Media

The best way for Congress to tackle the budget deficit is to do nothing for the next year. That's because, under current law, the Bush tax cuts will expire at the end of 2012 and a range of spending cuts will take effect. As well, tax cuts enacted under President Obama will also expire or be reduced, including expansion of the EITC, the Child Tax Credit, and the temporary payroll tax cut.

In great news this week, Vermont became the first state to legislate the adoption and use of an alternative to GDP called the Vermont Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI). While Vermont isn’t the first state to calculate genuine progress, we’ve highlighted Maryland’s groundbreaking work in this area, it is the first state to actually adopt a GPI through legislation.

The Washington Post ran a remarkable article yesterday on how huge layoffs by state and local governments -- with over 600,000 jobs lost since 2009 -- have been a leading obstacle to economic recovery.

Earlier this week, I argued that Apple's moral failings -- tax avoidance and sweatshop labor practices -- were all the more inexcusable because this a company drowning in profits and cash. It can afford to pay its fair share of taxes and to pay its workers better.

Now, thanks to Isaac Shapiro at the Economic Policy Institute, we have some hard numbers to back up this point. Here's what Shapiro found:

Last summer, a Western Beef store in the East Tremont section of the South Bronx became the first supermarket in the city to receive funding through the city’s Food Retail Expansion to Support Health (FRESH) program. The FRESH initiative provides financial and zoning incentives to entice supermarket chains to build new stores in neighborhoods that lack access to fresh, wholesome foods.

House Republicans want to avoid big defense cuts by whacking other areas of government instead -- like programs that help low-income people.

No big surprise there. Putting guns before butter has been a staple of the GOP playbook for decades -- ever since Reagan pushed sweeping cuts in social spending while giving the Pentagon a blank check.

Not everyone, however, buys the argument that medical credit checks are beneficial to consumers. For example, consumer advocates worry that the credit checks open an avenue for health care providers to pressure patients into immediate payment.  

"The danger, really, is that health care providers, particularly hospitals, may find lines of credit that people have open and really ask people to tap those lines of credit," says Amy Traub, a senior policy analyst at the think tank Demos.

Yesterday, I wrote about how renewable energy is flourishing, despite a lack of political support. Recent data from the Energy Information Agency confirms this trend.

Last week, the House attempted a quid pro quo: a proposal to extract funds from the $17 billion ACA fund intended for "immunization campaigns, health screenings and other preventive practices" in exchange for a freeze on student loan interest rates.