Bob Greenstein
@bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
890 followers 77 following 6 posts
Visiting Fellow, @brookings.edu & @hamiltonproject.org; founder and president @centeronbudget.bsky.social 1981-2020
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Reposted by Bob Greenstein
bbkogan.bsky.social
The lead tax GOP is pushing back, saying, “The rich will pay an even higher share of taxes under The One, Big, Beautiful Bill”

But share paid is a terrible metric. If you get rid of all taxes except for a dollar on Elon Musk, he’s now paying 100% of the share, but the system got way more regressive
bbkogan.bsky.social
NEW FROM CBO: brutal distributional analysis of House GOP "Big Beautiful Bill"

On avg the bottom 30% of households get poorer under the GOP bill

Avg gets little - and are worse off if you include tariffs

This'd be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the rich in a single law in history
figure 2. shows poor get poorer and rich get richer, percent change. -4% for bottom 10%. +2.5% roughly for top 10%. dollar change. shows poor get poorer and rich get richer.
Reposted by Bob Greenstein
jaredb-econ.bsky.social
One more thing: While working on this, I read Bob Greenstein's masterful, sweeping history for the Hamilton Project of anti-poverty programs evolution since the 1970s. Absolute must-read, with important forward guidance as well.
www.hamiltonproject.org/wp-content/u...
www.hamiltonproject.org
Reposted by Bob Greenstein
jaredb-econ.bsky.social
...documenting what the program actually does for people, families, state budgets, and more. Today, we posted a longer version. To us, the Cogan oped is a revealing take on how, if you ignore evidence, you can justify these proposed cuts.
econjared.substack.com/p/the-conser...
The Conservative Argument Against Medicaid Is That It Has Grown
With no regard for what it does.
econjared.substack.com
Reposted by Bob Greenstein
jaredb-econ.bsky.social
Yesterday, Hannah Katch and I had this letter to the ed in the WSJ, critiquing an oped by John Cogan arguing that Mcaid must be cut because it has grown. That's it. Zero reference to decades of quality research, much by folks up here...
www.wsj.com/opinion/what...
Opinion | What if Medicaid Hadn’t Grown in the U.S.?
‘Mr. Cogan seems to think that simply by pointing out that more people are receiving benefits, it’s obvious that they must be cut.’
www.wsj.com
bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
The Ways & Means proposals also would deny the CTC to 4.5 million children who are US citizens or legal permanent residents if either of their parents lacks a Social Security Number.
bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
As this piece explains, the CTC expansion the House Ways & Means Cmte proposes would provide no CTC increase to millions of kids in low-income working families, with families in the bottom 20% by income getting just 2% of the new CTC benefits and families in top 20% getting nearly 10 times as much
hamiltonproject.org
Congress is facing a choice on the Child Tax Credit, @bobgreensteindc.bsky.social writes: Will they adopt lower-cost CTC changes that benefit children in low-income working families, or higher-cost changes that largely exclude them?
bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
As this piece explains, the CTC expansion the House Ways & Means Cmte proposes would provide no CTC increase to millions of kids in low-income working families, with families in the bottom 20% by income getting just 2% of the new CTC benefits and families in top 20% getting nearly 10 times as much
bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
Add to that the steep cuts in Medicaid, SNAP, etc. coming in the reconciliation bill and you have a prescription for triggering the biggest increases in poverty, hardship, and human suffering in the US - and the biggest losses of health coverage - we've seen in our lifetimes
bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
Massive cutbacks in rental assistance for low-income families, elimination of aid with high heating/cooling bills, elimination of programs to spur development of affordable housing and - despite claims of wanting people to work - elimination of Job Corps & big cuts in education.
bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
The Trump budget cuts in program after program for people struggling to get by are unprecedented and far exceed the proposals from his 1st term, seen as Draconian then. Some specifics in the thread below.
bobgreensteindc.bsky.social
People interested in the deep cuts about to emerge as part of the budget reconciliation bill may find this paper of particular interest.
hamiltonproject.org
How has the safety net changed, and where should policymakers go from here? In a new paper, @bobgreensteindc.bsky.social examines the evolution and effectiveness of the safety net and offers recommendations for future policy: www.hamiltonproject.org/publication/...
Changes in the safety net over recent decades and their impact - The Hamilton Project
This paper examines the U.S. safety net's evolution, effectiveness, and critiques.
www.hamiltonproject.org