In Case You Missed It...

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

• On health reform, Shannon Spillane outlined five things we would lose and five important benefits that won’t take effect if health reform is repealed, and Paul Van de Water responded to misguided claims about health reform’s impact on jobs and the deficit.

• On the federal budget, Jim Horney explained that a new proposal from the House Republican Study Committee would result in radical cuts to a range of key public services.

• On state budgets, we featured a C-SPAN interview of Jon Shure about the challenges states face in trying to meet growing needs with shrunken resources, and Iris Lav highlighted a new Center report debunking claims that states and localities are facing an imminent fiscal meltdown.  Lav also explained why allowing states to declare bankruptcy would be the wrong response to an exaggerated problem.  Phil Oliff examined the harsh consequences of a Texas proposal to close the state’s budget shortfall almost entirely through budget cuts.  We also discussed our position on state film tax credits in light of a recent New York Times article citing our study on the subject.

In other news, we released a podcast on false claims about health reform’s effect on jobs and national debt, an update to our report on state budget shortfalls, and a report correcting recent misconceptions of states’ and localities’ fiscal situation.