Revenue & Spending

New Posts

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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Center for Effective Government Supports Reintroduction of the DATA Act

WASHINGTON, May 22, 2013—The Center for Effective Government welcomed the reintroduction of a revised version of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act, or DATA Act, in both the House and Senate this week. The Center for Effective Government commended Sens. Mark Warner (D-VA) and Rob Portman (R-OH) and Reps. Darrell Issa (R-CA) and Elijah Cummings (D-MD) for working together on this important legislation. The DATA Act will provide an unprecedented level of transparency and create critical new tools to track and analyze federal spending and hold officials accountable for their decisions.

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Federal Spending Needs More Transparency: The DATA Act and Reform

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee unveiled its discussion draft of the Digital Accountability and Transparency Act of 2013 on May 10. This legislation, more commonly known as the DATA Act, is intended to bring unprecedented public transparency to federal spending by requiring more spending data to be published online, in a standardized format, and in a searchable, downloadable database.

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The Lack of Jobs Is the Problem, Not Deficits

May 15, 2013 by Nick Schwellenbach

Budget deficits are shrinking at a breakneck pace now and will continue to do so over the next several years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which released its latest projections on the budget and the economy on May 14. Meanwhile, we have anemic jobs growth that’s worse than it should be, in large part because of all the extreme deficit reduction measures we’ve seen over the last few years.

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Without Austerity, More Americans Would Have Jobs

May 10, 2013 by Nick Schwellenbach

As if Americans needed anymore confirmation that austerity is holding the economy back, The New York Times this week reported that the consensus among private financial analysts – as well as by the International Monetary Fund and the U.S. Federal Reserve and others – is that sequestration and earlier spending cuts are translating into fewer jobs and a worse economy for the nation overall.

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Hang Together or Hang Separately: The Battle Against Austerity

Sequestration's automatic spending cuts were back in the news over the past few weeks. For a brief time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had to furlough employees, leading to nationwide flight delays. At roughly the same time, a researcher exposed major flaws in one of the key texts serving as an intellectual buttress to global austerity policies. While those fighting against economically damaging austerity measures received a boost from these events, many fiscal policy battles and pitfalls still lie ahead.

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What's At Stake: Sequestering Meals on Wheels Could Cost the Nation $489 Million per Year

Sequestering Meals on Wheels funds could cost taxpayers far more than it saves. While across-the-board spending cuts that began March 1, called sequestration, are expected to reduce spending on Meals on Wheels programs this year by an estimated $10 million, these savings will dwarfed by at least $489 million per year in increased spending on Medicaid, both this year and in each subsequent year that sequestration remains in place.

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Automatic Spending Cuts to Meals on Wheels Program Could Force 39,000 Seniors into Nursing Homes

WASHINGTON, April 30, 2013—In a report released today, the Center for Effective Government finds that sequestration's automatic spending cuts could force tens of thousands of American seniors into nursing homes, increasing Medicaid payments to nursing homes by $489 million each year. Across the country, seniors rely on Meals on Wheels to stay in their homes, but the program is slated for cuts under sequestration.

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Changes to Charitable Deduction, Federal Income Tax Rates Would Hurt Nonprofit Organizations

WASHINGTON, April 24, 2013—In an analysis released today, the Center for Effective Government finds that proposals to limit tax deductions for charitable giving and to consolidate and lower federal income tax rates would hurt nonprofit organizations. Both approaches would decrease Americans' incentives to give to their favorite charities.

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Charitable Deduction Should Be Preserved

Congress is currently considering tax changes that could substantially reduce charitable giving in the United States. One threat is a proposal from President Obama to cap the deductibility of itemized deductions by high-income taxpayers at 28 percent. A second threat is less understood – tax reform that lowers tax rates. Tax rate changes like those in the tax reform plan proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) would reduce the tax benefit of charitable giving even more than the proposed Obama limit on itemized giving. This report reviews the impact on charitable giving of both the Obama proposal and tax reform more generally. It concludes that both would substantially reduce charitable giving and that the impact on the nonprofit sector could be comparable to sequestration.

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President's Budget Carries Outsized Economic and Political Risks

On April 10, President Obama released his proposed budget for the 2014 budget year. Unlike in the past, this year's budget came very late, after both the House and Senate had passed their respective budget plans. The president's plan is being billed by some as a compromise between the House and Senate.

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Resources & Research

Living in the Shadow of Danger: Poverty, Race, and Unequal Chemical Facility Hazards

People of color and people living in poverty, especially poor children of color, are significantly more likely...

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A Tale of Two Retirements: One for CEOs and One for the Rest of Us

The 100 largest CEO retirement funds are worth a combined $4.9 billion, equal to the entire retirement account savings of 41 percent of American fam...

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Blowing Smoke: Chemical Companies Say “Trust Us,” But Environmental and Workplace Safety Violations Belie Their Rhetoric

Large chemical companies a...

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Gasping for Support: Implementation of Tougher Air Quality Standards Will Require New Funds for State Agencies

New scientific research shows that the current levels of...

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