BEYOND THE NUMBERS
In Case You Missed It...
This week on Off the Charts, we focused on child nutrition, SNAP (formerly food stamps), and the federal budget and taxes.
- On child nutrition, Zoë Neuberger explained that the agriculture funding bill that the House Appropriations Committee approved this week would gut new school meal standards. She also highlighted a rebuttal from several nutrition scientists to arguments for requiring the WIC nutrition program to provide white potatoes. And she excerpted an op-ed explaining how the “community eligibility” option, which enables schools in high-poverty areas to provide meals to all students at no charge, is helping West Virginia.
- On SNAP, we presented new data showing that SNAP spending and caseloads are falling.
- On the federal budget and taxes, Chuck Marr pointed out that permanently extending the “bonus depreciation” tax break would be economically unjustified and fiscally irresponsible. Richard Kogan explained why adopting so-called “fair-value accounting” for federal loan programs would distort budgeting.
In other news, we issued papers on declining SNAP costs and the effort to make bonus depreciation permanent. We also updated our paper on why some of the proposed Medicare Part D regulations dropped by the Administration were sound, our chart book on the legacy of the Great Recession, and our paper on how many schools and school districts in each state qualify for community eligibility.
Chart of the Week:
A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts recently. Here are some highlights:
Americans Move for Many Reasons, But Rarely to Flee High Taxes
Fiscal Times
May 30, 2014
Economic Upswing Has Fewer Americans Receiving Food Stamps
The Salt
May 29, 2014
State support for public universities has plummeted
Denver Post
May 28, 2014
