Benefits

Ryan's Response to Center's Analysis of “Roadmap” Is Off Base

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Fri, 03/12/2010 - 4:39pm
We are quite disappointed that, in responding to our analysis of his budget plan, Rep. Paul Ryan accuses the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities of “partisan demagoguery” as well as “factual errors and misleading statements.” Quite the contrary, we applied the same rigorous analytical process to Rep. Ryan’s Roadmap for America’s Future that we do to every issue we study. We worked for more than a month on our analysis, and we believe that, if anything, we …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Video: Fox Business Interviews Nicholas Johnson on the State Fiscal Crisis

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Thu, 03/11/2010 - 3:19pm
Nicholas Johnson weighs in on tax hikes in response to the recession on Fox Business News.
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Media Briefing: The Ryan Budget's Radical Priorities

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 3:09pm
Robert Greenstein and Paul Van de Water discuss the radical priorities in Rep. Paul Ryan’s budget proposal in a media call on March 10, 2010. Duration: 21:34
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

The Ryan Budget's Radical Priorities

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Wed, 03/10/2010 - 9:28am
I. Summary The Roadmap for America’s Future, which Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — the ranking Republican on the House Budget Committee — released in late January, calls for radical policy changes that would result in a massive transfer of resources from the broad majority of Americans to the nation’s wealthiest individuals.[1] The Roadmap would give the most affluent households a new round of very large, costly tax cuts by reducing income tax rates on high-income households; …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Statement: Michael Mazerov, Senior Fellow, on Amazon's Cancellation of Its Colorado Affiliate Program

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 3:29pm
Last month, Colorado enacted a law that requires Amazon.com and other Internet retailers that do not collect and remit Colorado sales tax on what they sell in the state to tell their Colorado customers that they may owe sales tax on their purchases, and also to tell the state each year the total dollar value of items purchased by each purchaser. Yesterday, Amazon told its small business partners in Colorado that it would immediately stop doing business with them unless Colorado repeals that law.…
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Podcast: The Recovery Act Creates Jobs and Boosts Economy

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Tue, 03/09/2010 - 10:53am
The latest information showing that the Recovery Act is creating jobs and boosting the economy is discussed by Senior Policy Analyst Michael Leachman. Duration: 3:12
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

State Tax Changes in Response to the Recession

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Mon, 03/08/2010 - 10:08am
The national recession has had such a devastating effect on state finances that states took in $87 billion less in tax revenue from October 2008 through September 2009 than they collected in the previous 12 months. This 11 percent decline, the steepest on record, resulted from the impact on tax collections of lost jobs, reduced wages, and lowered economic activity. At the same time, the recession has driven up the number of people needing various state services. This, along with the …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Podcast: The February Employment Report and What It Means for the Economy

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Fri, 03/05/2010 - 2:10pm
The jobs report for February is discussed by Chief Economist, Chad Stone. Duration: 2:48
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Statement: Chad Stone, Chief Economist, on the February Employment Report

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Fri, 03/05/2010 - 11:15am
Today’s jobs report shows that job losses continued at a moderate pace in February and unemployment remained unchanged at 9.7 percent. While noting that these numbers may include the impacts on hiring and hours worked of the severe winter weather that paralyzed major Northeastern cities in February, the Labor Department said that it could not quantify the impact. These weather effects are transient, however, and the more important fact is that we still have a very long way to go to …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Podcast: Zoë Neuberger Testimony on the Hunger Free Schools Act

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Thu, 03/04/2010 - 2:10pm
Senior Policy Analyst, Zoë Neuberger, discusses the Hunger Free Schools Act before the House of Representative Subcommittee on Agriculture, at a hearing titled “Child Nutrition” on Thursday, March 4, 2010. Duration: 6:06
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Recession Threatens State Health Care Programs

