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POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

In Case You Missed It…

| By CBPP

This week at CBPP, we focused on the federal budget, health care, food assistance, federal taxes, state budgets and taxes, Social Security, housing, and family income support.

  • On the federal budget, Robert Greenstein’s statement on the President’s 2018 budget emphasized that its proposed cuts would worsen poverty and inequality, while betraying many who voted for him. Isaac Shapiro explained that spending trends in mandatory programs don’t justify the proposed cuts. David Reich pointed out that the Trump budget would cut non-defense discretionary programs that have already been squeezed in recent years. We summarized the radical, harmful priorities in the Trump budget, and Chuck Marr noted that while some in Congress may seek to distance themselves from the budget, it’s broadly consistent with House-passed Republican budgets of recent years. Chad Stone showed that the gap between the Administration’s economic growth forecast and the Congressional Budget Office’s is the largest in history.
  • On health care, Aviva Aron-Dine pointed out that the House health care bill’s elimination of the Affordable Care Act’s (ACA) Medicaid expansion would have the perverse effect of discouraging low-wage workers from taking better jobs. Jacob Leibenluft previewed the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of the House bill. Following the release of the CBO analysis, Edwin Park highlighted key findings from the report, including its estimate that there would be 23 million more uninsured people under the bill. Leibenluft showed that the CBO report refutes claims that the House bill protects people with pre-existing conditions. Leibenluft, Aron-Dine, and Park showed that millions of Americans would pay more for skimpier coverage under the bill. We updated our brief pieces explaining that the bill would end Medicaid as we know it and that the bill can’t be fixed. Park found that the President’s budget would enlarge the Medicaid cuts in the House bill and weaken the Children’s Health Insurance Program.
  • On food assistance, Dottie Rosenbaum showed that SNAP caseloads and spending are falling as the economy recovers, just as predicted. Robert Greenstein was featured in a short video describing SNAP’s impact on recipients and the economy and the risk of large cuts. Stacy Dean detailed the SNAP proposals in the President’s budget, which would severely cut the program and shift billions of dollars in costs to states, and then summarized those proposals.
  • On federal taxes, Chuck Marr juxtaposed the President’s proposed cuts in health coverage and care for poor and modest-income families with his proposed tax cuts aimed mostly at the wealthy. Chye-Ching Huang and Brandon DeBot described the House health care bill’s tax cuts for the wealthy, insurers, and drug companies. Marr, Huang, DeBot, and Guillermo Herrera explained that the President’s proposed tax cut for “pass-through” business income would provide a windfall to the wealthy and encourage large-scale tax avoidance; we also summarized the proposal’s likely impact.
  • On state budgets and taxes, Michael Leachman outlined the ways in which Kansas’ unaffordable tax cuts have harmed the state over the past five years. He also pointed out that the President’s budget would shift massive costs to states. Michael Mazerov noted that the Supreme Court’s Quill decision 25 years ago has cost states and localities tens of billions of dollars and needs a federal policy solution.
  • On Social Security, Kathleen Romig listed several ways the President’s budget would hurt older Americans.
  • On housing, Douglas Rice explained that the President’s budget would shrink the supply of affordable housing and increase homelessness and other hardships across the country. He also detailed the likely impact of this and other housing cuts in the budget.
  • On family income support, Tazra Mitchell noted that the Trump budget’s cuts to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families contradict the document’s purported goals of reducing poverty and promoting work.

Chart of the Week: Gap Between Trump and CBO Economic Growth Forecasts Is Unprecedented

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


The Assault on Colleges — and the American Dream
The New York Times
May 25, 2017


The People Left Behind When Only the ‘Deserving’ Poor Get Help
The Atlantic
May 25, 2017


The Trump Administration’s Budget Charade
The New Yorker
May 24, 2017


How Trump’s Budget Affects Women
The New York Times
May 24, 2017


Trump's Cuts to SNAP and Social Security Would Hit the Rust Belt Hard
The Atlantic
May 23, 2017


Trump's Budget Relies On Optimistic Economic Forecasts, Critics Say
NPR
May 23, 2017

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