In Case You Missed It...

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on SNAP (formerly food stamps), health reform, housing policy, the federal budget and taxes, and state budgets and taxes.

• On SNAP, Stacy Dean explained that the farm bill that the House Agriculture Committee approved this week would force nearly 2 million low-income people off the program.  Dottie Rosenbaum noted, in the last in our “Facts on SNAP” series, that SNAP responded as designed to the recession and will shrink as the economy improves.  And Chad Stone pointed out that SNAP enrollment remains high because the jobs market remains abnormally weak.

• On health reform, Shannon Spillane listed some of its accomplishments to date.  Judy Solomon explained why the coming cuts to hospitals that serve many low-income and uninsured patients reinforce the importance of health reform’s Medicaid expansion.

• On housing policy, Will Fischer pointed out that a new tax credit to help low-income renters afford housing would be a valuable complement to the existing Low-Income Housing Tax Credit.

• On the federal budget and taxes, Chye-Ching Huang rebutted recent criticisms of estimates of how tax proposals would affect different income groups.

• On state budgets and taxes, Erica Williams emphasized that North Carolina should reinstate its Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC).

In other news, we released a paper on the SNAP cuts in the House Agriculture Committee farm bill and updated our backgrounder on the number of weeks of unemployment benefits available in each state.

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

Renters Face a Housing Squeeze
Bloomberg Businessweek
May 17, 2013

The Facts About Food Stamps Conservatives Don't Want You to Hear
US News & World Report
May 16, 2013

House Agriculture Committee Approves Farm Bill
New York Times, The Caucus
May 16, 2013

Are Health Care Costs Healing Themselves?
National Journal
May 15, 2013

Hospitals could lose $500M in federal money to pay for uninsured in 2014
Associated Press
May 13, 2013