Blog: The Fine Print / posts by Patrick Lester

Tax Havens, Animated

Apr 11, 2013 by Patrick Lester

Tax Havens 101: The high cost of going offshore, an animation by The Washington Post, illustrates how offshore tax havens allow investors to legally – and quite easily – dodge taxes and accountability. This loophole costs our country billions in lost revenue. A recent report by U.S. Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) found that these tax havens cost the average taxpayer $1,026 and each small business $3,067 each year.

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New Bowles-Simpson Deficit Plan Emphasizes Spending Cuts

Feb 21, 2013 by Patrick Lester

Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, co-chairs of a presidentially appointed bipartisan commission that failed to reach agreement on a deficit reduction plan in 2010, released a new plan on Feb. 19 to reduce the federal deficit by an additional $2.4 trillion over the next ten years.  Most of the proposed new deficit reduction is achieved through spending cuts.

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Democrats Release Plans to Prevent Sequestration

Feb 15, 2013 by Patrick Lester

On Feb. 14, congressional Democrats unveiled legislation that would cancel across-the-board spending cuts, called sequestration, which are currently scheduled to begin on March 1. The two bills include $120 billion in alternative spending cuts and revenue increases to offset the cost of canceling sequestration.

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Latest Economic Report Highlights Dangers of Further Austerity

Feb 1, 2013 by Patrick Lester

The latest official estimate of U.S. economic growth, released Jan. 30 by the U.S. Department of Commerce, has provided further proof that budgetary austerity in the midst of a weak economic recovery makes little sense. Despite this, with Congress still considering further budget cuts and across-the-board cuts (called sequestration) scheduled to begin on March 1, there is little evidence that federal policymakers are aware of how much damage they may be doing to the economy.

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Administration Specifies Forthcoming Sequestration Spending Cuts

Sep 17, 2012 by Patrick Lester

On Sept. 14, the Obama administration released a new report specifying cuts in federal spending that will take effect starting Jan. 2, 2013, if Congress does not take corrective action before then stopping the cuts from taking place. The report was mandated by the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 (P. L. 112–155), enacted on Aug. 7.

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Simpson-Bowles 2.0

Aug 20, 2012 by Patrick Lester

The leaders of a bipartisan panel that unsuccessfully pushed forward a deficit reduction plan last year are quietly meeting behind the scenes to lay the ground work for another push after the November elections, according to an August 17 report in the National Journal.

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Possible 2013 Budget Cuts to Be Specified Within a Month

Aug 14, 2012 by Patrick Lester

The outlines of a broad set of possible cuts in federal domestic and defense-related programs in early 2013 should become more clear within the next month.  Under new legislation signed into law on Aug. 7, called the Sequestration Transparency Act, the Obama administration must lay out how an expected $109 billion in cuts will be implemented in 2013 unless Congress takes action to delay or stop them.

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