BEYOND THE NUMBERS
In Case You Missed It . . .
This week at CBPP, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, state budgets and taxes, the economy, food assistance, and health.
- On the federal budget and taxes, Richard Kogan explained that enacting a $1.5 trillion tax cut, as the Senate budget plan calls for, could trigger cuts in entitlement programs this year or later. He also pointed out that the similarities between the Senate, House, and Trump budget plans outweigh their differences. We rounded up our analyses of the Senate budget plan.
Chye-Ching Huang showed that the “Big Six” tax plan from the Trump Administration and congressional Republican leaders looks much like Kansas’ failed tax cut package, which lawmakers have largely repealed. We found that the GOP tax plan’s repeal of the estate tax would provide a windfall to heirs of the wealthiest estates, and that the plan would largely exclude or even hurt small businesses.
We also released a series of brief reports on how Republican plans to cut taxes now and programs later would increase homelessness and hardship, threaten food assistance through SNAP (formerly food stamps), leave most children worse off, harm students and schools, hurt people with disabilities, put health programs in jeopardy, and negatively impact the elderly.
- On state budgets and taxes, Michael Leachman and Iris J. Lav explained that the GOP tax plan’s elimination of the deduction for state and local taxes to pay for tax cuts aimed mostly at the wealthy would be a bad deal for most Americans.
- On health, Robert Greenstein stated that this week’s agreement between Senators Lamar Alexander and Patty Murray represents an important step toward bipartisan action on health care and away from damaging attempts to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We posted a new Sabotage Watch entry on efforts to undermine the ACA. And Matt Broaddus highlighted a new study showing that health coverage reduces poverty.
- On food assistance, Elizabeth Wolkomir explained why the Senate must now pass critical food assistance for Puerto Rico. We updated our review of state government SNAP websites.
- On the economy, we updated our primer on the number of weeks of unemployment compensation in each state and our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession.
Chart of the Week – Only 50 Small Farms or Businesses Face Estate Tax
A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts recently. Here are some highlights:
Under Brownback, Kansas government kept shrinking. ‘We’ve got a lot of damage to repair’
Kansas City Star
October 18, 2017
A Tax Proposal That Could Lift Millions Out of Poverty
The Atlantic
October 17, 2017
There’s Very Little Welfare Left for Trump to Reform
Mother Jones
October 16, 2017
White House Says Corporate Tax Cut Would Boost Wages $4,000
Bloomberg
October 16, 2017
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