@chuckcbpp.bsky.social
New Paper:
CBO finds $1 invested in federal non-defense R & D yields $11.50 over 30 yrs, i.e. wow
Meanwhile, the Trump Admin proposes a 21% cut in non-defense R & D funding– while targeting top universities– posing a threat to future living standards
www.cbpp.org/research/fed...
Administration’s Proposed Cuts to Non-Defense R&D Pose Long-Term Risk to Rising Living Standards | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
New, high-quality research quantifying the powerful impact of federal non-defense research and development shows why the dramatic cuts to non-defense R&D funding proposed by the Trump Administration w...
www.cbpp.org
October 10, 2025 at 2:27 PM
Reposted
Alarming news this morning that Social Security head Frank Bisignano has been named “CEO” of IRS, a move that raises 3 major concerns:

www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
Bessent Picks Social Security Chief Frank Bisignano as IRS CEO
The Social Security head will do double duty at the tax agency while Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent retains his formal title as acting IRS commissioner.
www.wsj.com
October 6, 2025 at 2:56 PM
Reposted
The Administration acknowledged that it will stop the survey that measures food insecurity, just as tariffs push up food prices and the deep cuts to food assistance enacted in July start to take effect. Congress must intervene to save these vital data. www.wsj.com/economy/trum...
Exclusive | Trump Administration Cancels Annual Hunger Survey
The government has been measuring food insecurity since the mid-1990s but now says the report has become “overly politicized.”
www.wsj.com
September 20, 2025 at 11:00 PM
Reposted
Via @jeffstein.bsky.social @washingtonpost.com anti-tax interests want the Trump IRS to give an unlawful tax cut to wealthy people by executive fiat.

Just the tip of one of two big icebergs of tax cuts for special interests coming for the tax system. www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Conservatives are asking Trump for another big tax cut
Fresh off passage of the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” some anti-tax advocates hope to push the administration to change how taxable capital gains are calculated.
www.washingtonpost.com
July 10, 2025 at 1:16 PM
Reposted
This suggests that Republicans may add yet another deeply harmful health care cut to the Senate bill – a cut that would take health coverage away from even more people, shift massive, unaffordable costs to states, & could even lead some states to end their #Medicaid expansion.
June 23, 2025 at 5:53 PM
Meanwhile, House Republicans are doing nothing about the Trump tariffs & going out of their way to deny any of their Child Tax Credit increase to 17 million kids, many of whose parents likely shop at Walmart- families they voted to help last year, but not now when it counts- why?
🚨 WALMART RAISING PRICES DUE TO TARIFFS

“We will do our best to keep our prices as low as possible but given the magnitude of the tariffs, even at the reduced levels announced this week, we aren’t able to absorb all the pressure given the reality of narrow retail margins,” Walmart CEO says.
May 15, 2025 at 12:54 PM
The IRS has the fewest auditors who have expertise to audit sophisticated tax returns — since the 1950s
Why do Republicans want to gut the IRS? One reason: donors save big. 7 corporations collectively kept $1.4 billion in tax breaks that they'd admitted would likely be found illegal if investigated. But statute of limitations ran out so they kept 'em. With a gutted IRS, this gets worse.
What Corporations Have to Gain from the Gutting of the IRS
Seven huge corporations recently announced that in 2024 they were allowed to collectively keep $1.4 billion in tax breaks from previous years that they had publicly admitted would likely be found ille...
itep.org
May 15, 2025 at 12:53 PM
For those who care about the Child Tax Credit - this from my colleague Kris Cox is a must read:
May 12, 2025 at 11:54 PM
The House Ways and Means tax bill released today is skewed in favor of rich people, is even more costly than the original 2017 law, and fails to deliver for working-class families and small businesses.
A thread 🧵
May 12, 2025 at 11:42 PM
Reposted
in the gop tax plan, the top 0.1% gets more than all the households in the bottom half of america combined
here's the same thing, but showing percentiles

it's a huge tax cut for the top 5% and way less for everyone else
May 10, 2025 at 11:05 PM
To get an idea of Republican tax bill on the Child Tax Credit:

Picture a couple with 2 kids living in a fancy suburb, making $400k. A thousand $ more for them.

For the kids of the people who cut their grass, deliver their packages, watch their kids, clean their house: Nothing
May 10, 2025 at 12:54 PM
🚨 🚨 🚨 The emerging House R tax bill appears highly skewed to the wealthy, w/ several regressive expansions of 2017 tax cuts & full of costly timing gimmicks, while, despite the working-class rhetoric, failing to deliver for millions of working class families
May 10, 2025 at 4:04 AM
Reposted
House Republican plan would harm 4.5 million U.S. citizen children by stripping away their access to the Child Tax Credit if either of their parents file taxes w/o an SSN: cmsny.org/publications...
New Estimates of the Number of United States Citizen and Legal Permanent Resident Children Who May Lose Eligibility for the Child Tax Credit - The Center for Migration Studies of New York (CMS)
This fact sheet provides new estimates of the number of American citizen and legal permanent resident children who could lose eligibility for the federal Child Tax Credit if proposals currently consid...
cmsny.org
May 10, 2025 at 2:14 AM
Reposted
#CTC changes in the House tax bill leave behind the 17M children who currently get less than the full $2k credit. The bill increases the max to $2,500 for 4 yrs (then drops back to $2k), which gives these 17M a $0 increase but showers higher-income families w/ 2 kids w/ an extra $1,000.
May 10, 2025 at 3:10 AM
Reposted
TL;DR: Trump's own pick to run Social Security thinks having COBOL code underlying SSA's systems is just fine.

But DOGE is "risking benefits and systems collapse" to quickly rip it all out--for no apparent reason.

www.wired.com/story/doge-r...
DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.
www.wired.com
March 28, 2025 at 6:42 PM
Reposted
DOGE plans to move Social Security systems "entirely off [COBOL] in a matter of months, potentially putting the integrity of the system—and the benefits on which 10s of Ms of Americans rely—at risk."

Is this needed? Let's hear what Trump's nom to head SSA just said:

www.wired.com/story/doge-r...
DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse
Social Security systems contain tens of millions of lines of code written in COBOL, an archaic programming language. Safely rewriting that code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.
www.wired.com
March 28, 2025 at 6:29 PM
Reposted
This new policy will drive 3M+ more people into Social Security offices. Another policy this week will add 4M+.

7M more Social Security appts + cutting 7K SSA staff = longer waits for everyone

popular.info/p/exclusive-...
EXCLUSIVE: Secret policy shift could overwhelm Social Security offices with millions of people
On Wednesday, the Social Security Administration (SSA) enacted a new policy that could impose massive demands on the agency's overburdened network of field offices, according to an internal SSA messag...
popular.info
March 20, 2025 at 12:54 PM
Reposted
The Social Security Administration (SSA) is reportedly going to stop allowing people without Social Security numbers (SSNs) to serve as "representative payees" for beneficiaries who need help managing their benefits.

This risks benefit interruption for thousands.

www.govexec.com/management/2...
SSA weighs axing payments to 170,000 beneficiaries
The move to cease making payments to people without Social Security numbers would imperil the benefits of thousands of immigrants’ children with disabilities.
www.govexec.com
March 14, 2025 at 12:55 PM
W/ House Rs meeting on tax bill: we’re likely to hear tips, tips, tips. Don’t be distracted & don’t be fooled
This is bad policy that Rs seem determined to enact but doesn’t move the needle for working-class people & doesn’t change what Rs are doing: massive tax cuts for the rich
March 12, 2025 at 2:59 PM
Reposted
CMS's proposed #ACA marketplace rule would mean fewer people with health coverage, more red tape, higher costs, less time to enroll, plus decreased access for certain groups. People currently struggling to afford the basics would once again lose out. Some highlights (lowlights?) - a 🧵:
March 11, 2025 at 3:54 PM
With House Republicans meeting to flesh out their tax bill, it feels like an important time for a thread on what a better tax bill would look like.
March 10, 2025 at 12:51 PM
Reposted
Yesterday, the Social Security Administration reportedly terminated a long-standing nationwide policy under which parents can apply for a Social Security number (SSN) for their newborns in the hospital--in Maine, and Maine alone.

Today, SSA reversed it. 🧵

www.cbpp.org/blog/ssa-rev...
SSA Reverses Newly Imposed Restrictions on Birth and Death Reporting in Maine | Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Today the Social Security Administration (SSA), which had abruptly terminated in Maine a long-standing nationwide policy under which parents can apply for a Social Security number (SSN) for their...
www.cbpp.org
March 7, 2025 at 10:00 PM
House Ways and Means Republicans are meeting Monday to begin to flesh out their tax bill. Here’s a thread on why I think they’re on the wrong path
March 7, 2025 at 9:45 PM
Clarifying contrast for the “Party of the Working-Class”

1) Sen Thune: make inheritances from Billionaires completely TAX-FREEE

2) Steve Bannon: "A lot of MAGAs on Medicaid. If you don't think so, you're dead wrong ... You can't just take a meat axe to it." (h/t @jsteinwapo)
February 14, 2025 at 7:02 PM