Federal Budget Analysis

Homeland Security: The Second Defense Department

Feb. 28, 2013

In an opinion piece for TomDispatch, Mattea Kramer and Chris Hellman describe their findings after exploring federal funding for homeland security.


Homeland Security Spending Since 9/11

Feb. 28, 2013

NPP calculates how much the federal government has spent on homeland security since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.


Sequestration, the Pentagon, and the States

Feb. 21, 2013

Sequestration, the Pentagon, and the States offers selected state-level briefs focused on the local impact of looming automatic across-the-board federal spending cuts known as sequestration and historically high levels of Pentagon spending.


Federal Budget Timeline: Beyond the Fiscal Cliff in 2013

Jan. 9, 2013

The federal budget process is always complicated. This is truer today than perhaps ever before. Over the coming weeks and months Congress will take on issues that will shape our government for years to come.


The Fiscal Cliff Deal

Jan. 2, 2013

At the eleventh hour, Congress and President Obama reached a deal to address the fiscal cliff. The deal focused on tax revenue and included a number of changes to the tax code, including a permanent extension of the Bush-era tax cuts on income below $450,000 for families and below $400,000 for individuals.


A Fight for the Future: Education, Job Training, and the Fiscal Showdown

Nov. 15, 2012

Young Invincibles and National Priorities Project released “A Fight for the Future: Education, Job Training, and The Fiscal Showdown,” a report detailing how the looming fiscal battle could severely threaten key investments in job training and education. This original analysis compares the scale of the challenges in educating the next generation of Americans to actual investments in the education and training of young adults, showing that our federal budget falls far short of the investment needed. The report also compares expenditures on training and education to other budget items like defense spending and tax cuts.

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What is the Fiscal Cliff? Resources on the Bush Tax Cuts, Sequestration, and the Lame Duck Congress

Nov. 7, 2012

In the coming weeks, Congress will take on the fiscal cliff and make decisions about the Bush tax cuts, the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration, and a host of other tax and spending issues that will affect every American. We've got all the details in plain English so you can follow these important negotiations and tell Congress your priorities.


Election 2012: The Voter Guide

Sept. 7, 2012

National Priorities Project's suite of resources for the 2012 election: A comparison of the presidential candidates on 12 key issues, plus fact sheets with crucial background information on Medicare, Social Security, taxes, and more.

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The Untold Story of Deficits in Washington

July 19, 2012

In 2000, the federal government had a balanced budget and projected surpluses for years to come. Fast forward a decade, and Washington runs steep budget deficits while news media report that federal spending is out of control. But deficits depend on two things: spending and revenue. In 2000, when the budget was balanced, federal tax revenue amounted to around 20 percent of the U.S. economy.

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Competing Visions

March 28, 2012

This week the House of Representatives will consider two significantly different alternatives to the president’s fiscal 2013 budget request— the Republican draft budget resolution, introduced by Rep. Paul Ryan, and an alternative introduced by the Congressional Progressive Caucus (CPC). The two budgets offer vastly different visions for the nation, and each uses the president’s budget as a baseline to compare their contrasting proposals. Rep. Ryan reduces tax rates as well as spending, finding savings largely from domestic programs that serve low-income people, including Medicaid and the food stamp program. The CPC increases revenues with higher tax rates on wealthy individuals and corporations, while adding substantial new spending for job creation and making few changes to domestic programs.