We are changing the conversation around our democracy and economy by telling influential new stories about our country and its people. Get our latest media updates here.
Think of technology replacing workers and what comes to mind are low-skilled workers who are bumped aside by relatively simple machines: Subway clerks replaced by Metrocard machines, toll workers rendered obsolete by E-Zpass, banker tellers replaced by ATMs, assembly line workers replaced by robots, and so on.
A little-noticed CBO report yesterday, part of their Monthly Budget Review, found that the US has raised substantially more revenue this year than the last, while federal spending remained about the same. Whereas last year, the budget totaled $1.1 trillion by July, this year it’s only $975 billion. The deficit’s been cut by an unexpected spike in tax revenue.
The United States has two problems when it comes to jobs: There aren't enough jobs, as we all know; and a great many jobs are lousy -- a problem we hear about far less. A lousy job is one with low wages, minimal benefits, and few opportunities to move up.
About a fifth of jobs in the U.S. fit this description. And given how many workers that is -- people who work but are barely making it -- turning bad jobs into good jobs is arguably as important as creating more jobs.
It’s become a truism, but the evidence continues to mount that the Ryan budget plan would disproportionately hurt the young, sick, and poor. A new Center on Budget Policy Priorities report explores the impact of the $3 trillion dollar deficit-reduction plan on state and local governments. The cuts to state and local governments would be much more severe than those incurred by sequestration, three times greater in 2014 alone.
Demos’ twelve-year history of working to build a robust democracy in which every American has a voice has included, since 2004, state-by-state efforts to ensure the enforcement of the NVRA at public agencies across the country.
Yesterday I wrote about the hypocrisy of Mitt Romney and Tommy Thompson for bashing the Obama Administration's decision to grant states more flexibility around TANF -- when Republicans, including both Romney and Thompson -- called for such flexibility during the Bush years.
On Monday, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke gave a new jolt of momentum to the growing push for new measures of progress going “beyond GDP.” In prepared remarks for the 32nd general conference of the International Association for Research in Income and Wealth (IARIW), held this week in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Bernanke noted the failure of conventional market indicators in capturing the severe household impacts of the Great Recession and the continuing distress for many families and individ