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off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

In Case You Missed It...

| By CBPP

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

  • On health reform, Edwin Park described why a plan from three Republican senators to address health reform subsidies would likely make coverage less affordable for marketplace enrollees and he laid out the negative consequences of another plan from three key House Republicans. He also noted that the House plan acknowledges some benefits of the health reform law as it stands.  Sarah Lueck debunked some of the myths surrounding health reform presented by the House Republican health plan.  Judy Solomon explained why a ruling against health reform’s subsidies would be wrong under the law and harmful to the millions who depend on coverage.  Jesse Cross-Call urged Congress to extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
  • On the federal budget and taxes, Chye-Ching Huang explained why one-time revenues from a tax on multinationals’ current stock of overseas profits could not replace apermanent cut in corporate tax rates. Chuck Marr analyzed the winners and losers of the new tax plan from Senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio. Brandon DeBot highlighted a series of important new bills that would reward work and reduce poverty for low-income workers.
  • On state budget and taxes, Elizabeth McNichol explained why Wisconsin’s proposed “Right to Work” legislation would weaken protections for workers and exacerbate income inequality. Michael Leachman pointed out that several states are facing the consequences of tax cuts that have so far failed to produce economic benefits. Michael Mitchell highlighted our new state-by-state factsheets detailing higher education cuts.
  • On jobs, Chad Stone illustrated the February employment figures.

This week, Chad Stone released a statement on February’s jobs report.  We released state-by-state fact sheets on higher education funding.  We updated our papers on state Medicaid expansion waivers, low-income programs not driving the nation's long-term fiscal problems, already-low program spending outside Social Security and Medicare projected to fall further, and the far-reaching benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit. We also updated our backgrounder on unemployment insurance.

CBPP’s Chart of the Week – From Michael Mitchell’s blog post on higher education funding:

Click on the state abbreviation to jump to its fact sheet.

Note: North Dakota and Alaska are excluded from the fact sheets because they increased per-student higher ed funding between 2008 and 2014.

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

Paul Ryan touts his health care pseudo-plan
MSNBC
March 3, 2015

Workers aren’t the only ones waiting for wage growth
Governing
March 1, 2015

Higher Ed Cuts: Crisis Management or Political Ploy?
US News & World Report
February 27, 2015

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