In Case You Missed It...

This week on Off the Charts, we focused on the federal budget and taxes, state budgets, and food assistance.

• On the federal budget and taxes, Richard Kogan outlined three things that Congress should remember as it prepares to vote on freezing the debt limit.  Chuck Marr graded the corporate tax reform provisions of a report from the President’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness.  Hannah Shaw explained why Congress should not allow states to use unemployment insurance funds for other purposes.
• On state budgets, Phil Oliff pointed out that Missouri governor Jay Nixon’s plan to close his state’s shortfall through spending cuts alone, including large cuts in higher education, is misguided.  Michael Leachman lauded Rhode Island’s decision to post online the official estimates of how much money proposed legislation would cost — or save — the state.
• On food assistance, Stacy Dean listed five important facts about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and Dottie Rosenbaum highlighted our recently updated papers on the program.

In other news, we released reports on a harmful proposed change to the unemployment insurance system and the problems with biennial budgeting.