Contributor
Robert Greenstein
Related Link: http://www.cbpp.org
Biography provided by participant
Robert Greenstein is the founder and Executive Director of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. He is considered an expert on the federal budget and a range of domestic policy issues including low-income assistance programs, various aspects of tax policy, and Social Security. Greenstein has written numerous reports, analyses, op-ed pieces, and magazine articles on budget- and poverty-related issues. He appears on national television news and public affairs programs and is frequently asked to testify on Capitol Hill. In 2008, Greenstein received both the Heinz Award for Public Policy in recognition of his work to "improve the economic outlook of many of America's poorer citizens," and the John W. Gardner Award from Independent Sector for playing "a defining role in how people think about critical budget and tax policies." In 1996, Greenstein was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship. The MacArthur Foundation cited Greenstein for making "the Center a model for a non-partisan research and policy organization." In 1994, President Clinton appointed him to serve on the Bipartisan Commission on Entitlement and Tax Reform. Prior to founding the Center, Greenstein was Administrator of the Food and Nutrition Service at the U.S. Department of Agriculture, where he directed the agency that operates the federal food assistance programs, with a staff of 2,500 and a budget of $15 billion.
Recent Responses
February 24, 2010 12:18 PM
President Improves Senate Bill
The President’s proposal represents the last hope, perhaps for years to come, to enact comprehensive reforms that extend coverage to over 30 million uninsured Americans, provide important consumer protections to tens of millions of insured Americans whose coverage may have critical gaps, and begin to slow the growth of health care costs.
If enacted, this legislation would represent a historic accomplishment. Not only would it produce the greatest gains in health coverage in over 40 years, but it would also represent one of the few times in modern U.S. history that Congress enacted large-scale legislation that improved the lives of tens of millions of low- and middle-income Americans while reducing the deficit.
This opportunity may not come again in the lifetimes of many of the people who read this statement.
The President’s plan makes a number of notable improvements in the Senate health care bill:
It makes insurance more affordable than under the Senate bill for families and individuals with incomes between 133 percent and 400 perce
Continue ReadingNovember 20, 2009 03:38 PM
Bill Marks Good First Step
The new Senate health bill marks a major step toward comprehensive, fiscally responsible health reform. It would extend health insurance coverage to 31 million Americans who lack it, reduce the budget deficit, and put long-term downward pressure on health care costs.
The bill would reduce deficits by an estimated $130 billion over the 2010-2019 period and by about one-quarter of one percent of GDP in the decade thereafter, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). This amounts to about $55 billion in 2020 and several hundred billion dollars over the 2020-2029 period. The bill also would likely slow the growth of health care costs over time by, for instance, imposing an excise tax on high-cost health insurance plans, reducing overpayments that private insurers receive through Medicare Advantage, and reducing the cost of prescription drugs in Medicaid.
Moreover, while the bill extends health coverage to 31 million more Americans, it keeps the total federal cost for all health care spending and tax subsidies in the decade after 2019 essentially where it
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