New York approved a state budget Sunday that included the Excelsior Scholarship, which will allow students whose families earn less than $125,000 a year to attend state public colleges and universities tuition-free.
April 9, 2017 (New York, NY) -- Tamara Draut, Vice President of Policy and Research at Demos, released the following statement after New York became the first state in the country to pass tuition-free college:
This year’s Maryland legislative session will soon end and among the potential unfinished businesses of the session is the Maryland Trust Act. Polls show that this is the type of law that Marylanders would love their leaders to take a stance on as part of the resistance to President Donald Trump’s attacks on immigrants and refugees.
April 6, 2017 (New York, NY) –Heather McGhee, President of Demos, released the following statement after the Senate refused to invoke cloture on Judge Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court:
“The next Supreme Court justice will have a pivotal role in ensuring our Constitution protects the rights and voices of all Americans. Judge Gorsuch has the potential to be the deciding vote to destroy the few remaining safeguards against big money dominating our politics completely.
April 6, 2017 (New York, NY) –Heather McGhee, President of Demos, released the following statement after the Senate changed the rules in order to confirm Judge Gorsuch to a lifetime appointment to the Supreme Court:
“After their unprecedented refusal to even hold a hearing on Judge Garland’s nomination, today, Senate Republicans led by Leader McConnell blew up the rules of the Senate in order to jam through President Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court.
It’s hard to imagine honest, revelatory, even enjoyable conversation between people on distant points of American life right now. But in this public conversation at the Citizen University annual conference, Matt Kibbe and Heather McGhee show us how. He’s a libertarian who helped activate the Tea Party. She’s a millennial progressive leader. They are bridge people for this moment — holding passion and conviction together with an enthusiasm for engaging difference, and carrying questions as vigorously as they carry answers.
With $485.9 billion in global revenue and 1.5 million employees in the U.S. alone, Walmart the corporation isn’t going away anytime soon. But this Thursday evening, I’ll argue that its business model – based on low pay, understaffing, and low respect for the employees that make the business function – deserves to go the way of the dinosaurs.
Donald Trump and his billionaire Cabinet are proposing even bigger tax cuts for the wealthy when what we need is a fairer system that allows our nation to meet the needs of its people.
It's one of the biggest financial decisions you'll ever make: choosing what to do with your 401(k) at retirement. That account may be the largest asset you will rely on for income in later life. You could leave it where it is or roll the money to investments inside an IRA. The right decision could give you hundreds of thousands of added dollars over a 30-year retirement. [...]
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.
On Sunday night, after umpteen interviews about rounding up 41 votes to filibuster Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch, Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) called into the weekly “Ready to Resist” call organized by MoveOn and other progressive groups. He waited his turn. MoveOn’s Anna Galland reported that Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) just joined the filibuster. Heather McGhee, the president of Demos, praised Schumer for listening to activists.
April 3, 2017 (New York, NY) – Heather McGhee, President of Demos, released the following statement after today’s Senator Judiciary Committee vote on Judge Gorsuch’s nomination to the Supreme Court:
Elections are decided by who votes — and increasingly, in America, by who cannot. Barriers to voting participation skew policy outcomes and elections to the right in the United States. One of the most racially discriminatory of these barriers is felon disenfranchisement.
Dear Ms. Evangelista:
Dēmos writes to submit comments on the proposed regulations regarding family leave benefits coverage. We thank you for the opportunity to comment on these proposed regulations.
If you’re a senior struggling with credit card debt like Green, you’re not alone. In 2012, for the first time, middle-income households headed by someone over 50 years old carried more credit card debt on average than households of people younger than 50, according to the Demos National Survey on Credit Card Debt conducted with AARP’s Public Policy Institute. Half of those over 50 had medical debt on their credit cards, and a third said they used credit cards to finance daily expenses. [...]
California has a funny habit of anticipating national political trends. Celebrity chief executives with no previous political experience who ride name recognition and controversy to victory? Seen it once or twice before. A spate of deregulatory policy leading to exploitation and corruption, culminating in a crisis? California knows something about that.Immigration and shifting demographics that inspire a “whitelash,” and put anti-immigrant populists in power?
With so many eventual graduates starting at community colleges, we should take a hard look at institutional aid policies, which reward incoming freshmen much more than transfer students.
