One last point about the new poverty numbers, which is that they show that elderly poverty remains a major problem in the United States.
Conventional wisdom holds that seniors are doing just fine in the U.S. and that this is one area where the war on poverty was a big success. Well, not quite. Yes, elderly poverty rates are way down from forty years ago thanks to increased Social Security payments and government health programs.
As we continue to mine the new poverty statistics over here from the Census Bureau, here is a statistics that many people will find surprising: The poverty rate for naturalized U.S. citizens is 10.8 percent, while that for native born Americans is 13.7 percent. (The figure for foreign born residents is a very high 25.1 percent.)
For decades we've been hearing that government spending helps to cause poverty by keeping people dependent and by depressing economic growth.
This is not only nonsense, but new Census data shows that the exact opposite is true: Poverty tends to be higher in those states with small government.
It's hardly news when House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan distorts the facts about fiscal policy -- his supposed area of expertise -- but it still surprises me nonetheless.
Civil rights groups will release a letter to the Department of Justice charging an unnecessary, unfair, restrictive photo voter ID law intentionally discriminates against African American and Latino voters.
A photo voter ID law signed by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry is unnecessary, unfair, restrictive and intentionally discriminates against African-American and Latino voters, a coalition of civil rights groups will argue in a letter to the Justice Department on Wednesday.
Incredibly enough, Social Security -- long considered a third rail of politics -- has become a ferocious touchstone during this Presidential primary cycle, even with the Iowa Caucus still a half-year away.
A long overdue debate on tax reform is now underway. Yesterday, White House aides said they hoped to pay for the President's $450 billion jobs plan by sharply limiting tax deductions for upper income Americans.
In the wake of disasters across the Midwest, most of the entire east coast and at least 30,000 acres of Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief fund has dipped below $550 million. Unfortunately, its continued solvency is at the mercy of Congress.
And, says Anastasia Christman of the National Employment Law Project, "his focus on putting young people to work is critical for communities of color." The plan contains funding for summer job and youth work programs.
It’s a cruel fact for millions of unemployed Americans that the jobs plan President Obama unveiled last night will never be fully enacted by Congress. What’s even crueler, though, is that the least effective elements of the plan have the best chance of passage. New direct federal spending, the most powerful form of stimulus, is widely considered DOA on Capitol Hill – while weaker tax cut options will get a real hearing.
The $787 billion economic stimulus program, which has now largely expired, helped avert an economic meltdown that was poised to rival the Great Depression. Despite public skepticism about the program, that was the conclusion of a detailed analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office. At the outset, however, economists were warning that the stimulus program was far too small to offset an aggregate demand shortfall estimated at upwards of $2 trillion.
In a misguided effort to shore up his reputation with business, President Obama’s recent decision to suspend proposed ozone standards will ultimately result in higher overall costs for the country. The decision also furthers the false notion that we must choose between job creation and environmental protection.
Washington, DC-Just after President Obama's speech to a joint session of the US Congress on his new plan to stimulate job growth entitled "The American Jobs Act," the national policy center Demos published a point-by-point analysis of the plan. Based on the deep economic troubles facing this nation, including widespread joblessness and stagnant or declining wages, the Demos analysis concludes that the President's plan is a good start, and tells the right story about how to get the economy moving again.
Distinguished Senior Fellow and president of CivWorld and the Interdependence Movement Ben Barber recounts his whereabouts on 9/11 and explains why borders don’t matter anymore.
