Blatant redistribution, the argument goes, may fly in Europe with its strong class identity, but is a non-starter here, where the value of individual self-reliance is dominant. Is this really true?
WASHINGTON— The assault on the right to vote witnessed in 2011 is historic in terms of its geographic scope and ferocity, according to new testimony submitted by national policy center Demos to today’s House Judiciary Committee forum entitled “Excluded from Democracy: The Impact of Recent State Voting Law Changes.”
Occupy Wall Street has, in the words of John Paul Rollert, “come to embody a common sense that something is wrong with American capitalism.” The problem Rollert points to is not with capitalism itself, but with a particular American version that has ceased to work for broad cross-sections of its population. Given America’s Depression-level income inequality and near-record levels of public and private indebtedness, it is extremely tempting to focus on bad outcomes as the problem.
Governor Rick Perry made a very good point yesterday as he barnstormed talk shows to try to overcome his "oops" moment in Wednesday night's debate. He said: “This campaign is about ideas — not about who’s the slickest debater or whether anyone’s made a mistake or not.”
Do Republicans in Congress care about creating jobs -- which polls say is the number one issue for voters -- or about ideological purity? The ongoing debate on Capitol Hill over President Obama’s $447 billion jobs package offers a crystal clear answer to that question.
Forget the fact that Perry had a "brain freeze" last night when asked at a GOP debateto name the three government departments he wants to ax . Everyone sometimes forgets what we were going to say and one of the worst things about politics today is that people get ridiculed and attacked for being perfectly human.
Thank you, Chairperson Alexander and members of the Committee for providing the opportunity to present testimony this morning. I am a Senior Policy Analyst in the Economic Opportunity Program at Dēmos, a national, non-profit, non-partisan policy research and advocacy organization, established in 2000, with offices in Boston, New York, Washington, D.C., and Austin, Texas. The Dēmos Economic Opportunity Program works to achieve a more equitable economy with opportunity for all.
NEW YORK- While they believe that higher education is more important today than it was for their parents’ generation, most U.S. adults age 18 to 34 also view college as harder to afford than just five years ago.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
By virtually every measure, the fortunes of America’s young people are falling under a deluge of debt, shrinking opportunity, rising costs of living and lack of access to health care. Writing with members of the Young Invincibles think tank, the authors write:
