New, Free Research Tools on Campaign Finance Out

From OMB Watch [Wikipedia.com]

The Fine Print blog post New Tools to Help Advocates with Campaign Finance Data

A new site, TransparencyData.com, is acclaimed as "a central source for all federal and state campaign contributions made in the last twenty years." The Sunlight Foundation teamed up with the National Institute on Money in State Politics and the Center for Responsive Politics, and by merging data from these groups, produced a new development in the availability of campaign finance data. The public will be able to search through and download data about political donors, lobbyists, and lawmakers that may shed light on policy discussions and legislative votes. A Sunlight Foundation blog discusses some of the various ways the new resource can be used.

In addition, the Center for Responsive Politics has created a new section on OpenSecrets.orgdedicated to tracking independent political expenditures. "In each recent election cycle, hundreds of organizations together spent hundreds of millions of dollars in independent political expenditures that fueled advertisements and other communications supporting or opposing particular political candidates. And that was before the brave new world of the 2010 election cycle." Referencing the Supreme Court Citizens United decision, they expect a vast increase in the number of independent expenditures and the amount of money spent on such messages. Start exploring data on independent expenditures here.

The Campaign Finance Institute also used data from the National Institute on Money in State Politics to create an interactive tool, "Be A Citizen Policy Analyst." By selecting various changes to states' campaign finance laws, the tool will show you how those laws would impact political giving in the state. "In state after state, the tool shows that with only a few simple changes, the power of the small donor can transform the system."

Blog post includes links to tools.

Real-time web "Campaign Finance Reform" [OneRiot.com]

Tax Day Financial Analysis Charts

From Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget [Wikipedia.org]

The Bottom Line blog post So What's Our Revenue Situation?

With tax day fast approaching, it's worth discussing the current state of revenues in the United States. Last year, revenue collection hit a 60-year record low of 14.8 percent of GDP -- which was enough to pay for only 60% of what we spent.

Importantly, this revenue dip will be a temporary one -- caused by the precipitous drop in wages (including due to unemployment), capital gains, and corporate profits resulting from the recession, as well as a number of temporary tax cuts ("stimulus") designed to help the economy rebound.

In 2007, before the economic crisis, we were raising 18.8 percent of GDP, and by 2020, under the President's budget, we will be raising 19.6 percent.

Blog post includes charts.

Real-time web "Tax Day" [OneRiot.com]

Keep up-to-date federal budget analysis charts

From Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget [Wikipedia.org]

The Bottom Line blog post CRFB Launches A Featured Charts Page!

CRFB would like to introduce our new "Featured Charts" page where we will highlight important fiscal, economic, health care, and entitlement projection data in clear, interactive, and sharable graphs. CRFB will update these charts continuously as new data becomes available.

We encourage you to share any or all of these charts on your own websites and/or blogs.These charts will automatically update on your site even after you embed them. We hope this becomes a resource for anyone searching for important fiscal data.

Tax Freedom Day is April 23, 2008

Tax Freedom Day® will fall on April 23 in 2008, according to the Tax Foundation's annual calculation using the latest government data on income and taxes. That’s three days earlier than in 2007. Stimulus rebates and a projection of slow growth in 2008 are the principal reasons for the earlier celebration.

In addition to announcing the nation’s Tax Freedom Day®, the new study compares tax payments to other major consumer expenditures, traces the course of America’s tax burden since 1900, examines the composition of today’s tax burden by type of tax, and calculates a Tax Freedom Day® for each state.

Follow "local" bloggers up to general election day at Patchwork Nation

The Christian Science Monitor has just unveiled a different kind of "election 2008" web site, called "Patchwork Nation". Instead of the common "red state/ blue state" analysis of the nation's voters, it focuses on 11 different types of communities, based on census data and demographics. You can find out with your zip code where you are and follow local blogs up to general election day this November, 2008; statistics are given on what each community looks like.

