In Case You Missed It…

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, health, food assistance, and the safety net.

• On the federal budget and taxes, Chuck Marr posted ten federal tax charts to provide context for some important policy issues ahead of Tax Day. Bryann DaSilva demonstrated how low-income childless adults are the only group the federal tax code taxes into poverty.  Brandon DeBot warned that the House and Senate budget plans would lock in damaging effects of cuts to the IRS budget.  We also rounded up several of our backgrounders on how the federal government collects and spends tax dollars.
• On health, Jessica Schubel reported how states can use Medicaid flexibility to improve beneficiaries’ health and cut costs.
• On food assistance, Becca Segal outlined three key deadlines for school districts that are considering adopting community eligibility in the 2015-2016 school year to ensure students have access to free, nutritious school meals.
• On the safety net, Liz Schott noted that a close look at data on state spending for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program shows the dangers of block-granting safety net programs and described the harmful TANF restrictions in a new bill from Kansas legislators.

This week, we published papers on the differences between a transition tax on overseas profits and a repatriation tax holiday, improving health outcomes and lowering costs under Medicaid, and how states use TANF funds.  We updated our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession and our backgrounder on unemployment compensation.

CBPP’s Chart of the Week – Estimate the Value of the Federal Earned Income Tax Credit for Childless Workers:

A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts recently.  Here are some highlights:

Where Do Your Tax Dollars Go?
U.S. News & World Report
April 10, 2015

The rich get government handouts just like the poor. Here are 10 of them.
Washington Post
April 9, 2015

A Rare Bipartisan Medicare Bill
New York Times
April 6, 2015

Don’t miss any of our posts, papers, or charts — follow us on Twitter and Instagram.