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Thu, 03/04/2010 - 12:33pm
In considering “jobs legislation” in the weeks ahead, Congress will decide whether to extend the temporary increase in federal support for state Medicaid programs that last year’s economic recovery legislation provided. Failure to do so would lead to deeper state budget cuts that cost substantial numbers of jobs, as well as to what the evidence increasingly suggests would be severe cuts in the Medicaid program in many states that would cast hundreds of thousands, and perhaps …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Testimony: Zoë Neuberger on the Hunger Free Schools Act

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Thu, 03/04/2010 - 11:58am
Millions of American school children rely upon the federal nutrition programs as a basic support even during the best of economies, but with unemployment hovering near 10 percent and long-term unemployment at record levels, children need them more than ever to help them grow and thrive. The reauthorization of the child nutrition programs offers an important opportunity to expand access to them. In 2008, the most recent year for which these data are available, nearly one in five children (19 …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Social Security Does Not Need a “Bailout”

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Thu, 03/04/2010 - 11:06am
In recent weeks, a few commentators have sounded an alarm about the recession’s impact on Social Security’s near-term prospects, which may lead some people to think that the program faces financial problems in the next several years. Fortunately, that is not the case. Social Security continues to run annual surpluses and remains capable of paying scheduled benefits in full for the next three decades or so. The deep recession has indisputably affected the Social Security …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Changes in Medicare Tax on High-Income People Represent Sound Additions to Health Reform

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Thu, 03/04/2010 - 9:28am
The President’s health reform plan would raise the Medicare tax rate for single filers with incomes over $200,000 and married filers with incomes over $250,000 — a provision that was included in the Senate-passed health bill — and also would extend this tax to the unearned income these affluent households receive such as income from capital gains, dividends, and royalties. These proposals, which would help finance the expansion of health coverage to more than 30 million …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Testimony: Robert Tannenwald, Senior Fellow, on Massachusetts' Film Tax Credits

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Wed, 03/03/2010 - 4:38pm
Chairman Kaufman, Chairman Downing, and other members of the Committee: Thank you for the opportunity to address you this morning. For the record, I am a Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities is a non-partisan research and policy institute which works at the federal and state levels on fiscal policy and public programs that affect low- and moderate-income families and individuals. Prior to joining the Center in January, I was a …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Don't let the Ideal Prevent the Necessary

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Wed, 03/03/2010 - 11:57am
Federal policymakers face two daunting challenges this year with regard to economic and fiscal policy. First, they must enact legislation that will help sustain and accelerate the nascent economic recovery and create jobs more quickly than would occur otherwise. Second, they must show that they are serious about putting the budget on a sustainable path that will avoid the explosion of deficits and debt that will occur in future decades under current policies. In addressing these challenges, …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

The Zero-Sum Game: States Cannot Stimulate Their Economies by Cutting Taxes

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Tue, 03/02/2010 - 3:45pm
Policymakers in a number of states are considering proposals to cut taxes and institute job-creation tax credits. While state policymakers are understandably eager to do something to improve their economies, such measures generally will not increase economic growth. State balanced-budget requirements prevent states from stimulating their economies by cutting taxes. If a state cuts a tax, it generally has to make an offsetting cut to expenditures for a program or service in order to maintain …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

Podcast: The Hunger Free Schools Act

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Tue, 03/02/2010 - 10:37am
Legislation that can reduce child hunger in the country is discussed by Senior Policy Analyst for Food Assistance, Zoë Neuberger. Duration: 4:33
Categories: Benefits, Poverty

With 100,000 Newly Created Subsidized Jobs at Stake, It's Critical to Extend and Expand TANF Emergency Fund as Part of New Jobs Bill

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities - Fri, 02/26/2010 - 1:55pm
The Senate should include President Obama’s proposal to extend for one year and modestly expand the TANF Emergency Fund in the bill it is crafting to respond to historically high unemployment and weak consumer demand. If the Senate fails to include this measure, a program that is providing many unemployed, low-income parents with subsidized private-sector jobs at a very economical cost per job will end at a time when the number of long-term unemployed is at its highest level in at least …
Categories: Benefits, Poverty