Skip to main content
off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

In Case You Missed It...

| By CBPP

Off the Charts is going on vacation, but we’ll be back on our regular schedule when we return in the new year.  We wish you and your loved ones a happy holiday season.

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, inequality, housing, health reform, safety net programs, and state budgets and taxes.

  • On the federal budget and taxes, Joel Friedman explained that while the Murray-Ryan budget agreement is a step in the right direction, it provides only a temporary respite from the cuts in non-defense discretionary programs.  Chuck Marr showed why policymakers should pay for any package of “tax extenders.”
  • On inequality, we pointed to our recently updated “Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality,” which provides important context on the issue.
  • On housing, Will Fischer illustrated how federal housing expenditures are mismatched in two respects: they target a disproportionate share of subsidies on higher-income households and they favor homeownership over renting.
  • On health reform, Jesse Cross-Call argued that Iowa’s Medicaid expansion can provide important lessons for other states.
  • On safety net programs, Stacy Dean highlighted a new report on how states can simplify their child care subsidy programs to better serve families.  We pointed to our updated Tax Credit Outreach website that provides information on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit.
  • On state budgets and taxes, Michael Leachman laid out three steps to estimating the cost of a state EITC.

In other news, we issued our chart book on federal housing spending and updated our paper on state EITCs and 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:

Thousands of Mainers face loss of jobless aid
Press Herald
December 18, 2013

Congress Passed A Budget, But It Could Still Blow Up In Their Faces
Huffington Post
December 18, 2013

S.L. County to cut off wait list for subsidized housing
Salt Lake Tribune
December 15, 2013

Large decline in state welfare enrollment perplexing
Seattle Times
December 15, 2013

A sincere message for the jobless among us
Chicago Tribune
December 14, 2013