In Case You Missed It...

This week on Off the Charts, we talked about taxes, the debt limit, and unemployment.

• On taxes, Chuck Marr explained why Congress should allow the current estate tax rules to expire as scheduled at the end of 2012.
• On the debt limit, Jim Horney pointed out that House Republican leaders’ decision to stage a vote on a “clean” increase in the debt limit could actually undermine serious deficit-reduction negotiations.
• On unemployment, Chad Stone showed that May’s weak jobs report and continuing low interest rates belie the notion that the budget deficit is a more immediate threat to the economy than the jobs deficit.  Mike Leachman noted that state and local governments laid off 30,000 men and women in May and have laid off more than half a million since the recession began.

In other news, we debunked the myth that low- and moderate-income families don’t pay enough taxes and updated our chart book on the recession; Chad Stone also released a statement on the May unemployment report.

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