In Case You Missed It...

This week on Off the Charts, we talked about the President’s jobs proposal, the current payroll tax cut, state budgets, welfare reform, and the poverty data that the Census Bureau will issue next week.

• On the President’s jobs plan, Jared Bernstein appeared on ABC’s “This Week” with Christiane Amanpour prior to the President’s speech to discuss effective ideas for creating jobs.  He also explained that the President’s plan was robust and ambitious and urged Congress to enact it sooner rather than later.  Robert Greenstein appeared on MSNBC’s “The Last Word” with Lawrence O’Donnell show after the President’s speech. Chad Stone detailed how the plan would boost the economy and create jobs.  And Michael Leachman pointed out that the proposed education aid to states would help save school jobs.

• On the current payroll tax cut, Chuck Marr showed that letting it expire at the end of December would harm the economy.  We also highlighted new Tax Policy Center estimates of how much households in different income brackets would receive if Congress extended the tax cut for 2012.

• On state budgets, Phil Oliff discussed a Missouri proposal to raise taxes on low-income people to help pay for business tax breaks.  He also detailed the findings of a Center survey showing that many states are cutting K-12 education funding this year.

• On welfare reform, Donna Pavetti testified before Congress on ways to improve the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.

• On the upcoming poverty data, we listed ten things to look for regarding trends in poverty and health coverage.

In other news, we released a report explaining why Congress should not let the payroll tax cut expire and analyzed education funding cuts in a number of states.  Donna Pavetti testified before Congress on issues related to TANF reauthorization.  We also updated our backgrounders on the Earned Income Tax Credit and the unemployment insurance system.