In Case You Missed It... | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities

off the charts

POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

This week at CBPP, we focused on federal taxes, health care, state budgets and taxes, the federal budget, family income support, and the economy.

On federal taxes, Isaac Shapiro explained that the tax-cut proposals from Republican presidential candidates Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, in conjunction with their calls for balancing the budget, would dictate low levels of government spending not seen since about 1950. Chuck Marr continued our “Countdown to Tax Day” blog series by examining bipartisan proposals to increase the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) for childless workers, lauding critical improvements in the EITC and Child Tax Credit enacted in December as part of the bipartisan tax bill, and decrying the underfunding of the IRS.
On health care, the White House honored Judith Solomon as a “Champion of Change” for her work in advancing health reform. Solomon highlighted how expanding Medicaid significantly helps states address problems resulting from behavioral health conditions. She also warned against a House bill that would cut federal Medicaid payments for inpatient prisoner health care and shift costs back to states. Paul Van de Water supported a proposal from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services to run a demonstration project to test new ways to pay for drugs covered by Medicare Part B.
On state budgets and taxes, Elizabeth McNichol pointed out that the country is $46 billion a year behind what it should spend on building and repairing K-12 schools to provide healthy and safe modern facilities.
On the federal budget, Isaac Shapiro and Richard Kogan detailed how the House Republican budget secures 62 percent of its budget cuts from programs for low- and moderate-income families and cuts those programs by more than two-fifths by 2026.
On family income support, we updated our chart book assessing the state of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
On the economy, we updated our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession and our backgrounder on how many weeks of unemployment compensation are available.

Chart of the Week: Under Trump and Cruz Plans Revenues Fall to 1950 Level — Despite Social Security, Medicare Growth Since Then

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

Would food stamp cuts lead to “hunger and poverty”?
CBS News
March 30, 2016

The End of Welfare as We Know It
The Atlantic
April 1, 2016

Block grants are just budget cuts in disguise — and the targets are antipoverty programs
Los Angeles Times
March 25, 2016

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