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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Budget Reform Proposals-in-Wonderland

Feb 7, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Once again this year, the president's budget includes a set of budget reform proposals, not substantially changed from the proposals put forth in the same space in years past (evaluated here). Among the highlights:

Joint Budget Resolution: The President's budget advocates a joint budget resolution requiring the President's signature. Of course, this would give the Budget Resolution the force of law, meaning that Congress would effectively set the level of appropriations bills.
Line-Item Veto: George Will has the last word...

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Senate Adopts Modestly Expanded Stimulus Bill

Feb 7, 2008 by Dana Chasin

Moments ago, the U.S. Senate passed a $152 billion ($168 billion over two years) stimulus package along the lines described below, by an 81-16 vote. The House is expected to adopt an indentical measure, perhaps as soon as this evening, and send it to the president for his signature.

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DAILY FISCAL POLICY REVIEW

Feb 7, 2008 by Dana Chasin

The FY09 budget proposal submitted Monday by President Bush is the talk of the town (leaving the the Super Bowl and Super Tuesday results and aftermath aside). Not so much because it is likely to be enacted, but because it provides talking points opportunities for everyone. Below are figures from the Senate Budget Committee that express the president's broad priorites in stark terms. The defense figure is the highest in real terms since World War II; the domestic cuts belie the administration's concerns about a recession...

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More Reactions/Analysis of President's Budget

Feb 7, 2008 by Adam Hughes*

More reactions and analysis of the president's budget have emerged since our first round-up post on Tuesday:

CBPP: President's Budget and Medicare "Trigger"
NWLC: Budget Woes: President's FY 2009 Budget
Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget: The President's FY 2009 Budget
The Workforce Alliance: FY 2009 Federal Funding Analyses

There have also been a number of statements and analyses circulated from Capitol Hill:

Senate Budget Committee Dems: Brief Analysis of Bush FY 2009 Budget
Sen. Conrad (D-ND): Statement on FY 2009 Budget Release
Majority Leader Hoyer (D-MD): Bush's Legacy: Fiscal Meltdown, Weak Economy
House Budget Committee: State-by-State Analysis of President's FY 2009 Budget Request
Speaker Pelosi (D-CA): Statement on President Bush's FY 2009 Budget
Majority Leader Hoyer: Statement on Bush's Release of Another Fiscally Irresponsible Budget
Sen. Gregg (R-NH): Statement on FY 2009 Budget Release
Senate Budget Committee Repubs: Overview of President's Budget

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Stimulus Stalled in Senate by Single Vote

Feb 7, 2008 by Dana Chasin

By a 58-41 vote last night, the Senate fell one vote short of invoking cloture on the stimulus package passed last week by the Finance Committee. Majority leader Harry Reid (D-NV) lost his bid to pass a broader package than was passed by the House on Jan. 29. Reid had told his GOP colleagues that the vote would be their one-and-only chance to vote on a stimulus package, but he is virtually certain to hold a vote in the coming days on a pared down version of the Finance Committee bill.

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Monthly Budget Review: February, 2008

Feb 7, 2008 by Craig Jennings

The federal government incurred a deficit of $90 billion in the first four months of fiscal year 2008, CBO estimates, about $48 billion more than the shortfall in the same period last year. Shifts in the timing of certain payments and receipts account for about one-third of that increase in the deficit. ... The federal government recorded a surplus of $15 billion in January, CBO estimates, less than half the surplus recorded in the same month last year.

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Senate Shoot-Out at Stimulus Corral

Feb 6, 2008 by Dana Chasin

With neither side certain of the outcome, the Senate will hold a cloture vote (basically, on whether to proceed to a vote) on an expanded version of the fiscal stimulus package approved last week by the Finance Committee.

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Specific Budget Cuts That Have No Future

Feb 6, 2008 by Craig Jennings

After we pointed out a number of proposed budget cuts that are going nowhere, there have been a few news articles this week about other specific budget cuts proposed by President Bush in his FY 2009 budget that we missed. These also have about a zero percent chance of being enacted by Congress. Those proposed cuts include:

Corporation for Public Broadcasting: Bush would cut 50 percent of the CPBs $400 million budget in FY 2009 and cut $220 million from the $420 million already planned for 2010. (See NYT: Public Broadcasters Prepare to Fight Federal Budget Cuts)
Appalachian Regional Commission: Bush would cut the federal portion of the ARCs budget by 11 percent, dropping it from $73 million to $65 million in FY 2009. Congress has already authorized much higher amounts for the ARC (House - $85 million, Senate - $102 million), which runs grant programs to boost access to housing, health care, the Internet and other services in a 13 state, 410-county area. (See CQ ($): Congress Unlikely to Accept Cuts to Appalachian Development Panel)

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Bush Budget Ignores Consumer Safety Needs

Feb 6, 2008 by Matthew Madia

President Bush's FY 2009 budget request, announced Feb. 4, proposes level funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission — essentially a budget cut when adjusted for inflation. Bush has chosen to flat-line the agency's funding even though the public, media, and Congress are realizing resource shortfalls at CPSC have undermined its ability to ensure product safety. A new article by OMB Watch tracks the history of budget and staffing cuts at the agency and shows how CPSC's resources have not kept pace with the growth of the industries it regulates, specifically the toy industry and the ATV industry.

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Bush Breaks His Record For Tiniest Budget Yet

Feb 6, 2008 by Craig Jennings

Since the president's FY 2009 budget request was mostly a rehash of old policies and proposals we've already spent time debunking in previous years, we've been looking for some new angles with which to view the president's budget. As I was sitting at my desk looking at the budget books in my office, the actual length of the main budget volume released this year jumped out at me. Or I should say, it didn't jump out at me. Turns out the main budget book for the FY 2009 budget is the shortest one ever released by the president. At 170 pages, it is more than 45 percent shorter than the average length of the budget book released each year by President Bush (which came in at 311 pages. Not sure what one can make of this change, particularly since the FY 2008 budget is also much shorter than the Bush average. This particular part of the president's budget proposal has evolved during the Bush administration to be a fancy, glossy, picture-filed advertisement for the administration's achievements and priorities, with little hard budgetary information. It is developed, I suppose, to help the administration put the best spin on their budget proposal and successes. I wonder if the Bush administration is tired of actively selling their misguided priorities, particularly in this final year and that is the reason for the shorter volume? Or perhaps they have realized they really don't have many budget achievements that they should be bragging about?

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