In Case You Missed It…

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, state budgets and taxes, the safety net, and health reform.

• On the federal budget and taxes, Chuck Marr countered the Tax Foundation’s claim that the new tax plan from Senators Mike Lee and Marco Rubio is tilted toward low-income people. We explained that two likely goals of the budget plans that the House and Senate Budget Committees are due to consider next week are severely flawed.

• On state budgets and taxes, Michael Leachman described the damage that deep tax cuts are doing to states’ education funding.

• On the safety net, LaDonna Pavetti pointed out why Arizona’s cuts to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are an example of the risks in expanding states' responsibility for assisting the poor. Ed Bolen estimated that 60,000 veterans may lose SNAP (food stamp) benefits over the course of 2016 due to the return of time limits. Paul Van de Water explained that few Disability Insurance beneficiaries could support themselves by working.
• On health reform, Paul Van de Water noted that the Congressional Budget Office now estimates that federal health spending will be nearly $700 billion less over the 2011-2020 period than it had earlier projected.

This week, we released our paper on why balancing the budget in ten years and with no new revenues are flawed goals. We updated our papers showing that low-income programs are not driving the nation’s long-term fiscal problems and that program spending outside Social Security and Medicare is already low in historical terms and is projected to fall further. We also updated our backgrounders on where our federal tax dollars go, where our federal tax revenues come from, federal tax expenditures, the legacy of the Great Recession, how many weeks of unemployment compensation are available, and Social Security Disability Insurance.

CBPP’s Chart of the Week – From Paul Van de Water’s blog post on Disability Insurance:

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A variety of news outlets featured CBPP’s work and experts recently. Here are some highlights:

Can working families still afford UNC?
The News & Observer
March 10, 2015

Will Friday's Jobs Report Force Janet Yellen's Hand?
The Fiscal Times
March 6, 2015

States Are Slashing College Budgets and Raising Tuition
Bloomberg
March 5, 2015

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