Washington, DC – Today, the Congressional Progressive Caucus in conjunction with progressive groups released a plan to create millions of jobs and rebuild our nation’s infrastructure. In response, Vijay Das, Senior Campaign Strategist at Demos, said:
Today progressive Democrats released a framework for job creation and infrastructure investment that will prepare the United States to thrive in the 21st century.
The Decennial Census is one of the most important statistical tools available to Americans. It provides a snapshot of our present and helps us plan our future. Today this periodic and constitutionally mandated population count faces major threats on two fronts. The first threat is the underfunding of the program by Congressional Republicans and President Trump. The second is the administration’s attacks on vulnerable populations that are often the hardest to count.
Tuesday, May 23 (NEW YORK, NY) – Tamara Draut, Vice President of Research and Policy at Demos, a New York-based public policy organization and think tank, issued this statement following the unveiling of President Trump’s full budget to Congress:
“The deeply alarming budget released by the Trump administration today would wreak havoc on working- and middle-class people, including many of the very people who sent him to the White House, by cutting services and programs that support our most vulnerable communities.
In Chicago today, organizers of the Women’s March are on the move again. Racial justice activists from the Movement for Black Lives and Color of Change are marching beside them. Climate activists, immigration advocates, community organizers and progressives of many stripes are filling the streets of Chicago to demand change, not only in Washington, but in tens of thousands of McDonald’s restaurants in the U.S. and across the world.
“It doesn’t do anything to address the root problems of college affordability and of rising student debt,” said Mark Huelsman, a senior policy analyst at Demos, a left-leaning think tank. Those include state disinvestment in higher education, a trend that the federal government could help reverse, according to Huelsman, by using federal money to encourage states to up their investment in their public colleges. [...]
"From coast to coast, American families are trapped between the need to provide care for their young children or sick loved ones and the necessity of earning income. Our nation has a responsibility to address this crisis, and yet, the Trump administration’s proposal falls far short. An adequate plan would provide paid leave to working people recovering from temporary disability, offer at least 12 weeks of paid leave to new parents, and enable Americans caring for aging parents to take leave as well.
Whites are far more optimistic about progress toward equality, and I suspect it's due to that faith in a generational change among millennials.
But that idea does not hold up, according to research by Sean McElwee for Demos, a public policy organization focused on equality. "Age," McElwee concluded, "has little effect on the likelihood that whites hold racially biased feelings about blacks. ... Waiting for old whites to die out won't solve the problem, as these attitudes are equally prevalent among youth." [...]
Demos President Heather McGhee is a national leader in the fight for working families. Demos is a public policy organization working for an America where “we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy.” McGhee’s opinions, writing and research have appeared in The New York Times, The Nation, The Hill, Meet the Press, among other publications.
Today, the Supreme Court declined to review a lower court decision upholding limits on so-called "soft money" in politics. Congress enacted these limits as part of the McCain-Feingold Act in hopes of stopping wealthy donors from funneling huge sums of unregulated or “soft” money to political parties as a way of evading campaign contribution limits.
Senate Republicans on Thursday advanced President Trump’s first lower court nominee, setting up a floor vote. [...]
A coalition of 24 groups, including Demos, Every Voice Center, End Citizens United and Free Speech for People, wrote to the committee this week to urge members to reject Thapar’s nomination. The groups claim Thapar's record shows he will exacerbate the growing role of big money in American politics.
New York, NY - Following yesterday’s reporting that former FBI Director James Comey recorded a contemporaneous account of President Trump urging him to end the agency’s investigation into Russian interference with the U.S. election and earlier revelations that Trump shared highly sensitive intelligence with Russian officials in the Oval Office, Heather McGhee, President of the New York-based public policy think tank Demos, issued the following statement:
New York, New York — Today, Demos, Every Voice, People for the American Way, and 21 other organizations sent a letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee opposing Judge Amul Thapar’s confirmation to the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. The organizations called into question Judge Thapar’s troubling record on money in politics, noting that they are deeply concerned with the growing role of big money in American politics.
Despite important advances with ballot initiatives and the rise of the powerful Fight for $15 movement, there is still progress to be made on raising the minimum wage.
The National Retail Federation was expecting a Mother’s Day bonanza on Sunday, predicting consumers would “spend more than ever… as they shower moms with everything from jewelry to special outings at favorite restaurants.” If their projections proved correct, many individual moms got a lot of love last weekend—or at least abundant gifts. Unfortunately, our society as a whole does a great deal less to honor and support mothers.
This Mothers’ Day, as the mother of two stepsons who came from Guatemala and one son born here, I’m grateful that all three of my children and their father have their papers. That was literally the first thing that crossed my mind after Donald Trump was elected.
Dear Governor Abbott,
We the undersigned faith, labor, civil rights and social justice organizations, which represent a wide cross section of America’s diverse communities, strongly condemn your decision to sign into law the unconstitutional, racist and anti-immigrant Senate Bill 4. As Governor of Texas, your duty is to protect and defend the rights of ALL Texans -- undocumented immigrants are Texans through and through -- but you have clearly failed in doing this.
Washington, DC – President Trump signed an executive order today formatting a “Presidential Commission for Election Integrity.” In response to these reports, Brenda Wright, Vice President for Policy and Legal Strategies at Demos said:
