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off the charts
POLICY INSIGHT
BEYOND THE NUMBERS

In Case You Missed It...

| By CBPP

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan’s budget, the federal budget, federal taxes, health policy, and poverty.

  • On the Ryan plan, Chuck Marr pointed out that it would be extremely difficult for Chairman Ryan to pay for his proposed tax cuts by cutting tax loopholes mainly for the wealthiest households, as he suggests, and we highlighted our report showing that the Ryan tax plan would provide $265,000-a-year tax cuts to the nation’s highest-income households.

    Jim Horney cautioned that the plan is unlikely to balance the federal budget for several decades.

    Paul Van de Water outlined the plan’s drastic and problematic Medicare proposals.

  • On the federal budget, we warned that the Medicaid cuts in the Republican Study Committee’s budget are even larger than those in the Ryan budget and explained why the budget from Reps. Jim Cooper and Steven LaTourette is well to the right of the Bowles-Simpson plan.

    Jim Horney further debunked the claim that the Cooper-LaTourette budget is as balanced as Bowles-Simpson and showed that the plan is tilted more toward spending cuts than its proponents claim.

  • On federal taxes, we noted that House Majority Leader Eric Cantor’s business tax cut would primarily benefit the wealthy and not create many jobs, and Chad Stone explained why “putting a price on carbon” would be smart energy policy and smart budget policy.
  • On health policy, Paul Van de Water rebutted claims that health reform’s tax on medical devices like pacemakers will seriously damage the economy, and January Angeles outlined the benefits to states of health reform’s Medicaid expansion.

    Also, in light of the two-year anniversary of health reform, Shannon Spillane noted several of its key accomplishments thus far, delineated some of the benefits set to take effect in the coming years, and corrected some common misconceptions about health reform.  She also explained health reform’s requirement that individuals have health coverage or face a penalty.

  • On poverty, Arloc Sherman showed that the Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit lift millions of women and girls out of poverty.

In other news, we released reports on the Cooper-LaTourette budget, tax cuts for the wealthy in Chairman Ryan’s budget,  Medicare changes in the Ryan budget, Rep. Cantor’s business tax proposal, the Medicaid cuts in the Republican Study Committee and Ryan budgets, and the impact on states of health reform’s Medicaid expansion.