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Just as much as farm subsidies, the debates over the current version of the Farm Bill have involved funding for SNAP benefits, mostly in the form of proposals to cut them, making it even harder for America's working poor to access essential benefits.
Today, the Senate failed to extend the current 3.4 percent interest rate for subsidized student loans, making it even more likely that college students borrowing for the fall semester will have to pay much more for the privilege of higher education.
Since everyone knows that the real Fed hippies are in DC, a paper from the Chicago Fed highlighting the benefits of raising the minimum wage provides the argument with some conformist cred. According to economists David Aaronson and Eric French, Obama’s proposed minimum wage hike to $9 an hour would boost economic activity by 0.3 percent in the year followi
The Supreme Court of the United States must be criticized for blindness, perhaps even willful ignorance of reality, in their recent decision gutting the Voting Rights Act.
Former Governor Eliot Spitzer announced his run for NYC Comptroller yesterday and this morning on the Brian Lehrer show, he attacked his opponent, Scott Stringer, for opting into public financing. Spitzer said, “He (Stringer)’ll be spending your money, I’ll be spending my own.” This characteristic of public financing is misleading and wrong.
Corporations have revved their engines back up for round two of the smear campaign against Eliot Spitzer, the former Governor of New York who recently announced that he would run for New York City Comptroller. With headlines such as “Here We Ho Again” and “Lust For Power,” news outlets are again pigeonholing Spitzer as a depraved sex addict, more loathsome than the average politician gone wrong.
Members of Congress are calling on the government to get out in front of the growing income gap by addressing the low wages paid within its own buildings.
In a July 2 letter to President Barack Obama, 17 House Democrats said the government needs to take action toward the fair treatment and decent pay of its unskilled service-contract employees, particularly those working at iconic sites such as Union Station, the Smithsonian and the National Zoo.