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NEW YORK-- On Tuesday, voters in Maine decisively voiced their support for fair and open elections. By a 3 to 2 margin, voters restored the option of Same Day Registration, rejecting the Republican-sponsored effort to make voting more difficult. Miles Rapoport, President of Demos, former Secretary of the State of Connecticut and long-time Same Day Registration advocate, issued the following statement:
It's one thing to agree that today's economy is only working for a sliver of households at the top; it is quite another to lay out a blueprint for changing that and creating truly shared prosperity. The growing gap between the Haves and everyone else is fanned by large-scale trends like globalization and technological change, and has been deepened and reinforced by a "winner-take-all politics" that favors the wealthy.
Poverty in America is a national emergency. Last Wednesday the Department of Agriculture announced that 45 million Americans were participating in the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program. That’s 15 million more American adults than the 30 million who are currently estimated to be below the official poverty line. And today the Census Bureau is reporting that roughly 49 million Americans are impoverished—2.4 million more than the official estimate released in September.
Unlike his friend Warren Buffett, Bill Gates has generally not been outspoken about the need for higher taxes on the wealthy. While Gates's father, William Gates, Sr., famously campaigned to preserve the estate tax -- even writing a book with veteran activist Chuck Collins -- Gates himself has been reserved on this issue.
The citizens of Maine will be voting tomorrow whether to keep the same-day registration system that they’ve had for nearly four decades. Since 1973, Maine voters have been able to walk into a polling place or a municipal clerk’s office on Election Day and register to vote.
Contrary to the New York Times' estimates that poverty rates would dwindle with the release of the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), the Census Bureau is reporting that more than 49 million Americans are struggling to meet the costs of food, clothing, shelter, and utilities. Relative to the official measure, this includes an additional seven percent of the elderly, four percent fe
At a telephone news conference this Wednesday, three national policy organizations will release the results of a new nationwide, bi-partisan survey of young adults ages 18-34 about higher education’s importance and affordability, student debt, and Congressional proposals to cut Pell Grants or charge interest on federal student loans while borrowers are still in school.