In Case You Missed It...

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, health reform, state budgets and taxes, and Social Security.

• On the federal budget and taxes, Chye-Ching Huang corrected ten myths about the estate tax and explained why the 1986 tax reform law isn’t an appropriate model for tax reform today.  Chuck Marr pointed to new Congressional Budget Office data showing that extending President Bush’s high-income tax cuts would do little to support the recovery.  Paul Van de Water explained why the new revenues that tax reform raises should be real, not based on “dynamic scoring.”  We also featured three related reports that provide context for the upcoming budget debate and updated our chart on where discretionary funding is headed.

• On health reform, Judy Solomon explained why states should take advantage of health reform’s Medicaid expansion.  Dave Chandra noted that states should get to work planning the law’s new health insurance exchanges.

• On state budgets and taxes, Nicholas Johnson pointed to the defeat of several ballot measures that would have handcuffed states’ ability to fund public services.  We posted his statement on one such measure, in Florida, where voters resoundingly rejected a crippling spending limit known as TABOR (taxpayer bill of rights).

• On Social Security, Kathy Ruffing highlighted an update of our popular “Top Ten Facts About Social Security.”

In other news, we released Nicholas Johnson’s statement on the defeat of TABOR in Florida and updated our paper on myths and realities about the estate tax.  We also updated our chartbook on the legacy of the Great Recession and our backgrounders on the number of weeks of unemployment benefits available in each state and the top ten facts about Social Security.