Latest news with #Eppsteiner
CNBC
30-06-2025
- Business
- CNBC
'Big beautiful bill' mostly benefits the rich, while low earners would suffer from Medicaid and SNAP cuts, Yale report says
A massive legislative package Senate Republicans are trying to pass this week would hurt the lowest-earning Americans financially while boosting the incomes of wealthier households, according to a Yale Budget Lab analysis issued Monday. The "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" would reduce income by 2.9% (about $700) for the bottom 20% of households, according to the Yale analysis. These households have an income of less than $13,350, it said. The massive bill would raise income by 2.2% ($5,700) for the top 20%, who have incomes of more than roughly $120,000, the study found. These financial impacts are what the average household would experience each year from 2026 through 2034, according to the analysis, which modeled publicly known policies in the Senate bill as of Monday morning. "The bill shifts resources away from those at the lower end of the [income] distribution toward those at the top," said Harris Eppsteiner, associate director of economic analysis at the Yale Budget Lab. The Yale findings are similar to other recent analyses that have found the GOP's policies would likely be regressive, on a net basis, if enacted. That's mainly because the bill "sharply cuts" Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), formerly known as food stamps, while a series of tax cuts in the legislation deliver a bigger financial benefit for wealthier households, Eppsteiner said. Republicans are aiming to try to get the domestic policy package to Trump's desk by their self-imposed deadline of July 4. If the Senate passes the measure — and its provisions could change before lawmakers vote on the bill — the bill would go back to the House to be approved. More from Personal Finance:'Deeply harmful' Medicaid cuts still in 'big beautiful' billHow the Republican megabill targets immigrant financesHow to qualify for Trump's full tax break on car loans The Yale analysis includes the bill's major provisions, but doesn't model the full scope of the Senate legislation, Eppsteiner said. For example, it doesn't model changes to the Affordable Care Act (widely referred to as Obamacare) or modifications to federal student loans that would make it more expensive for borrowers, he said. The Congressional Budget Office, a nonpartisan scorekeeper, conducted a more comprehensive analysis of the original bill passed by the GOP-controlled House in May. CBO found the bottom 10% of households would lose $1,600 a year (about 3.9% of income) between 2026 and 2034, on average. The top 10% would gain $12,000, or 2.3% of income, on average. The centerpiece of the GOP bill is an extension of temporary tax cuts passed in 2017, during Trump's first term in office. The legislation is also a vehicle for some of the president's campaign promises, such as cutting taxes for seniors and tipped workers, among other policies. About 62% of households would get a tax cut from tax measures in the Senate bill, according to a Tax Foundation analysis on Tuesday. The top 20% of households would get the most significant financial benefit, as a percentage of their income, it found. However, the measure would also cut billions of dollars from Medicaid and SNAP to help pay for the bill's multitrillion-dollar tax cuts. SNAP and Medicaid are designed to assist those at the lower end of the income distribution, Eppsteiner said. Any financial gains from tax cuts for those households would be "completely outweighed" by cuts to Medicaid and SNAP, he said. The CBO estimates the bill would add $3.3 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, before interest, in aggregate. With interest, the tally would be about $4 trillion through 2034, according to the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget.
Yahoo
20-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
New analysis says Trump budget plan will take from poorest 40 percent to give to wealthy
An analysis by Yale University has found that a budget plan being considered by Republican lawmakers would ultimately transfer wealth from the poorest 40 percent of Americans to the richest 1 percent. Researchers Harris Eppsteiner and John Ricco of Yale's Budget Lab found that the proposed GOP budget whose framework was supported last month in a vote by the House would include $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would largely benefit the wealthy, along with $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, including to benefits for the public, including the poorest. Approximately $230 billion of those cuts would come from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — often shorted to SNAP — which helps poor families afford food. Another $880 billion would come from cuts to Medicaid, which provides assistance for individuals with limited resources to pay for healthcare. It's also the program that covers most costs for 60 percent of elderly Americans in nursing homes. Both cuts would occur over a 10-year period. "The overall effect of these policy changes would be regressive, shifting after-tax-and-transfer resources away' from households at the 'bottom of the distribution towards those at the top," Eppsteiner and Ricco wrote in their analysis. After-tax-and-transfer income refers to the income remaining after deducting all taxes and adding back government 'transfers,' such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, and so on. Taxed households at the 'bottom of the income distribution would see a reduction in after-tax-and-transfer income of 5 percent, those in the middle of the distribution would see a modest increase of 0.6 percent, and those in the top 5 percent of tax units [household] would see an increase of 3%,' wrote Eppsteiner and Ricco. 'More than 100 percent of the net fiscal benefit would accrue to the top quintile,' the analysis added. Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that he will not cut Medicaid, but independent analysts have reported that the Republicans cannot achieve their budget without making severe cuts to the program. Proposed Republican changes to Medicaid have already caused protests in several parts of the nation. In addition to the cuts, the proposed Republican budget would also renew expiring provisions of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which itself was the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the ultra-rich in U.S. history. The report notes that the proposed plan it analyzed may change between now and whenever it may be passed in the future. "As noted above, the Resolution passed by the House on February 25 does not specify how each committee is to meet its specified target. As such, the committees may ultimately endorse policy changes that substantially differ from those analyzed in this blog post," the authors wrote.
The Independent
20-03-2025
- Business
- The Independent
New analysis says Trump budget plan will take from poorest 40 percent to give to wealthy
An analysis by Yale University has found that a budget plan being considered by Republican lawmakers would ultimately transfer wealth from the poorest 40 percent of Americans to the richest 1 percent. Researchers Harris Eppsteiner and John Ricco of Yale's Budget Lab found that the proposed GOP budget whose framework was supported last month in a vote by the House would include $4.5 trillion in tax cuts that would largely benefit the wealthy, along with $1.5 trillion in spending cuts, including to benefits for the public, including the poorest. Approximately $230 billion of those cuts would come from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program — often shorted to SNAP — which helps poor families afford food. Another $880 billion would come from cuts to Medicaid, which provides assistance for individuals with limited resources to pay for healthcare. It's also the program that covers most costs for 60 percent of elderly Americans in nursing homes. Both cuts would occur over a 10-year period. "The overall effect of these policy changes would be regressive, shifting after-tax-and-transfer resources away' from households at the 'bottom of the distribution towards those at the top," Eppsteiner and Ricco wrote in their analysis. After-tax-and-transfer income refers to the income remaining after deducting all taxes and adding back government 'transfers,' such as Social Security, Medicare, unemployment benefits, and so on. Taxed households at the 'bottom of the income distribution would see a reduction in after-tax-and-transfer income of 5 percent, those in the middle of the distribution would see a modest increase of 0.6 percent, and those in the top 5 percent of tax units [household] would see an increase of 3%,' wrote Eppsteiner and Ricco. 'More than 100 percent of the net fiscal benefit would accrue to the top quintile, ' the analysis added. Donald Trump has repeatedly insisted that he will not cut Medicaid, but independent analysts have reported that the Republicans cannot achieve their budget without making severe cuts to the program. Proposed Republican changes to Medicaid have already caused protests in several parts of the nation. In addition to the cuts, the proposed Republican budget would also renew expiring provisions of Trump's Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, which itself was the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the ultra-rich in U.S. history. The report notes that the proposed plan it analyzed may change between now and whenever it may be passed in the future. "As noted above, the Resolution passed by the House on February 25 does not specify how each committee is to meet its specified target. As such, the committees may ultimately endorse policy changes that substantially differ from those analyzed in this blog post," the authors wrote.
