In his last post, my research colleague Chris Hellman explained where we are in the annual federal budget process. He noted that President Obama released a budget in February; the House passed a very different budget in March; and the Senate has declined to do a budget. The seeds are planted for stalemate this election year, Chris wrote. If Congress cannot pass a budget for President Obama to sign by Oct. 1 – which is the start of fiscal year 2013 – then lawmakers will have to pass temporary spending legislation, called continuing resolutions, to fund the federal government.

Why can't ...

Today President Obama released his fiscal year 2013 budget proposal, which includes $3.67 trillion in new budget authority, a 3.7 percent reduction from 2012 levels. The budget estimates $3.8 trillion in total spending in 2013, which includes some spending that was authorized in the 2012 budget.

The new budget includes $350 billion for job creation. A survey conducted on Feb. 9 found that Americans ranked job creation as their top priority for the president’s new budget, followed by deficit reduction.

Thirty-one percent of the president’s budget funds discretionary spending, which includes the military as well ...

Colorado residents will caucus today to decide their pick for the Republican nominee for president. Choosing a presidential candidate in part means caucus-goers will consider how they want the government to spend their federal tax dollars. National Priorities Project took a look at how much Colorado residents currently pay in federal taxes, and what they get in return.

On average Colorado residents each paid $7,003 in federal taxes in 2010. Federal taxes include income and payroll taxes as well as estate taxes and the federal excise tax on gasoline, cigarettes, and other goods. Coloradans pay more in taxes than ...

Jackie Bray is a single mother who lost her job as a mechanic but has a new one working at a wind turbine factory in Charlotte, North Carolina. In his State of the Union Address on Tuesday night, President Obama used this story to illustrate his vision for America’s economy. His focus was on the middle class and a government that will create the conditions for the middle class to flourish. To that end, he described measures for tax reform, domestic job creation, consumer protection, and regulation of financial institutions. The president also described his strategy to expand America ...

This month the first voters head to the polls to decide who will be the Republican nominee for president. National Priorities Project took a look at the extent to which residents of the first primary states, Iowa and New Hampshire, receive federal support—even if they may be unaware of it.

Read the two-page report.

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 Better America.  We are proud to be one of over 60 collaborators contributing to this 400 page book of essays, over three years in the making  What’s so unique about this is book is that it covers so much ground, so thoroughly.  It’s an encyclopedia ...

Our friends at the Sunlight Foundation are working for a more transparent "Super Committee" process and have developed five recommendations:

Provide a live webcasts of all official meetings and hearings

Make available the Committee's report for 72 hours before a final committee vote

Disclose every meeting held with lobbyists and other powerful interests

Disclose all campaign contributions as they are received (on their campaign websites)

Provide financial disclosures of Committee members and staffers

Check out Sunight's campaign page at http://sunlightfoundation.com/opensupercongress/ with additional resources for individuals and groups to take action.

In addition to all the ...

Followers of "Ask Kyle" may be surprised to see this, as our good friend and colleague Kyle Andrejczyk posted his last post on September 12. But so many people found Kyle's work to be so helpful in explaining the craziness that went on this summer in Washington around the federal budget that we at NPP are reluctant to let Kyle go. And with a complicated road still to be driven by Congress between now and the end of the year on the federal deficit and the national debt, we need Kyle more than ever.So Kyle is staying, at ...

Here we go again.

For the second year in a row, Congress

will not complete the federal budget process in time

for the October 1 turn of the fiscal year.

Last year, we were dragged through

eight painful continuing resolutions lasting until mid-April –

leading ultimately to decreases – largely in non-security

discretionary spending – totaling $38 billion.

And this summer's political theatre

revolved around the debt ceiling and threats of a government

shutdown. Unfortunately, even as the Super Committee charts the next

decade of federal spending and revenue priorities, we're on track

this fall for more of the same nonsense ...

Obama's speech in the Rose Garden on

Monday outlined his proposal to control deficit spending, which

features the “Buffet Rule” to ensure that households earning over

$1 million do not pay a lower tax rate than middle-class Americans.

Critics of Obama's plan called this class warfare.

But in today's flagging economy, if

“class warfare” describes an assault on the highest earners, it

may also be an apt description for what's happening to more

vulnerable Americans. Census data released last week revealed that

more than 40 percent of households headed by women were impoverished

in 2010. For ...