New York, New York — Today, Demos, Every Voice, People for the American Way, and 21 other organizations sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing Judge Amul Thapar’s confirmation to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The organizations called into question Judge Thapar’s troubling record on money in politics, noting that they are deeply concerned with the growing role of big money in American politics.
Despite important advances with ballot initiatives and the rise of the powerful Fight for $15 movement, there is still progress to be made on raising the minimum wage.
Investing in a rapid transition to 100% renewable energy and clean transportation, while protecting environmentally vulnerable communities from the worst effects of climate change, comprise what is arguably the most important fiscal choice we have to make as a country over the next decade.
Donald Trump’s election came at the worst possible time in so many ways. In a spectacular litany of truly awful aims, including mass deportation of undocumented immigrants, repealing Obamacare, retracting federal oversight of abusive local policing, undoing Obama-era banking reforms, and much more, where does one begin to describe the damage he and the Republican Congress could do? But the threat Trump poses to our environment and particularly to our ability to escape the worst impacts of global warming is unparalleled.
April 26, 2017 (New York, NY) – In response to Donald Trump’s proposed tax plan, Tamara Draut, Vice President of Policy & Research at Demos, a NY based public policy think tank, issued the following statement:
“This tax proposal shows once again that Donald Trump is no populist, but rather is hewing to traditional conservative and Republican philosophies, including doubling down on the failed experiment of trickle-down economics.
Today is Equal Pay Day. Counting from January, the average woman has just earned as much as the average man did by December 31. In other words, it took her 15 months to earn what the average man earned in 12.
Judge Neil Gorsuch’s troubling record on money in politics and concern that he’ll tilt our elections even more toward the wealthy and powerful is a key reason to oppose his lifetime confirmation to the Supreme Court, at least 20 U.S. Senators have said in their statements opposing him.
Last week I had the privilege of testifying before the Senate Judiciary Committee about President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, Judge Neil Gorsuch. Wth the Court split four-to-four on so many critical issues, the stakes couldn’t be higher.
But even beyond issues, what’s at stake with this nomination is the very shape of our democracy: the way we make decisions about everything from who gets health care to whether working families will live in poverty—and whose voices are heard in that process.
Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (RI) confronted Trump’s Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch about the vicious cycle facing our democracy: of severe concentration of economic power yielding severe concentration of political power.
Congressional Republicans and the Trump administration apparently believe that extremely basic workplace protections are too onerous to ask U.S. businesses to uphold.
President Trump called last night for “one of the largest increases in national defense spending in American history.” He has proposed increasing the military budget by $54 billion—a proposal that would require great sacrifice from working people in the form of cuts to vital health care, education and environmental services.