A look at fiscally controversial 2007 Farm Bill by Taxpayers for Common Sense

The 2007 Farm Bill (H.R. 2419) is yet to be finalized. It is a popular bone of contention to fiscal reformers who see way to much waste and antiquated spending clauses in the annual spending bill. Taxpayers for Common Sense gives us an analysis of what it included in this year's bill being legislated on right now, and suggests ways to correct it and bring it under fiscal control for the American taxpayer.

Hundreds of servicemen and womens' lives lost due to mismanaged procurement of armored vehicles

POGO has just made publicly available for the first time an internal study--conducted by Marine Corps science adviser Franz Gayl--showing that the Marine Corps "grossly mismanaged" Marines' requests for armored vehicles, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of U.S. servicemen and women.

The study points to unacceptably long delays in the procurement of Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicles (MRAPs), which are much less susceptible to the improvised explosive devices (IEDs) being used against American troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. POGO is calling for congressional hearings to investigate the rapid acquisition system at the Defense Department, which is clearly failing to respond to urgent requests from American soldiers in battle.

To learn more about the study, be sure to check out POGO's press alert and blog post.

Ross Perot is back with his charts!

Newsweek's Jan. 16, 2008 article "Ross Perot Slams McCain" is the first major media interview by the former 1992 and 1996 Presidential candidate in several years. Although much of the article touches on his disputes with current Republican Presidential candidate John McCain over the plight of Vietnamese POWs, and of his endorsement of Republican Pres. candidate Mitt Romney, he also shares his thoughts on the America of today. He considers the shape of our great nation much worse than when he was rallying grassroots America as a candidate.

Perot offers no easy solutions, instead emphasizing "a strong moral and ethical base, strong homes and the finest schools." He says he's disappointed that big textbook companies successfully lobbied in the Texas state legislature to reverse his landmark school reforms.

The pint-size Texan with the funny voice and the big ears isn't planning to run for president again, but says he will launch a Web site next month with plenty of the charts and graphs he made famous when explaining the deficit in 1992.

Before hanging up, Perot asked me to read the books he recommended on live POWs. I promised him I would.

Many Congressional websites get failing grades

The Gate blog from National Journal has news on the effectiveness of Congress's websites. The news is not good. As the internet grows in importance to citizens finding out about their government, the quality of Congress's websites must follow suit. Here's the post:

January 14, 2008
New Report Gives Congressional Web Sites Flunking Grades
A number of congressional Web sites received flunking marks from the Congressional Management Foundation in a report released Monday.
The report, which evaluated 618 congressional Web sites, gave 18.8 percent of these sites an F, while 22.8 percent received a D. Only 16.8 percent of the sites received an A from the group. The foundation said Web sites were evaluated on how well they incorporate the following factors: "audience, content, usability, interactivity, and innovation."
The analysis -- funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation --seeks to recognize congressional Web sites that successfully use the Internet and to provide practical guidance to all offices on how to improve their Web sites.
The foundation found that "the Senate continues to outperform the House of Representatives on the Web." The number of "substandard or failing committee sites increased to 44 percent, and the percentage of House and Senate committee (both majority and minority) Web sites scoring an 'F' doubled between 2006 and 2007," the group also found.
The report further held that a third of congressional sites do not have a functional search engine, and 57 percent do not contain information about legislative issues of interest to the state.
-WINTER CASEY, National Journal

Study assesses each state's campaign disclosure laws and programs

Grading State Disclosure is a study of the Campaign Disclosure Project, which seeks to bring greater transparency and accountability to money in state politics through assessments of state disclosure laws and programs.

Some states provide better and more complete access to information about the money that fuels campaigns than others, through both a strong campaign disclosure law and high-quality Internet access to disclosure reports. The purpose of the Campaign Disclosure Project’s Grading State Disclosure 2007 study is to provide an overview of how each state measures up to a set standard for disclosure programs, as well as to show how each state compares to others around the country. Check how your state is doing!

Government Reform-Related Databases

We've added a new list on the left panel of this page, called "Government Reform-Related Databases". It is a links list of user-friendly search engines for money in politics data.

Developing internet technology has enabled public interest groups such as the Sunshine Foundation to make government data more accessible to the general public. As more come online, I will add them here.