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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, the federal budget, federal taxes, housing, and state budgets and taxes.

  • On health care, Jesse Cross-Call, Tara Straw, Arloc Sherman, and Matt Broaddus found that the House-passed health bill would have devastating consequences for rural Americans. Judith Solomon and Jessica Schubel explained that the bill would put home- and community-based services, which states fund through Medicaid, at risk of deep cuts. Edwin Park clarified that some Senate Republicans, including Senators Pat Toomey and Mike Lee, are seeking additional changes to the bill’s per capita cap structure for funding Medicaid that would dramatically expand its highly damaging Medicaid cuts.
  • On the federal budget, Robert Greenstein reminded us to focus on President Trump’s forthcoming budget, which will reportedly include deep cuts in basic assistance for struggling families. Paul Van de Water noted that this budget may break the President’s own promises not to cut Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. Previewing the budget, Isaac Shapiro, Sharon Parrott, Joel Friedman, and Chye-Ching Huang reported that the President’s plan will likely propose policies that would significantly damage the well-being of tens of millions of low- and middle-income people while providing large and costly tax cuts to those at the top. As Congress considers the need for sequestration relief, David Reich and Chloe Cho outlined shortfalls in non-defense discretionary spending areas. We pointed to a new analysis by Isaac Shapiro and the Center for Global Development showing that the United States falls far short of meeting the most commonly used standard for contributing a “fair share” to foreign aid.
  • On federal taxes, Chuck Marr cited new estimates from the Tax Policy Center to explain that millionaires would get average tax cuts of $114,000 in 2018 from a plan similar to President Trump’s to let the owners of “pass-through” businesses pay only a maximum 15 percent rate on their business income. Brandon DeBot found that the President’s tax plan would deliver the 400 highest-income taxpayers average tax cuts of at least $15 million a year each. We explained why President Trump’s proposed territorial tax system wouldn’t help the U.S. economy.
  • On housing, Will Fischer continued our Housing Vouchers Work series by making clear that nearly every dollar of voucher funds is used to helping needy families. Douglas Rice noted that the bill President Trump signed to fund the government for the rest of fiscal year 2017 has insufficient funding to renew all of the Housing Choice Vouchers in use last year.
  • On state budgets and taxes, Michael Leachman outlined three key principles that Kansas lawmakers should follow as they debate how to close the state’s budget gap and adequately fund education.

Chart of the Week: 12 of the 15 States with Biggest Increase in Total Out-of-Pocket Costs Under House Health Bill Have Significant Rural Populations

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


“Medicaid is the most efficient health care program we have” — and Republicans hope to destroy it
Salon
May 18, 2017


GOP’s Path to Tax Changes Slowed by Upcoming Budget Fight
Wall Street Journal
May 18, 2017


The costs of Trump's sabotage of Obamacare already are showing up in rate hikes
Los Angeles Times
May 16, 2017


Questions remain over GOP health care plan effects on rural communities
Gray TV
May 16, 2017

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