Urban Institute: Research of Record podcast
Listen in as the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., hosts conferences and discussions that bring together representatives of the independent sector and social service agencies, government officials, the business community, researchers from the Urban Institute and other think tanks, and the press. Future podcasts will include interviews and commentary with UI's experts on the social and economic policy issues facing our nation.

• Decision Points: Presidential Candidates' Tax Plans
  Listen to Roberton Williams, an expert on federal tax and budget issues, explain what the McCain and Obama tax plans mean for voters.
• Decision Points 08: Child Care
  The declining economy has meant intensified election-season interest in the issues that affect family budgets, like housing and health care. Child care costs also put substantial pressure on family resources, with very limited public programs to ease the way for low-income workers and their children. At the same time, many states are showing signs they may expand their early education offerings. Candidates vying for the votes of working families are likely to address child care concerns on the campaign trail.
• Decision Points 08: Crime Prevention
  The violent crime rate, which had been declining for years, went up from 2004 to 2006 and is no longer on a downward trend. Among the explanations for the crime spike is that emphasizing terrorism prevention has left less money and manpower for community policing. The federal government, and the presidential candidates, can take the lead in providing states with innovative ways to combat crime.
• Thursday's Child: Children and Family Issues on the Campaign Trail
  As voters weigh candidates' positions on domestic issues, differing views about the government's role in helping children and families will come into play. What do members of the public believe about children and families? How do their beliefs overlap or conflict with the research and policy evidence and the demographic and economic trends that shape family life?
• Decision Points 08: Rising Food Prices
  Whether they're running for a local office or for president, candidates on the hustings in recent weeks have turned to a new campaign issue: the rising cost of food. Voters are facing sticker shock in grocery aisles, communities are seeing food pantry stocks dwindle, and the presidential candidates are focusing on kitchen-table issues far more intensely than they might have expected when the campaign season started more than a year ago.
• First Tuesday: Dollars for Defense - War, Taxes, and Sacrifice
  Our time has witnessed the unprecedented combination of tax reductions at home and war abroad. War and Taxes, released May 6 by the Urban Institute Press, chronicles the political arguments, economic conditions, and public opinions that made it possible for previous presidents and Congresses to raise taxes, sell bonds, and cut domestic spending to pay for wars.
• Decision Points 08: Our Fiscal Future
  The price for presidential campaign promises is adding up, but where will the money come from to pay for these plans? New spending or deep tax cuts could increase the federal deficit and add to the national debt, topics largely missing from election coverage. Fiscal discipline may not be as exciting as flubs and gaffes on the campaign trail, but it's crucial to our economic future and unwise to ignore.
• Decision Points 08: Capital Gains Tax
  The run-up to the Pennsylvania primary raised many questions about capital gains and the effects tax-rate changes have on revenues. How significant are the candidates' differences? And how will raising or lowering the tax rate affect middle-class Americans?
• Decision Points 08: Tax Code Complexity
  The presidential candidates have all called for simplifications to the tax code. The U.S. tax system does much more than raise revenue; it redistributes income and rewards certain choices, like having children, going to college, and saving for retirement. And even the simplest taxes need detailed rules and collection mechanisms.
• What Is Socialized Medicine and Is It Relevant to Health Care Reform?
  This forum explores the meaning and implications of the arguments about socialized medicine. A new paper from the Urban Institute's John Holahan and Stan Dorn examining the issue serves as a springboard for a lively conversation.
• Thursday's Child: Responsible Workers, Responsive Parents : Low-Income Families in Today's Workplace
  Building on our March forum, which analyzed how tax policy affects low-income working families, in April we turn to two supports designed to help parents stay in the workforce: child care subsidies and paid family leave.
• Decision Points 08: Tax Gap
  Not everyone pays every dollar owed the government or pays it on time. While stronger enforcement will help, it won't allow the next Congress and administration to avoid the hard budget decisions that expected future deficits will force them to make.
• First Tuesday: Can Tax Credits Be a Linchpin for Health Reform?
  In a policy field notoriously beset by ideological and partisan division, one of the few ideas enjoying support across the philosophical spectrum is the use of federal income tax credits to cover the uninsured. The only credit of this sort now availablethe Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC), serving workers displaced by international tradeaids no more than 15 percent of eligible households. Our expert panel considered what is behind the HCTC's problems and successes; whether Congress should abandon tax credits; and how (if at all) should future tax credits included in health reform be structured to replicate the HCTC's accomplishments and avoid its problems?
• Decision Points 08: Federal Budget Realities
  From mortgage assistance to health care, the presidential and congressional candidates have big plans for a new administration. No matter how strongly supported, however, public programs must compete with three huge entitlements in the scramble for federal dollars.
• Decision Points 08: Racial Disparities
  Sen. Barack Obamas recent speech on race traced todays racial inequalities to a history of discrimination, neighborhood segregation, barriers to homeownership, and blocked opportunities for economic advancement. That history, the candidate said, has resulted in a persistent wealth and income gap between blacks and whites and concentrations of poverty in primarily black neighborhoods.
• Decision Points 08: Investment in Job Training
  For several election cycles, office seekers have debated how to cultivate well-paying jobs for working-class voters, and this year is no exception, either on the presidential campaign trail or in statehouses across the country. Urban Institute researchers can provide facts and nonpartisan perspectives on the health of the job market, job training programs, and the state of the skilled workforce.
• Where Credit Is Due : Why Tax Policy for Low-Income Working Families Isn't Working (and What Can Be Done About It)
  The child tax credit (CTC) and the earned income tax credit (EITC) are designed to help working families with children. Yet these major initiatives leave out or provide limited assistance to some very low income families. Panelists discussed why tax programs for low-income families have expanded in recent years, while subsidy programs have remained relatively constant. They also analyzed problems that arise due to different treatment of families by CTC and EITC and the outlook and options for refining these programs that aim to support working families.
• Decision Points 08: Low-Income Working Families
  With the economy a top issue for voters this election year, the Urban Institute can offer information about the nations most vulnerable households, including low-income working families. These families are above the poverty line but still struggle to make ends meet. A sudden job loss or health crisis could derail them.
• Decision Points 08: Ex-Prisoners and C