This week on Off the Charts, we focused on deficits and debt, Social Security, and state budgets and taxes.
On deficits and debt, Robert Greenstein discussed why tax reform that is revenue neutral — and thus doesn’t contribute to deficit reduction — would be a big mistake. We highlighted his commentary on the threats that the next round of budget negotiations poses, especially to low-income people, and explained why further deficit reduction shouldn’t come entirely from spending cuts. We also pointed to our new analysis on how much additional deficit reduction is needed to stabilize the debt and noted that program cuts far outweigh tax increases in deficit reduction to date.
On Social Security, Paul Van de Water debunked a recent claim that the program’s long-term financing challenge is much more serious than the official projections show.
On state budgets and taxes, Elizabeth McNichol listed four reasons why, despite recent good news, state budget troubles are not a thing of the past.