When people like me write about the middle class, it has nothing to do with envy or class warfare—two shopworn epithets that should be retired from the political lexicon. The condition of the middle class—its size, income and self-confidence—reveals the extent to which economic growth increases opportunity. When the middle class is shrinking, when incomes of middle-class families are stagnating and when the heart of American society is losing hope in a better future, then the U.S. economy is in trouble. And so is the political system. [...]
How bad a problem is inequality? Are working-class people getting screwed? Should we raise taxes on the rich? Is the United States, in short, a fundamentally unfair place? These are the questions that keep awake policy analysts and fuel endless dinner-party debates. But there's one group that is not losing very much sleep over them: rich folks.
For decades, free high-school education helped strengthen the middle class and generate prosperity. So isn’t it time to extend the same thinking to college?
Democrats in tight races have found a new villain this election cycle: student debt.
“It totally limits your options of what you can do,” said one student in an ad from Kentucky U.S. Senate candidate Alison Lundergan Grimes, who accuses Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of having “turned his back on the students” for blocking Sen. Elizabeth Warren’s student loan refinancing bill.
How would you fare with President Obama’s State of the Union middle-class economics proposals to “turn the page” if you’re 50 or older? It depends. [...]
Given that low-income households often don’t have the luxury of professional tax preparation, the tax system might be a particularly brutal delivery mechanism for them. Nowhere is this more apparent than how we currently subsidize the cost of college at tax time.
President Obama this week touted new ways to help students pay for college, but he also proposed stripping away a popular benefit: a significant tax advantage of college savings plans used by millions of American families.
Much of the current ballyhoo in higher-education circles has centered on President Obama's announcement earlier this year to make community college free for all Americans "willing to work for it." The move, however, is a part of a larger suite of reforms that the White House hopes will make college more affordable and accessible.
This week a group of former students calling themselves the Corinthian 15 announced that they were committing a new kind of civil disobedience: a debt strike. They are refusing to make any more payments on their federal student loans.
Latonya Suggs is one of 15 former students of Corinthian-owned schools called "the Corinthian 15" who are engaging in what they say is the nation's first student debt strike. They're refusing to pay back both their private and their federal student loans.
Strike Debt is helping provide legal support for the students for the consequences of the strike, which will be harsh if the group isn't relieved of its debts.
Several weeks ago Brooklyn District Attorney Kenneth Thompson agreed to be a guest on my City University television program. A few days later his office called to say he was ill and would have to reschedule.
What to do when the leader of your party faces unprecedented ethics challenges, including being in violation of the Constitution’s prohibition on payments from foreigners the day he becomes President?
Our research shows that state and local policies shielding immigration status information are generally permitted. Local law enforcement’s refusal to honor federal immigration detainer requests is also permitted and may even be required to avoid liability for constitutional violations.
Nuestras investigaciones demuestran como las normas estatales y locales que protegen a información sobre el status migratorio de la gente son generalmente permitidas. Por parte de la policía local, la denegación de honrar a solicitudes que detengan a los inmigrantes, también es permitida y aún puede ser requerida para evitar violaciones de la Constitución.
In a scary indication of just how far Republicans will go to carry water for Donald Trump, high-level party figures are now trying to bully the head of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics.
En los primeros días de la administración del Presidente Trump, nuestra nación ya ha sufrido un ataque directo en contra de nuestra democracia. Sus peligrosos planes de emitir Órdenes Ejecutivas anti-inmigrantes amenazan destruir nuestra base como una sociedad libre.
You can be sure that communities are fighting back against the far-reaching, multi-headed, xenophobic and draconian first wave of Trump’s immigration enforcement apparatus. Everyone who believes in equality and justice can assist in this community-led battle for the soul of our democracy.
