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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

In Case You Missed It…

| By CBPP

This week at CBPP, we focused on health care, Social Security, housing, the federal budget, and state budgets and taxes.

  • On health care, Judith Solomon noted that we can do more to address data-matching issues that put households’ health insurance coverage and subsidies at risk.  Edwin Park explained that making the Medicare Advantage risk-adjustment system as accurate as possible should include reducing overpayments to insurers.
  • On Social Security, Kathy Ruffing cautioned that the Congressional Budget Office’s (CBO) new projections for Social Security are no reason to panic or call for sharp cuts in Social Security’s modest and vital benefits.  Paul Van de Water highlighted new CBO estimates that Social Security benefits replace only about 40 percent of an average retiree’s recent earnings, confirming that benefits are modest.
  • On housing, we updated our paper on a House bill, now headed to the Senate, that would improve federal rental assistance programs.
  • On the federal budget, we updated our backgrounders on non-defense discretionary programs and the federal budget process.
  • On state budgets and taxes, Nick Albares pointed out that five of the six states with the biggest cuts in K-12 funding since 2008, including Kansas, also cut income taxes.

Chart of the Week: Five of Six States With Deepest K-12 Cuts Also Cut Income Taxes

Five of Six States With Deepest K-12 Cuts Also Cut Income Taxes

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


Is it time to abolish federal student loans? This group says yes.
Washington Post
February 18, 2016

Offshore Tax Havens Are Strangling Local Government
The Nation
February 18, 2016

Delay of New Health Law Forms May Confuse Some Taxpayers
Kaiser Health News
February 16, 2016

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