The Center for Public Integrity

Politicians talk about the burden of taxes incessantly. Now comes a rare chance to check the facts. And the fact is that federal tax rates had fallen to the lowest in 30 years when President Barack Obama took office — and fell again in his first year in office.

This news comes from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, which just issued the latest update of its invaluable series on “Distribution of Household Income and Federal Taxes,” this time covering 2008 and 2009. The CBO’s statistical series now covers the 30 years since 1979.

The average rate paid by all households for all federal taxes combined — including income taxes, payroll taxes, excise taxes (on such things as gasoline, tobacco and alcoholic beverages) and individuals’ share of corporate income taxes — hit its highest rate during the period in 2000, just before President George W. Bush began signing the tax cuts that are scheduled to expire next year (unless Congress extends them again).

The all-household rate was 22.7 percent the year before Bush took office, then declined to 19.9 percent in 2007 (lower than in any year before he took office) and plunged again to 18 percent in the recession year of 2008. That was the lowest until the following year, Obama’s first, when it dropped again to 17.4 percent.

Much of the decline in 2008 and 2009 was due to the collapsing economy. The worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s began in December 2007. There were fewer corporate profits to tax, for one thing. And upper-level households, which pay the highest rates, also saw their incomes plunge along with the stock market and tumbling real-estate prices.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The elderly and other vulnerable homeowners are losing their homes because they owe as little as a few hundred dollars in back taxes, according to a report from a consumer group.

Outdated state laws allow big banks and other investors to reap windfall profits by buying the houses for a pittance and reselling them, the National Consumer Law Center said in a report being released Tuesday.

Local governments can seize and sell a home if the owner falls behind on property taxes and fees. The process helps governments make ends meet at a time when low property values and the weak economy are squeezing tax revenue.

But tax debts as small as $400 can cause people to lose their homes because of arcane laws and misinformation among consumers, says John Rao, the report's author and an attorney with NCLC.

The consequences are "devastating for individuals, families and communities," Rao said. He said states should update laws so speculators can't profit from misinformed homeowners and people who have difficulty managing their finances.

The rules for property tax sales can be confusing, especially to elderly people who can't keep track of their finances and people in minority-heavy communities that were targeted by subprime lenders. Here's how it works:

— The government files a public document called a tax lien saying that it can seize the property if the taxes remain unpaid.

— If the taxes aren't paid, the government auctions the lien to investors. Past investors include JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and people who respond to Internet get-rich schemes, the report said. Homes typically are sold at steep discounts.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new report finds that law enforcement agencies in the U.S. made more than 1.3 million requests for customers' cellphone records last year.

It's an alarming surge over previous years, reflecting the increasingly gray area between privacy and technology.

Sprint says it received about 500,000 subpoenas in 2011. Requests are increasing annually at Verizon and T-Mobile. And AT&T has a dedicated team of more than 100 workers whose job it is to handle police requests.

Cellphone carriers say they usually require warrants to hand over information, but not in emergencies, such as when there's an immediate threat to someone's life.

The information was collected by Massachusetts Rep. Ed Markey. He said laws need to be updated to ill protect people's Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches using modern technology.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A new law will let companies contribute billions less to their pension funds. And some people are concerned that that could weaken the plans millions of Americans rely on for retirement.

Yet with numerous companies already dropping or curtailing their pension plans, many of the same critics say it is even more important to avoid giving firms a reason to limit or jettison remaining pension benefits by forcing them to contribute more than they say they can afford. Some also say the changes will probably have little impact on the enormous $1.9 trillion in estimated pension fund assets.

The concerns underscore a harsh reality for unions and consumer advocates: When it comes to battling over pensions, the fragile economy of 2012 gives the business community a lot of leverage.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The former Countrywide Financial Corp., whose subprime loans helped start the nation's foreclosure crisis, made hundreds of discount loans to buy influence with members of Congress, congressional staff, top government officials and executives of troubled mortgage giant Fannie Mae, according to a House report.

The report, obtained by The Associated Press, said that the discounts — from January 1996 to June 2008, were not only aimed at gaining influence for the company but to help mortgage giant Fannie Mae. Countrywide's business depended largely on Fannie, which at the time was trying to fend off more government regulation but eventually had to come under government control.

Fannie was responsible for purchasing a large volume of Countrywide's subprime mortgages. Countrywide was taken over by Bank of America in January 2008, relieving the financial services industry and regulators from the messy task of cleaning up the bankruptcy of a company that was servicing 9 million U.S. home loans worth $1.5 trillion at a time when the nation faced a widening credit crisis, massive foreclosures and an economic downturn.

The House Oversight and Government Reform Committee also named six current and former members of Congress who received discount loans, but all of their names had surfaced previously. Other previously mentioned names included former top executive branch officials and three chief executives of Fannie Mae.

"Documents and testimony obtained by the committee show the VIP loan program was a tool used by Countrywide to build goodwill with lawmakers and other individuals positioned to benefit the company," the report said. "In the years that led up to the 2007 housing market decline, Countrywide VIPs were positioned to affect dozens of pieces of legislation that would have reformed Fannie" and its rival Freddie Mac, the committee said.

A South Carolina state senator who blocked an effort earlier this year to limit anonymous campaign spending by third-party groups is singing a slightly different tune now that a shadowy group is opposing one of his political allies.

Sen. Lee Bright, a Republican from Roebuck, appeared at a news conference in Sumter last week to support businessman Tony Barwick, who is facing a GOP runoff election for a Senate seat on June 26.

In recent weeks, a group calling itself SC Conservative Reform Council has popped up and spent several thousand dollars on direct mail and radio ads in support of Barwick’s opponent, Wade Kolb.

The reform council does not appear on the S.C. Ethics Commission website, where other political action committees do, nor is it registered with the S.C. Secretary of State, as are corporations and nonprofits.

Groups influencing elections in South Carolina, such as the SC Conservative Reform Council, do not have to disclose who is bankrolling them or how much money they are taking in or spending, as a result of 2010 federal court ruling in Florence, S.C. And Bright recently helped quash legislative efforts to reinstitute some sort of  disclosure rules and spending limits for such groups.  

The federal case revolved around a seemingly mundane slice of minutiae — how the word “committee” is defined under South Carolina law. But the effects of the ruling were far-reaching indeed, opening the floodgates for untraceable political spending in the Palmetto State by many independent groups seeking to influence elections.

Candidate Kolb says he does not know who is behind the SC Conservative Reform Council.    

Its only disclosure: a UPS box number in a city outside the district where the race is taking place.