Robert Greenstein
Robert Greenstein
Robert Greenstein is founder and President of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a Washington, D.C. think tank that focuses on federal and state fiscal policy and public programs that affect low and moderate-income families and individuals...
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It is particularly ironic that these two new tax cuts repeal provisions of the tax code that President Bush's father signed in 1990 to reduce deficits.
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My worry is that in the absence of discipline, what we will see a month from now after the initial relief bills are passed, are efforts by policy-makers of both parties and a variety of interest groups to take advantage of the disaster by arguing that all sorts of expansions in tax cuts and certain spending ... are needed,
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There is this double standard. The losses are larger in other areas of the tax code, but somehow a different standard gets applied to this.
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New York has been unusual in being one of the only cities in the country eligible for the waiver that has not had it.
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It certainly sounds to me that they made a calculation to get Coleman's support. With Coleman, they no longer needed Smith. And if they no longer needed Smith, they could cut Medicaid recipients instead of the pharmaceutical companies and managed-care providers.
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The new data are particularly troubling for working people, showing backward movement for most workers. In short, the census data provide new evidence that, as in 2002 and 2003, the recovery was neither robust nor broad-based.
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You can see the political clout of the moneyed interests.
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If you're young and healthy, this can work well. If you're not young and healthy, it can be a disaster, and you can end up much worse off than you currently are.
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So there's actually big differences for low- and moderate-income families -- better under Gore. Big differences for very high-income families -- they get a lot more under Bush.
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It's certainly better that people falling into poverty can get Medicaid, but I'd prefer fewer poor people and employers not dropping medical coverage.
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The Texas Legislature should not have to go cut other programs for ongoing Texas residents to help the evacuees,
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We need to figure out how to help more lower- and middle-income people save for retirement, ... not lose large amounts of money by giving people breaks at high-income levels, who already have substantial assets to fall back on.
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The real danger is that the employers market erodes fast.
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The plans are quite different. They're different in how much of the surplus they would use. They're different in where those surplus dollars would go. They're different in which groups of the population would get the principal benefits.