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

Defense Department Punts on Air Force Tanker Deal

Sep 10, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

I came across another delay in a federal contracting effort to report today. Seems the Department of Defense, and more specifically Secretary Robert Gates, feels it will not have sufficient time to complete the re-competition for the contract to build the next generation of mid-air refueling tankers. Gates announced this morning during testimony before the House Armed Services Committee that DoD has decided to cancel the competition and leave the issue for the incoming administration to figure out.

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Senate Committee Hearing Exposes Systemic Problems at DCAA

Sep 10, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee held a hearing today to listen to witnesses describe systemic mismanagement and corruption at the Defense Contract Audit Agency (DCAA).

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Virtual Border Fence Still Just...Virtual

Sep 10, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

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With Bush Tax Cuts In Effect, Cost of Patching AMT Nearly Doubles

Sep 10, 2008 by Craig Jennings

In perusing CBO's latest budget forecast, I am once again taken by the magnitude of the 2001-2003 tax cuts (AKA the Bush tax cuts).

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Who Is Standing in the Way Of Reform?

Sep 9, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Elizabeth Newell wrote an good summary last week in Government Executive magazine of the state of a handful of reforms to the federal contracting process that have been stalled in the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

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Second Stimulus Package In The Works?

Sep 9, 2008 by Craig Jennings

CongressDaily and CQ are both reporting that Congressional Democratic leadership are signaling that they will attempt to move a second stimulus package before they adjourn for the year.

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CBO Predicts $409 Billion Deficit for FY 2008

Sep 9, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released its update to the Budget and Economic Outlook for Fiscal Years 2008 to 2018. The report anticipates that at the end of the current fiscal year (Sept. 30), the federal deficit for FY 2008 will be $409 (about 3 percent of GDP), $51 billion more than it predicted in March.

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Congress Returns with Little Time, Huge Workload

Congress returned to Washington the week of Sept. 8 to a jam-packed schedule and just three weeks left to complete work for the year before the target adjournment date of Sept. 26. Below is a brief summary of some of the major pieces of legislation covering fiscal policy issues that will likely be addressed:

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Rising Unemployment Adds to Struggling Economy

When the Labor Department released its monthly unemployment and jobs data on Sept. 5, it reported that the unemployment rate for the month of August was 6.1 percent. The 0.4 percentage point increase over the prior month has pushed the unemployment rate to a five-year high and is the latest indication that the economy continues to deteriorate.

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The GAO Report Sen. Levin Was Looking For

Sep 8, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

Last month I blogged about a July GAO report that studied the percentage of companies that reported little or no tax liability from 1998 through 2005. While I think the report itself is very telling, I also chastised Sens. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) and Carl Levin (D-MI) a bit (well, really just Levin) for jumping to the conclusion that companies were intentionally cheating on their taxes.

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