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

OMB Watch to Congress: Flaws Make PART a Useless Evaluation Tool

WASHINGTON, June 13--OMB Watch told Congress today that the Bush administration's Program Assessment Rating Tool (PART) draws biased conclusions about federal program efficacy and should thus continue to be largely ignored by Congress.

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Think Tank Focuses on Economic Security

The incongruity between Congress's priorities and the needs of average Americans was in stark contrast last week. As the Senate prepared to vote on estate tax repeal, the Center for American Progress held a briefing June 6 to explore the growing problem of economic insecurity facing many Americans. Panelists speaking at the briefing were:

Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Institute economist and author;
Louis Uchitelle, New York Times reporter and author;
Paul Krugman, New York Times op-ed columnist and author: and

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Hearing on PART This Afternoon

Jun 13, 2006 by Matthew Madia

OMB Watch's own Director of Federal Fiscal Policy, Adam Hughes, will be testifying this afternoon in front of the Senate Subcommittee on Federal Financial Management, Government Information, and International Security. The hearing is looking at the PART (Program Assessment Rating Tool) and how systematic performance reporting of government agencies helps taxpayers get better services as well as whether Congress can better utilize the report cards to inform their annual budgeting. You can read his full testimony on the OMB Watch website.

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Moderately Rich Better Off With Estate Tax

Jun 13, 2006 by Guest Blogger

In this excellent article in today's Washington Post, columnist Allan Sloan explains why having an estate tax in place (he uses the 2009 levels as an example) would actually be more beneficial to most wealthy people than repealing the estate tax. He explains this issue in terms of having a stepped-up basis vs. a carry-over basis in place (the article explains it all very clearly).

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Senate Rejects Estate Tax Repeal; Frist Likely to Turn to Costly 'Compromise'

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-TN) failed to garner enough support for a procedural vote to move forward with debate on estate tax repeal. The Senate's reject of the motion signals lawmakers may now have realized that their priorities should reflect those of their constituents and the pressing issues facing the country, not tax breaks for multi-millionaires.

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Follow Up on Kasoff Op-ed in The Hill

Jun 12, 2006 by Guest Blogger

About a month ago there was an op-ed in The Hill by Women Impacting Public Policy president Barbara Kasoff that spun estate tax repeal as being positive for women and minority business owners. Not only was the article chalk full of misleading statements, but it was written by the president of a group whose members have a special financially lucrative interest in seeing the estate tax repealed (for more information see our previous blog posting on the article.

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House, Senate Reach Agreement on Supplemental

Jun 9, 2006 by Guest Blogger

After reporting yesterday that the House and Senate had yet to reach a compromise on the supplemental spending bill, they did in fact reach one last night. The $94.5 billion bill to fund the military and hurricane relief also sets the budget spending cap for the Senate at $873 billion (the Senate, remember, had orignally passed a budget resolution allocating $16 billion more in funding, mostly for human needs programs). A number of Senators wanted to boost the cap to $880 billion, but were unable to do so because of resistance from the White House and the House leadership.

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War Funding Methods Draw Increased Criticism

Jun 9, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

We haven't commented on this issue in a while, but the criticisms of the methods used by this administration to fund the wars in Iraq and Afhganistan have not gone away. Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) is the latest to throw his hat into the ring - announcing Thursday he intends to introduce an amendment to this year's Defense Authorization bill that would force the Pentagon to request war funds through the annual budget process.

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Commentary on Failed Estate Tax Repeal Effort

By Gary Bass, executive director, OMB Watch
Today, the Senate voted to stop debate on legislation to repeal the estate tax, holding at bay once again the well-funded 20 year campaign to kill the tax. OMB Watch applauds those senators who voted to preserve the estate tax and save the American people $1 trillion in the process. Opponents of the estate tax will continue their push and will now likely turn to "reform" as a backdoor to gutting the tax.

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Iraq Supplemental Delayed Over Discretionary Cap Disputes

Jun 8, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

The FY 2006 emergency supplemental bill to fund war efforts in Iraq and Afghanistan was held up this afternoon because of a dispute over where the Senate should set the discretionary spending limits for FY 2007 appropriations bills. According to CQ Today, a spokeswoman for Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Thad Cochran (R-MS) "confirmed that a resolution 'deeming' a Senate fiscal 2007 spending cap had not been resolved. She said it would be difficult to reach agreement on a final bill without a deeming resolution attached to it."

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