Of the 87 Republicans who were first elected to Congress in 2010, nearly two-thirds are running in safe Republicans seats this cycle, according to Roll Call’s race ratings. The 29 members of the freshman class in some danger of losing their seats to challengers are shown above, color coded by race rating for the 2012 election. read more...
Tax cuts originally enacted in 2001, 2003, 2009 and 2010 are all set to expire on Jan. 1, at the same time that new taxes enacted in the health care law of 2010 take effect. If Congress does not act to avert any of these scheduled changes, the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center estimates that households in the middle income quintile, making between about $40,000 and $65,000, would see their federal taxes increase by nearly $2,000 in 2013. read more...
As required by Congress, the Obama administration submitted a report today on the across-the-board cuts scheduled to take effect in January. read more...
Revisions show that during the recession, real GDP did not contract as much as was thought, declining by only 3.1 percent in 2009 rather than the previously reported 3.5 percent. But the post-recession expansion was also weaker than expected; real GDP growth in 2010 was revised down from 3.0 percent to 2.4 percent. read more...
Fifty years ago, there were 24 different tax brackets, with the top rate of 91 percent applying to taxable income over $400,000 for joint filers (that would be $3 million in today’s dollars). Mouse over the graph for more detail on the structure of brackets by tax year. read more...
The House Appropriations Committee has approved up 11 of the 12 regular spending bills for next fiscal year, and is likely to mark up the last sometime next week. The Senate has marked up 7 of the 12 bills in committee but has not yet brought one to the floor. By clicking on an individual bill, you can compare spending levels from the current fiscal year and the president’s request to what the House and Senate have proposed for fiscal 2013. read more...
The map shows the foreign-born share of the population by Congressional district in 2000, 2005 and 2010. Clicking on a district provides more detailed information along with statistics for the state at large. read more...
The Supreme Court’s decision to largely uphold the health care law protects the many provisions already in effect and clears the way for full implementation over the next several years. read more...
The graphic above breaks down changes in payrolls since 2008 by industry, highlighting the sectors hit the hardest as well as those that have come out ahead. The big winner during the jobs crisis has been the health and private education sector, which grew steadily throughout the recession and has added a total of 1.7 million jobs since 2008. read more...
Revisions to economic indicators are commonplace, but the direction they take can be revealing. The graph above shows four indicators from the last half of 2011 through the most current release. In every case, figures that showed promise for a stronger recovery have been scaled back through revisions. read more...
Under current law, a wide range of temporary tax and spending provisions are set to expire at the end of 2012, cutting the yearly budget deficit almost in half and as a result imposing considerable fiscal policy restraint on the U.S. economy. A recent report by the Congressional Budget Office suggests that the short-term economic consequences of letting that happen might be severe. read more...
The graph shows new discretionary budget authority (appropriations) for the entire federal government and for defense programs, historically and as limited by the 2011 debt limit law. With the sequester set to take effect in January, lawmakers are talking about delaying these additional cuts or replacing them with savings they find more palatable. read more...
In the years of persistent unemployment that have followed the 2007-2009 recession, the most severe joblessness has been concentrated in the south, west and midwest of the U.S. For five months between Nov. 2009 and March 2010, 17 states in those regions endured unemployment above 10 percent compared to only two (Rhode Island and D.C.) in the rest of the country. read more...
The Energy Department’s projections show the monthly retail price of gasoline peaking next month at $4 a gallon before declining to $3.67 by the November election. read more...
In the fourth quarter, real gross domestic product grew at an annual rate of 3.0 percent, and for the entire year, growth was up 1.7 percent compared to 2010. Real GDP has now been on the rise for ten straight quarters, following record dips in 2008 and 2009. read more...
Alaska Senator Mark Begich, a Democrat, is in a tough race for reelection this year, and…
The Data Mine, CQ Roll Call's multimedia blog, features interactive visualizations of government and congressional data along with in-depth, policy-oriented analysis of the latest facts and figures.
