BEYOND THE NUMBERS
In Case You Missed It . . .
In this busy week for Off the Charts, we focused on the budget plans from the chairs of the House and Senate Budget Committees, food assistance, the safety net, and health reform.
- On the congressional budget plans, Chuck Marr showed that the plan from House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price would heavily favor people at the top of the income scale. Bryann DaSilva explained that both the Price plan and the plan from Senate Budget Committee Chair Mike Enzi leave out key tax provisions for low-income working families. Edwin Park analyzed the radical Medicaid changes in the Price and Enzi. Matt Broaddus explained why the success of the Children’s Health Insurance Program is no reason to convert much of Medicaid to block grants, as the Price and Enzi plans would. David Reich warned that the program cuts under the Price plan will likely be much bigger than the plan’s “reconciliation” targets. Visit our Congressional Budget Roundup for everything you need to know about the Price and Enzi plans.
- On food assistance, Zoë Neuberger detailed the critical support that WIC provides to low-income women and young children. Ed Bolen described ten pilot projects announced this week to test new ways to encourage and support employment among SNAP participants.
- On the safety net, LaDonna Pavetti explained why investing in children can lay the foundation for their long-term success. Arloc Sherman laid out data showing that the safety net lifts 39 million Americans out of poverty.
- On health reform, Judy Solomon pointed out new data showing that health reform has greatly expanded health coverage. Jesse Cross-Call highlighted new reports finding that health reform’s Medicaid expansion has produced significant state budget savings.
This week, Robert Greenstein previewed the congressional budget plans and issued statements on both the Price and Enzi plans. We posted papers on the impact of “churn” in health and human services programs and the House Budget Committee’s plan to slash SNAP by $125 billion. We updated our paper on SNAP enrollment and the economy, our backgrounder on unemployment compensation, and our reviews of state government SNAP websites and online services for low-income benefit programs.
CBPP’s Chart of the Week – Illustrating the Priorities in the Price Budget:
A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts recently. Here are some highlights:
House Republican Budget Could Double The Number Of Uninsured
Huffington Post
March 18, 2015
The House Budget Disaster
The New York Times
March 18, 2015
There’s a mysterious $1.1 trillion in spending cuts in the House GOP’s budget
Washington Post
March 17, 2015
Event
Join the Full Employment Project of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities on March 30th for a keynote speech by former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and a discussion of leading economists about policies that can help restore and maintain full employment in U.S. labor markets. RSVP
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