Recent federal action, including the passage of the Credit Card Bill of Rights of 2009 and the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, provided needed regulation and oversight of the credit card industry. However, past debt continues to haunt families even as they add on new debt. The findings below, from the 2008 Credit Card Debt Household Survey of Low-and Middle-Income Households, demonstrates that the means used by consumers of color to pay down debt further chips away at their economic viability.
As a nation, we now face a serious threat to the very nature of our democracy, and the core American belief that wide electoral participation by as many eligible voters as possible is central to our prosperity and success. With salacious and often unfounded allegations of efforts to vote by non-citizens, the deceased, felons and even pets, partisans, fringe organizations, and opinion makers of all kinds have pressed for strict new voter identification requirements. But the facts do not warrant these extreme proposals. All available evidence suggests that voter fraud is exceedingly rare.
The 2000 election will be remembered as a national debacle in which millions of citizens were denied the right to vote and have that vote be properly counted. To remedy the problems of 2000, Congress passed the Help America Vote Act of 2002 (HAVA). One of HAVA's principal provisions required states to adopt a system of "fail-safe" voting in which a person who goes to the polls, but whose name is not on the voter lists or who cannot produce the necessary identification, is allowed to vote on a provisional ballot.
From the outset, leading national civil rights and social justice organizations have criticized Brett Kavanaugh’s hostile record on voting rights, reproductive health, worker’s rights, gun safety,
A properly functioning democracy encourages all eligible citizens to participate in elections. Our nation's commitment to this goal has resulted in landmark laws to assure that access to voting is available to all, including persons with disabilities and U.S. citizens who may have limited proficiency in English.
Felony disfranchisement is the practice of denying people with felony convictions the right to vote. The American tradition of states determining their own election laws has led to a national patchwork of policies and practices that result in de jure and de facto denial of the vote based on felony conviction status Currently, most states impose some voting restrictions on people with felony convictions, ranging from a prohibition from voting while incarcerated to a virtual lifetime ban.
If elections are the foundation of our democracy, then poll workers are the gears and wheels that make the mechanics of democracy function on Election Day. Regrettably, this human factor is often overlooked and under-supported. States squeak by each year with a bare minimum of poll workers who receive inadequate training for an increasingly complex task. Recent surveys, press accounts, and troubled primary elections attest to the problem.
Representational Inequality: Bad for Democracy Economic inequality in America has been spiraling out of control in recent decades. The income gap between the rich and the poor in America has steadily increased since the early 20th century and is at its largest in 40 years. Unfortunately, this also translates into political inequality. According to the 2004 U.S. Census, 59 percent of citizens in households making less than $15,000 a year were registered to vote versus 85 percent of those in households making $75,000 or more.
Political candidates win elections by generating more votes than their opponents. A vigorous and superior get-out-the-vote campaign is commonly understood to be the key to success. A less recognized but all-too-familiar alternative tactic is to intimidate their opponents supporters and suppress their votes. Voter intimidation and vote suppression campaigns are often mounted in communities of color, where voter participation is more tenuous. Few states have enacted clear and effective prohibitions against these abuses.
In the final days of the 2006 campaign, as in any election year, citizen interest is peaking as election news--and debates on the issues--becomes more pervasive in the media. Unfortunately for America's voters, in all but eight states (one of which does not require voter registration) , if you are not already registered to vote in this week's election, it is too late. There are seven states, however, where eligible voters are not hampered by arbitrary deadlines, no matter when they become engaged by an election, and can register to vote on Election Day itself.
In response to ever-increasing financial pressures, families have come to depend on high-cost credit as a way to bridge the gap between stagnant or decreasing incomes and rising costs. How are families coping with their new burden? To hang on to the American Dream, to be part of the ownership society, homeowners are depleting their home equity to pay off a growing mountain of unsecured debt—a financial strategy fraught with serious consequences.
For the first time since its decision in Buckley v. Valeo nearly 30 years ago, the Supreme Court has agreed to review the constitutionality of campaign spending limits. The case, Randall v. Sorrell, No. 04-1528, raises issues that go to the heart of our democracy. Vermont’s comprehensive reform law was adopted in 1997 out of concern over the escalating arms race in campaign fundraising and spending that has undermined public confidence in government and turned elected officials into full-time fundraisers.
Passage of the bankruptcy bill would make it harder for families struck by financial misfortune to get back on track. It would benefit the very profitable ($30 billion in 2004) credit card industry at the expense of the modest-income families who represent the great majority of those who declare bankruptcy.
Many Americans have reduced the equity in their home to pay off credit card debts and cover day-to-day expenses. More troubling still is evidence that many appraisers fraudulently inflate property values during the buying or refinancing of homes. This paper explores the implications of appraisal fraud.
In April 2005 Demos urged Congress to recognize the fragility of our debt driven consumer economy when considering the bankruptcy "reform" bill (S. 256/H.R. 685) that had been passed by the Senate and was under consideration in the House of Representatives. American families are not suffering from "irresponsible consumerism," as Senate sponsor Chuck Grassley claims, but from the effects of a stagnant economy and fraying social supports.
While real income gains were realized during the economic boom over the latter half of the 1990s, the average American's credit card debt rose faster than ever before. While balances grew faster for white families than for African-American and Hispanic families, all groups experienced a significant rise in debt between 1992 and 2001. African-American and Hispanic families were more likely, overall, to carry a credit card balance than whites.
The report is timed to the two-day federal trial that starts tomorrow morning that will redraw Kansas’ legislative districts. If the Court were to adopt the House’s proposed map, Kansas would end up with a dubious distinction: having the nation’s most extreme instance of prison-based gerrymandering in a state legislative district.
