind Of Supports Min. Wage Increase

Dec 21, 2006 by Matt Lewis

Bush says he's for a minimum wage increase...that comes with tax and regulatory breaks for business. See the story here. President Bush endorsed one of the Democrats' top priorities for the new Congress, a $2.10-an-hour minimum wage increase _ and on a faster timetable than they have proposed. But his support comes with a catch. Bush said at a Wednesday news conference that any pay hike should be accompanied by tax and regulatory relief for small businesses, potentially a tough sell for Democrats, who are about to reassume control of the House and Senate.

read in full

Brass Bounces Ball to Budget

Dec 20, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Sounds like Dana spoke too soon. According to the AP, the supplemental request is now $99.7 billion. WASHINGTON - The Pentagon wants the White House to seek an additional $99.7 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, according to information provided to The Associated Press. The military's request, if embraced by President Bush and approved by Congress, would boost this year's budget for those wars to about $170 billion. One hundred billion was just too high, apparently.

read in full