How taxpayers are bankrolling the paychecks of already-wealthy executives instead of supporting more livable wages for American workers struggling to get by.
After getting the First Amendment supremely wrong in Citizens United, the Supreme Court now faces its next money in politics case. In McCutcheon v. FEC, the challengers are attacking a law that says that no one person can contribute over $123,000 directly to federal candidates, parties, and committees—that’s over twice the average American’s income.
These stories were taken from the thousands of stories submitted to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau when they requested comments about private educational loans and struggles with student loan debt.
Just as postsecondary education is becoming increasingly vital to getting a good job and entering the middle class, college costs are rising beyond the reach of many New Yorkers. State policy decisions have played a significant role in this rise by shifting costs onto students and families though declining state support. New York’s investment in higher education has decreased considerably over the past twenty years, and its financial aid programs, though still some of the country’s most expansive, fail to reach many students with financial need.
Three years have passed since David (the American public) defeated Goliath (the big banks) and the Dodd-Frank Act became law. Implementation staggers forward and there have been some recent encouraging developments. But, overall, there is reason for serious concern about the fate of financial reform.
CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler has often said that weak rules on regulatory jurisdiction across borders could blow a hole in the bottom of financial reform. He is right. In a recent speech on the subject, he said: “All of these common- sense reforms Congress mandated, however, could be undone if the overseas guaranteed affiliates and branches of U.S. persons are allowed to operate outside of these important requirements.”
Dramatic new public policy initiatives are needed to accomplish two broad interrelated goals: to ensure that all Americans have a chance to move into the middle class and, second, to ensure greater security for those in the middle class.
Good Afternoon. My name is Amy Traub and I am a senior policy analyst at Demos. We are a public policy organization working for an America where we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy. I would like to thank the Progressive Caucus for this opportunity to provide testimony on our recent research.
I thank the committee for this opportunity to present testimony on the IDC’s campaign finance reform proposal. This testimony is submitted on behalf of myself and Miles Rapoport, President of Demos and former Secretary of the State of Connecticut.
As former and present Secretaries of the State of Connecticut, we are very proud of our state for broadening our democracy by adopting a public financing system for our legislative and statewide campaigns. As former legislators, we understand intimately the fundraising aspects of standing for election, and as Secretaries of the State we have been responsible for administration and implementation of campaign finance laws.
One motivation for this hearing is the recent study by the Federal Trade Commission finding that one in five American consumers identified material errors on their credit reports that were substantiated by the credit reporting agencies.
Over the past decade, Demos has conducted extensive research on credit card debt among low- and middle-income households. As part of this research, we have become increasingly concerned with how families are being financially penalized for being in debt, making it difficult, if not impossible, for them to ever get out of debt. In 2012, we surveyed a nationally representative sample of about a thousand low- and middle-income households that were carrying credit card debt for three months or longer. I was the principal researcher on that study.
Senator Musto, Representative Jutila, Senator McLachlan, Representative Hwang, Members of the Committee. Thank you for having me here today. It gives me great pleasure to come before the Committee on which I served for all ten years of my legislative service and with which I worked so closely in my years as Secretary of the State.
Demos is a public policy organization working for an America where we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy. We are based here in New York City. On behalf of Demos, I thank the Committee on Civil Service and Labor for this opportunity to present testimony on Intro 97-A: The Paid Sick Time Act.