TaxAnalysts has just announced that it's suing the IRS to get suspiciously withheld documents on the tax gap. Last week, IRS commissioner Mark Everson said that IRS enforcement efforts had brought in more money, and that the IRS was paying more attention to high-income earners who avoid paying taxes. However, the IRS won't release the documents on which it's been basing these claims. So TaxAnalysts is suing them for the documents under the Freedom of Information Act.

USA Today reported yesterday that Medicaid costs have been decreasing over the last year, and editorializes (opinionates?) on the subject today. Like other social welfare programs, Medicaid has been a victim of its own success. It will cost taxpayers $300 billion this year (about 70% of the Pentagon's budget) and serves 56 million poor Americans. It has been the fastest-growing expense for states over the past decade, threatening to break budgets and force service cuts. Until now.

The organization Progress for America requested an advisory opinion from the Federal Elections Commission (FEC) for guidance on when a nonprofit organization can be considered an FEC-regulated political committee. In response, the FEC sent them a letter last week saying that an answer will not be given.

The Center for American Progress points out that President Bush is responsible for perhaps the most expensive jobs program ever: Based on the administration’s estimate that its tax cuts should be credited for creating approximately one-quarter of all new jobs...we can attribute 1.3 million jobs out of the 5.0 million newly created jobs since the start of the recovery in late 2001 to the White House’s tax cuts...According to estimates by the Congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, the tax cuts during the same time period totaled $1.1 trillion.