Call it a fiscal “cliff,” “slope,” “curb,” “bump,” or whatever, it is all the rage in U.S. news programming.
Two things are clear:
First, tax and fiscal policy are important for government services, the economy and citizens.
Second, the American people are being kept in near total darkness about what may, could or should be done in tax and fiscal policy.
House Speaker Boehner’s “proposal” to close some tax loopholes, some day by some amount is too vacuous to merit further comment.
President Obama has been clear on wanting an increase in taxes for income over $250,000, but there clarity from the Obama administration stops.
The Office of Management and Budget issued OMB Report Pursuant to the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 (P. L. 112–155) as a PDF file. Meaning no one could easily evaluate its contents.
Especially:
Appendix A. Preliminary Estimates of Sequestrable and Exempt Budgetary Resources and Reduction in Sequestrable Budgetary Resources by OMB Account – FY 2013
and,
Appendix B. Preliminary Sequestrable / Exempt Classification by OMB Account and Type of Budgetary Resource
I converted Appendix A in to a comma separated data file, with a short commentary to alert the reader to issues in the data file. (OMB-Sequestration-Data-Appendix-A.zip)
For example:
- Meaning and application of “offsets” varies throughout Appendix A of the OMB report.
- The OMB report manages to multiple 0 by 7.6 percent for a result of $91 million.
- Appendix B has a different ordering of the accounts than Appendix A and uses different identifiers.
Whatever the intent of the report’s authors, it fails to provide meaningful information on the sequestration issue.
Contact the White House, your Senator or Representative.
Demand all proposals be accompanied by machine readable spreadsheets with details.
Demand your favorite news outlet carry no reports without data from any side in this debate. (Being ignored is the most powerful weapon against the White House, Congress and various federal agencies.)
Lobbyists, OMB, member of congress, all have those files. The public is the only side without the details.
Topic maps can map points of clarity as well as obscurity, assuming you have the files for mapping.
[…] 2013: The next data drop on the OMB Sequestration report, to round out the data sets I posted as Fiscal Cliff + OMB or Fool Me Once/Twice and Over The Fiscal Cliff – […]
Pingback by Coming in 2013! « Another Word For It — January 1, 2013 @ 5:33 pm
[…] Pursuant to the Sequestration Transparency Act of 2012 (P. L. 112–155), which I started with Fiscal Cliff + OMB or Fool Me Once/Twice (Appendix A) and Over The Fiscal Cliff – Blindfolded (Appendix […]
Pingback by The 560+ $Billion Shell Game « Another Word For It — January 1, 2013 @ 8:49 pm
[…] Fiscal Cliff + OMB or Fool Me Once/Twice Patrick Durusau (Lambert). This is a MUST READ. Then go and raise holy hell with your elected officials. More evidence of books-cooking or incompetence, take your pick. […]
Pingback by Links 12/8/12 « naked capitalism — April 9, 2013 @ 5:06 am