In Case You Missed It...

This week on Off the Charts, we discussed the deficit, the economy, state budgets, housing, and health reform.

• On the deficit, we highlighted the Center’s statement on the new plan from the co-chairs of the President’s fiscal commission and Jim Horney’s analysis of it.  We also featured Chad Stone’s discussion of the relationship between deficit reduction and income inequality from the New York Times’ “Room for Debate” forum, and Chuck Marr outlined the main reasons for allowing the high-income tax cuts to expire. Chuck also pointed out that millions of middle-class and low-income working families would lose tax cuts under the current major Republican tax proposals.
• On the economy, Michael Leachman highlighted the 2009 Recovery Act’s role in saving jobs during the recession. Chad Stone answered questions about the expiration of the federal emergency unemployment insurance program and explained what the expiration means going forward. Chad also pointed to charts showing the most recent jobs report in historical context.
• On state budgets, Nicholas Johnson clarified what a new report on state revenues means for states as they draft next year’s budgets.
• On housing, Douglas Rice emphasized the threat that proposed cuts to overall discretionary domestic funding pose to housing assistance.
• On health reform, Shannon Spillane noted that the erosion of employer-based coverage makes implementation of the Affordable Care Act especially important.

In other news, the Center’s top charts are now on Flickr; you can browse them here. We also published statements on the November jobs report and the new Bowles-Simpson plan, as well as reports on the Rivlin-Domenici deficit reduction plan, jobs and the Recovery Act, housing assistance, andthe decline in employer-based health coverage. Additionally, the Center released a podcast on the expiration of UI benefits.