$1,034,401,772,556.

That’s the cost to the U.S. Treasury since 2001 from Bush tax cuts for the wealthiest 5 percent of Americans—as of the moment I started writing this blog post. National Priorities Project and Citizens for Tax Justice today released CostOfTaxCuts.com, a site that has a real-time ticker showing the cost of tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans.

A few highlights:

 The average tax cut in 2011 for a household in the wealthiest one percent is $66,384. The average tax cut for a household in the poorest 20 percent is $107 ...

President Obama presented the American

Jobs Act of 2011 on September 8th and sent it to Congress

on September 12th. Want to know what it's all about?

Here’s the rundown.

How does it help…

the unemployed? It makes it

illegal for employers to discriminate against unemployed job

applicants because of their unemployed status, and would extend

unemployment benefits, among other provisions.

employers? It cuts the payroll tax

in half for 98 percent of companies. It also gives a $4,000 bonus to

employers who hire the long-term unemployed.

veterans? It creates a “Returning

Heroes” tax credit to employers ...

The

White House Office of Public Engagement has scheduled a series of ten

state calls (see list and specific invitation below). Note there are

two calls today (Wednesday) for folks in California and Colorado and

the rest through the end of this week. You are welcome to forward

this invitation far and wide.

White

House staff want to speak with constituents about the federal budget

deficit/debt deal. There will be an opportunity to ask questions. NPP

hopes you will be able to join in and ask a question and/or make a

comment. (Tip: Call facilitators often give instructions ...

In

the midst of Congressional debates about debt, budget cuts, and tax

increases, a “penny poll” was held in every

Maine county asking participants, “How would you like your federal tax

dollars spent?” Mainers Larry Dansinger and Lisa Savage were among the leading coordinators of this effort.Education, health care, and veterans’ benefits were the top choices

for federal spending among the1,552 Mainers participating in polls conducted in each of Maine's 16 counties.The

results -- determined after counting 15,377 pennies -- diverge considerably from

the actual spending by Congress, but were relatively consistent in

different parts of the ...

Our latest webinar Hitting the Debt Ceiling is a 45-minute presentation (with Q&A) that will introduce people to the current debate in Washington related to raising the legal limit on the U.S. national debt, which will shortly reach $14.3 trillion.The government is set to officially reach the debt limit by the middle of May. According to Treasury officials, however, emergency measures taken by the Treasury Department combined with higher than expected tax revenues will postpone a potential default until the beginning of August.Failure to raise the debt ceiling - the total amount that the U.S ...

NPP

Provides State-Level Analysis of the President'sFiscal

Year 2012 Budget RequestToday

the White House released the Obama Administration's budget request

for Fiscal Year 2012, which begins on October 1, 2011.

As

expected, the estimated $3.7 trillion FY2012 request contains a

number of critical policy and fiscal goals, including:

Reducing

the government's annual deficit by placing a five-year freeze on

so-called "non-security" discretionary spending, while

eliminating a series of fossil fuel-related tax breaks and projecting

an end to the Bush-era tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans in 2012;

Investing

in education, with a goal of training more ...

To the Congress of the United States:America is emerging from the worst recession in generations. In 2010, an economy that had been shrinking began to grow again. After nearly 2 years of job losses, America’s businesses added more than one million jobs. Our capital and credit markets are functioning and strong. Manufacturing is coming back. And after teetering on the brink of liquidation just 2 years ago, America’s auto industry is posting healthy gains and returning money to the taxpayers who helped it through a period of turmoil. The determination and resilience of the American people and ...

Tuesday night, the President delivered

his annual State of the Union address before a joint session of

Congress. Article II, Section 3 of the US Constitution requires the

President to “from time to time give to the Congress Information of

the State of the Union, and recommend to their Consideration such

Measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient.” Presidents

have historically sent a written State of the Union to Congress, but

every president since Woodrow Wilson has chosen to deliver it in

person.

With the government operating on a

continuing resolution instead of an actual budget, and control of ...

The United States has been borrowing

its way out of mounting obligations and lowered revenues for some

time. We rely on the federal government to provide a variety of

services across the country, including healthcare for veterans,

special education programs, and energy grants for those with lower

incomes. When tax income is down, the government cannot simply stop

providing for the public. Instead, Congress authorizes the federal

government to borrow to pays its bills, with the expectation that

those loans (and their interest) will be repaid down the line.

The United States Government began its

life with debt left from ...

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With the clock ticking away on the last

session of the 111th Congress, the Democratic leadership

in the House and Senate have a few bills they still need to get

passed. The largest, most important one is the budget for the

government. The federal fiscal year began October 1st, and

the federal agencies have been running on continuing resolutions –

or “CRs” – ever since.

As we noted in our blog on December

8th, a CR is legislation that keeps agencies running at

the previous year's funding levels to avoid a government shut

down. Government ...