In Case You Missed It...

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, state budgets and taxes, health reform, and safety net programs.

• On the federal budget and taxes, Chuck Marr debunked the claim that closing costly tax loopholes is merely a gimmick.  We also pointed to Jared Bernstein’s congressional testimony that warned policymakers not to let the focus on deficit reduction crowd out policies devoted to educational opportunity or job creation.
• On state budgets and taxes, Jon Shure explained why millionaires are unlikely to leave California as a result of a recent tax increase.
• On health reform, Sarah Lueck noted that federal tax credits will help keep insurance premium costs down for young adults.
• On safety net programs, we highlighted Robert Greenstein’s commentary on how the safety net lifts millions of Americans out of poverty and has positive long-term effects especially for low-income children.  Stacy Dean illustrated the serious hardship that an impending SNAP benefit cut will likely cause for some program participants.  Chuck Marr noted House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s praise for the Child Tax Credit (CTC) and explained that making recent improvements to the CTC and the Earned Income Tax Credit permanent would improve the lives of working families.  We also outlined LaDonna Pavetti’s presentation at the Center for American Progress on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and explained the important improvements to the EITC and CTC that Congress extended through 2017.

In other news, we issued Robert Greenstein’s commentary on the effectiveness of the safety net and Jared Bernstein’s congressional testimony on the importance of investing in education as part of growing the economy.  We also issued a paper on impending SNAP benefit cuts.

Finally, we updated our backgrounders on the number of weeks of unemployment benefits available in each state, the ABCs of state budgets, the federal-state unemployment insurance system, policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and climate-change legislation and low-income consumers.