The Social Security trustees will release their annual report on the program’s financial status on Friday, March 31, inevitably followed by alarmist headlines — but don’t be fooled. Although echoed by some policymakers, claims of Social Security’s impending “bankruptcy” are highly misleading and demonstrate misunderstanding, or deliberate misrepresentation, of Social Security’s finances. Even in the unlikely […]
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
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Added IRS Funding Would Help Ensure High-Income Households, Businesses Pay Their Taxes
August 12, 2022 – The Senate-passed Inflation Reduction Act includes funding to help the IRS shrink the roughly $600 billion annual gap between taxes legally owed and taxes paid — a gap that disproportionately reflects high-income people’s noncompliance with the nation’s tax laws. The funding would raise $204 billion through 2031, for net savings of […]
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Dottie Rosenbaum: Executive Action on Food Assistance Strengthens Federal Response to Hunger
CBPP today released a statement from Dottie Rosenbaum, Senior Fellow and Interim Program Area Lead for Food Assistance, on the President’s new executive order that includes changes in food assistance: The President’s executive order to address food hardship is a strong response to families’ immediate hardship during the COVID crisis and takes an important step, consistent with […]
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Pandemic Hardship Worsening as Relief Programs Near End
December 17, 2020 – With the holiday season upon us and federal unemployment benefits for more than 12 million jobless workers expiring the day after Christmas, a growing number of households are under severe financial strain, Census data released this week show. These data underscore the urgent need for policymakers to extend those benefits and other key CARES […]
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Robert Greenstein: Pelosi Package Would Provide Essential Support for Economy, Relief to Households
May 12, 2020 – Speaker Pelosi’s new COVID-19 proposal seeks to address the unprecedented health and economic crises our nation faces with measures substantial enough both to provide strong support for the economy — and thereby lessen the severity and duration of the deep recession — and to ease hardship significantly for tens of millions […]
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Michael Leachman: McConnell Argument Against State Fiscal Relief Far Off Base
April 23, 2020 – Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell defends his opposition to more fiscal relief for state and local governments by arguing that it would just “bail out” states that have mismanaged their finances, particularly their state employee pension systems. That’s far off base. In reality, states would use the money to avoid massive layoffs and […]
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Robert Greenstein: President Trump’s 2021 Budget Would Widen Country’s Divisions
February 10, 2020 – CBPP today released a statement from Robert Greenstein, president, on President Trump’s new budget: In the face of a bitterly divided country that needs healing, President Trump today threw gasoline on the fire by releasing a stunningly harsh budget that would tear us further apart. It would push tens of millions […]
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Trump Administration Rule Would Reverse Communities’ Progress Toward Meeting Fair Housing Obligations
January 7, 2020 – The proposed rule the Trump Administration announced today would seriously weaken community efforts to enable all households to secure housing without facing discrimination. The rule would largely reverse 2015 regulations designed to ensure that housing agencies and communities receiving Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) funding fulfill their obligations under […]
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Immigrants Contribute Greatly to U.S. Economy, Despite Administration’s “Public Charge” Rule Rational
August 16, 2019 – The Department of Homeland Security’s recently finalized “public charge” rule directs immigration officials to reject applications from individuals who seek to remain in or enter the U.S. lawfully if they have received — or are judged more likely than not to receive in the future — any of an array of […]
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Robert Greenstein: President Trump’s Fiscal 2020 Budget Proposal a Troubling Vision for the Nation
March 11, 2019 – President Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget proposal presents a deeply troubling vision for the nation. It sharply cuts funding in the part of the budget that invests in future economic growth through education and training, scientific research, infrastructure, and the like. It reverses progress in making affordable health care available to people […]
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Robert Greenstein: Policymakers Must End Government Shutdown as Harmful Effects Grow
Jan. 8, 2019 – CBPP tonight released a statement from Robert Greenstein, president, on the need to re-open the federal government: With the government shutdown in its third week, President Trump saying he’s “prepared” for it to last months if not years, and the human harm growing by the hour, congressional leaders have a responsibility […]
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Trump Rule Would Threaten Low-Wage Legal Immigrants If Their Families Receive Any Benefits or Tax Credits
May 1, 2018 – The Trump Administration is planning[1] a radical change in policy that would jeopardize the immigration status of substantial numbers of legal immigrants who work at low-wage jobs and whose families receive any of a sweeping array of benefits or tax credits — even though, under federal law, these immigrants are fully […]
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CBPP: A Punishing Decade for School Funding
November 29, 2017 – A new CBPP paper shows that public investment in K-12 schools has declined dramatically in a number of states over the last decade. Worse, some of the deepest-cutting states have also cut income tax rates, weakening their main revenue source for supporting schools. Most states reduced funding for K-12 after the […]
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Sarah Lueck: How the Trump Administration Might Sabotage ACA Insurance Markets
April 4, 2017 – President Trump says the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is “exploding right now” and predicts a “very bad year,” with insurer pullouts and large premium increases in many states’ individual health insurance markets. In reality, health insurance markets are generally stable under the ACA, as analysts such as the Congressional Budget Office […]
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Sarah Lueck: If “Essential Health Benefits” Standards Are Repealed, Health Plans Would Cover Little
March 23, 2017 – Sarah Lueck is Senior Policy Analyst, CBPP The White House and House Republican leaders are reportedly negotiating with House Freedom Caucus members to eliminate federal minimum benefit (“Essential Health Benefits”) standards for individual and small-group market plans as part of the House health bill. That would leave many people with pre-existing […]
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Robert Greenstein: The House Republican Health Bill – A Test for Members
March 23, 2017 – When House GOP leaders unveiled their legislation to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), House Republicans faced a fundamental question: would they insist on changes to make the bill fairer for the tens of millions of low- and moderate-income people across America who would be treated harshly under it? After all, […]
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CBO: 24 Million People Would Lose Coverage by 2026 Under House Republican Health Plan
March 13, 2017 – Edwin Park is Vice President for Health Policy The House Republican health plan to repeal much of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and radically restructure Medicaid would cause 24 million people to lose coverage by 2026 and drive $880 billion in federal Medicaid cuts over the next ten years, the Congressional […]