Revenue & Spending

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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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Spending Cuts Loom Large as Budget Debate Continues

Resolution of last year's "fiscal cliff" fight was achieved in the first few hours of the new year with a tax package that made permanent 82 percent of the Bush-era’s tax cuts. This may have made a "grand bargain" on the deficit that balances tax and spending provisions much more difficult to achieve and heightened the likelihood of more spending cuts.

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Fiscal Standoff?

With two weeks left before the end of the year, Congress and President Obama still appear far apart on a possible agreement to avert a pending "fiscal cliff" of tax increases and across-the-board spending cuts that will begin to phase in starting in January if no agreement is reached. Despite the hype, the sky will not fall if no agreement is reached by Jan. 1. The administration has significant authority to delay the effects of both the spending cuts and tax increases for several weeks if necessary. The administration has significant authority to delay the effects of both the spending cuts and tax increases for several weeks if necessary.

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OMB Watch Urges Agencies to Plan for Multiple Ways to Manage Effects of Automatic Spending Cuts

WASHINGTON, Dec. 6, 2012—OMB Watch today urged federal agencies to consider multiple ways to manage the automatic spending cuts that will go into effect in January if federal budget talks continue into 2013. Earlier this week, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) asked agencies to begin planning for the cuts, known as "sequestration." In a November analysis, OMB Watch showed that agencies have a number of tools available to temporarily postpone most of the impacts of the automatic cuts.

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Senate Passes Amendments to Shed Light on Contractor Misbehavior

Nov 30, 2012 by Gavin Baker

The Senate has approved several amendments to the National Defense Authorization Act (S. 3254), which will bring greater transparency and accountability to federal contracting. The amendments, which OMB Watch endorsed, would strengthen whistleblower protections for federal contractors and grantees, modeled after the protections pioneered in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. 

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Report: Corporate CEOs Pushing Tax Reforms that Would Reduce Firms' Taxes by $134 Billion

Nov 19, 2012 by Craig Jennings

A new report by the Institute for Policy Studies (IPS) says that the CEOs backing the "Fix the Debt" campaign could see their companies' bottom lines boosted by $134 billion if they get their way on corporate tax reform.

The report, The CEO Campaign to 'Fix' the Debt, examines one particular element of the Fix the Debt campaign that is a favorite of corporate tax cutters – a move toward a "territorial" tax system.

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Multiple CRS Reports Show Return to Clinton-Era Tax Rates for Rich Will Not Harm Economic Growth

The New York Times recently reported that a Congressional Research Service (CRS) report was "withdrawn from circulation" at the behest of Senate Republicans. The CRS report finds no relationship between upper-income tax rates and economic growth, undercutting Republican claims that an extension of the Bush tax cuts for the wealthy is necessary for economic growth. Senate Republicans called the report's validity into question, and CRS eventually withdrew it. However, the report's findings are only the latest in a series that suggest only a tenuous relationship between the economy and upper-income and capital gains tax cuts.

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White House and Federal Agencies Could Manage Effects of Automatic Spending Cuts in Early 2013

The White House and federal agencies have multiple tools to temporarily postpone most of the impacts of across-the-board spending cuts, known as "sequestration," scheduled to take place on Jan. 2, 2013, if budget talks during the congressional lame-duck session break down, according to a new OMB Watch analysis released Nov. 2.

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Payroll Tax Cut Extension Back on the Table?

Nov 5, 2012 by Craig Jennings

House Budget Committee Ranking Member Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) made a few waves in October when he said that the payroll tax cut should be extended beyond the end of the year. Van Hollen noted that, given the state of the economy, extending the payroll tax cut would put money into the "pockets of working Americans who actually go out and spend that money."

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Extending Current Estate Tax Rates May Force Spending Cuts in Education and Health in 2013

With wealth disparities between the wealthy and middle class continuing to grow under current law, now is not the time to reduce or continue already low rates of taxation on wealth inherited from the top one percent of estates.

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White House, Agencies Can Manage Effects of Automatic Spending Cuts in Early 2013

WASHINGTON, Nov. 2, 2012—A new analysis by OMB Watch released today outlines the remedies available to minimize the effects of automatic spending cuts that will go into effect if the budget impasse in Congress continues into 2013. The White House and executive branch agencies have multiple tools to temporarily postpone most of the impacts of the automatic cuts scheduled to take place on Jan. 2, 2013, if budget talks during the lame-duck session break down.

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Large chemical companies a...

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Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

New scientific research shows that the current levels of...

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