In the latest installment of our weekly Budget Brief videos, senior research analyst Chris Hellman explains the payroll tax cuts enacted last year, the proposed extension of these cuts into 2012, and the debate over how to pay for them.

We've added a new category to the database, General Budget, and loaded its first dataset. Federal Tax Collection: gross federal tax collections by state (split out by total taxes collected, business taxes collected, and individual taxes collected.

I stayed up half the night engrossed in this book. It’s that compelling and well designed.  In fact, I’ve been an organizer and activist for 45 years, and I’ve never seen a resource as useful, timely and visually appealing as the just-released Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a ...

We're introducing a new Data Wednesday feature to showcase our Federal Priorities Database and help folks make the best use of it. The first installment introduces the database and walks you through three easy steps to find the information you care about.

 Last week I wrote about how automatic, across-the-board cuts scheduled to take effect in 2013 may never take place—because a new Congress can choose not to uphold budget cuts legislated by our current Congress.  But it’s also worth asking, if the next Congress does uphold these automatic cuts, called “sequestration,” ...

This data story looks at the effect of sequestration on the federal work-study program.

We’re happy to announce that our expenditure datasets now include per capita numbers. In other words, you can see the amount of money spent for each person who lives in a state or county. Why is this important? Below is a map of federal food stamp spending in FY 2010. ...

November 23rd is the deadline for the super committee, officially named the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. They’ve all but announced failure to come up with even $1 of their $1.2 trillion deficit reduction task. Since the creation of the super committee, we’ve been hearing there would be automatic, ...

Our latest data story focuses on LIHEAP, one of many programs that would see reduced funding if sequestration goes into effect.

With its Nov. 23 deadline looming, members of the congressional “Super Committee” have a range of options as they try to find at least $1.2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next decade. Here are some of the possibilities:A Grand Bargain:  President Obama and House Speaker John Boehner tried negotiating ...