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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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- June 4, 2008

Jun 4, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Taxes -- Extenders to Bypass Senate Finance Cmte.: With the election year compressing the legislative calendar and an underlying conflict on PAYGO simmering in committee, it appears the Senate bill extending expiring tax breaks will bypass the Senate Finance Committee and reach the Senate vote once the climate change bill is voted on. Committee member Mike Crapo (R-ID) warned: "When you bypass the committee, then you basically set up more of a partisan fight on the floor," he said, predicting a filibuster. Senate Extenders Bill Summary.

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The Health Care Entitlement That Must Not Be Named

Jun 3, 2008 by Craig Jennings

In a post over at inclusionist, Shawn Fremstad makes a crucial point about federal health care spending. In fact, the 2nd biggest health care entitlement isn't Medicaid, it's the $200+ billion tax break for employer-sponsored health insurance. The health insurance tax break costs around $30 billion more than Medicaid and, if my recollection is correct, is increasing at a faster rate than either Medicaid or Medicare. It's also, unlike Medicare or Medicaid, a regressive tax subsidy that provides more benefits for the wealthy.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- June 3, 2008

Jun 3, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Economy -- Fed Chief Shifts Focus from Slowdown: In a sign that the round of rate-cutting since last summer may be ending, Fed Chief Ben Bernanke indicated more of a concern with inflation in a speech today than with the economic slowndown that has generate months' of speculation about a possible recession in the U.S. Bernanke Speech.

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JCT Adopts More Logical URL

Jun 2, 2008 by Dana Chasin

And now a word from our friends at the Joint Committee on Taxation: We are pleased to announce that The Joint Committee on Taxation has a new web address: www.jct.gov. We hope that this more logical address will make our website easier for you to remember, and encourage you to visit it frequently. The old address (www.house.gov/jct) is still functional and will continue to work for the time being. Please update your favorites/bookmarks.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- June 2, 2008

Jun 2, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Congress returns to session today, starting in on a number of key legislative priorities with important fiscal policy implications that leadership hopes to complete before the July 4 recess. Among them, from most to least likely to see action this week:

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Controversial Medicaid Rule Nixed by Court

May 30, 2008 by Matthew Madia

A federal court has sent back (vacated and remanded, in regulatory-speak) to the Bush administration a rule aimed to limit government reimbursement for Medicaid providers. The rule is one of several the administration is attempting to codify in an effort to undermine the entire Medicaid program. The process by which the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services finalized the rule was particularly sneaky, even by Bush administration standards. A New York Times editorial explains:

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Five Years of Bush Tax Cuts, Another Five Years Increasing Inequality

May 29, 2008 by Craig Jennings

When the Treasury Department released a stack of propaganda analyses yesterday on the 2001-2003 Bush tax cuts, they also promulgated a press release to accompany their reports. While their message was nothing more than years-old, warmed over talking points, it has provided yet another opportunity to talk about the continual deepening of income inequality in the United States.

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Looking at Taxes in a Hysterical Perspective

May 29, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Yesterday was apparently the fifth anniversary of a momentous occasion in American history. And another day in infamy approaches. On the off-chance that Americans somehow overlooked the fact that noteworthy tax legislation was signed by President Bush on May 28, 2003 -- and this blog stands guilty on that score -- the administration saw fit to mark the moment with a flurry of papers and pronouncements, including:

a historical perspective
various and sundry Tax Relief Topics
a helpful Fact Sheet
and a press release

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REPORT -- May 29, 2007

May 29, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Economy -- It's Not A Recssion, per CEA Chair: Edward Lazear, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, said yesterday that, of the five measures the private National Bureau of Economic Research uses to date the start and end of recessions, only one--sales in retail and manufacturing--"are declining at rates commensurate with prior recessions." Recent job losses are at "less than half the rate that prevailed during the mild recession of 2001." Payrolls have declined four months in a row.

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Pentagon IG Report Exposes Cost of Contracting

May 28, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The good folks at POGO have come into the possession of one Defense Department Inspector General's report published in March of this year. This report was at the center of a congressional hearing that was commented on by Stan Collender in a blog post (and WaPo story) we flagged yesterday. And according to the report:

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