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off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

In Case You Missed It....

| By CBPP

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, the economy, health reform, and SNAP (formerly food stamps).

  • On the federal budget and taxes, Sharon Parrott explained why Congress’ vote to let the Federal Aviation Administration shift funds from other areas to pay air traffic controllers is not a model for addressing sequestration.  Robert Greenstein showed that revenue-neutral tax reform would undermine efforts to reduce long-term deficits, while Chuck Marr noted that Republicans haven’t proposed any tax savings to pay for their desired tax cuts.  We also excerpted a commentary by Joel Friedman and Sharon Parrott on the President’s budget and listed three facts about overpayment issues in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).
  • On the economy, Chad Stone analyzed the April jobs report, which shows that labor markets still bear the scars of the Great Recession.
  • On health reform, Judy Solomon discussed how recent findings from an ongoing study of Oregon’s Medicaid program strengthen the case for expanding Medicaid.  Shelby Gonzales highlighted the revised forms for applying for health coverage through the new health insurance exchanges.
  • On SNAP, Stacy Dean noted that participants face benefit cuts this year apart from the large cuts that the House Agriculture Committee is expected to propose.

In other news, we issued Chad Stone’s statement on the April jobs report.  We released a paper on addressing overpayments in the EITC and revised papers on the SNAP benefit cuts scheduled for later this year and the impact on charitable giving of the President’s proposal to limit high-income tax breaks.  We also updated our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession and our backgrounder on Medicaid.