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

Ways & Means Opens Bipartisan AMT Reform Talks

May 16, 2007 by Dana Chasin

The first tentative steps were taken today toward bipartisan, if not quite bicameral, discussion of AMT reform. An initial meeting was held among members of the House Ways and Means Committee -- "an information session, not a strategy session," according to Rep. Thomas Reynolds (R-NY). That's more encouraging language than committee ranking Republcan Jim McCreary's (R-LA) take yesterday on the Democratics' draft AMT reform package: "Scary."

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Overview: the Budget Resolution Conference Agreement

May 16, 2007 by Dana Chasin

For overviews of the budget resolution compromise package announced late this morning by the House and Senate Budget Committees, see:

Overview of the FY 2008 Budget Conference Agreement
Conrad-Spratt Press Release on Budget Conference Agreement

As the press release indicates, "[t]he full Senate and House are each expected to pass the fiscal year 2008 budget resolution this week." Some of the key provisions in the agreement that had been amoung the most heavily negotiated include:

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BULLETIN: Conferees Agree on Budget Resolution; Discretionary Cap Set at $954 Bn.

May 16, 2007 by Dana Chasin

In a key development in budget resolution negotiations, House and Senate conferees this morning reached a compromise on the FY 2008 budget resolution. The resolution sets a non-war discretionary spending cap of $954 billion for the fiscal year's twelve appropriations bills. Votes in the House and Senate to adopt the budget resolution compromise are expected later this week. More to follow as additional details on the compromise become available.

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Watcher: May 15, 2007

May 16, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The latest in fiscal policy, from The Watcher: Social Programs Are Collateral Damage of the War Funding Debate A review of the debate over the war funding bill and the social programs caught in the same net. Budget Resolution Report and Vote Could Come Soon Conferees have nearly resolved the few major differences between Senate and House versions of the congressional budget resolution.

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Grassley "Shocked" re AMT Reform: Your Point Being?

May 15, 2007 by Dana Chasin

Recent remarks by ranking Senate Finance Republican Charles Grassley (R-IA) about an AMT reform package that won't be announced for weeks makes us all wonder if those weary old tax scare lines still work regardless of the facts.

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Budget Resolution Report and Vote Could Come Soon

During the week of May 7, House and Senate budget resolution conferees began meeting to settle differences between the House- and Senate-passed $2.9 trillion budget resolutions. Despite a pre-emptive veto threat by the Bush administration, conferees are expected to produce a more generous and more fiscally sound budget plan than the president has proposed.

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Comment on the CAP Contracting Report

May 15, 2007 by Matt Lewis

A quick comment on the CAP report- it focuses on the surge in non-competitive contracts. But non-competitive bids are just the most obvious example of how market forces are not being applied in government contracting. The most damning observation that the CAP report makes is that even if these bids were competitive, the work wouldn't be done efficiently. Agencies need resources to hold contractors accountable, but they often don't have them.

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Social Programs Are Collateral Damage of the War Funding Debate

Congress and the president have yet to resolve their differences over an emergency spending bill for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Caught in the middle of this fight are high-priority proposals to raise the minimum wage, provide stopgap funding for a children's health insurance program, and restore some cuts for energy assistance. A drawn-out debate over war funding could end up causing unnecessary hardship for people who depend on the passage of these initiatives. War Funding

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CAP on Contract Reform

May 15, 2007 by Matt Lewis

The Center for American Progress has a comprehensive new report on government contracting and how it could be reformed.

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The Health Care Mountain

May 15, 2007 by Craig Jennings

Ezra Klein has an excellent post on the nature of long term fiscal health. Given this chart from a Center on Budget and Policy Priorities report, Klein wonders why Social Security get so much attention. Or, as he puts it: Look at that gentle slope for Social Security! You could do that in Rockports! Mt. Medicare and Medicaid, by contrast, require climbing gear.

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