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Joint Economic Committee Democrats Chairman - Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM)

From the News

Aug 28 2018

Vox - Senate Democrats want the government to say if GDP growth is helping the middle class

But those gaps don’t show up in official measurements like the GDP, which measures growth in the overall economy. Now Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Martin Heinrich are trying to change that. On Tuesday they are introducing a new bill that seeks to shed light on how economic growth in the United States is shaking out for individual Americans.

The idea, they say, is to shed light on where economic prosperity is showing up across different income groups — and, potentially, where it’s not. The bill, the Measuring Real Income Growth Act of 2018, would require the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA), which releases quarterly GDP numbers, to also report how growth is distributed along the income scale. The bureau would have to put together distributional measures of economic growth to be released with quarterly and annual GDP reports starting in 2020, laying out how growth shows up across each decile of earners and the top 1 percent.

Aug 07 2018

Bloomberg - Republican Pitch on Robust Economy a Hard Sell in Regions Left Behind "

"People always ask, ‘Are we better off than we were two years ago?’ And the answer is yes."… "When I talk to people, they say they are not feeling the economic prosperity," said Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, the top Democrat on the Joint Economic Committee. “Americans are not seeing the wage growth that they were promised from the tax cuts."

Aug 03 2018

Newsweek - Trump’s Tax Plan is Failing to Give American Workers the Wage Growth he Promised

Friday’s jobs report showed unemployment at 3.9 percent, an 18-year low. But even with historic lows, workers' pay has only increased by 2.7 percent since last year. With inflation hovering around 2 percent, that’s an adjusted 0.7 percent growth in earnings. A wage earner would have to bring in more than $570,000 to see that promised $4,000 increase in pay. Instead, the average worker is seeing a weekly pay raise of just $16.42. “This jobs report provides the latest evidence that the Republican tax law has done little to raise real wages in this country,” said Senator Martin Heinrich, ranking member of the Joint Economic Committee, in a statement.

Aug 03 2018

News 12 Connecticut - Rep. DeLauro holds press conference on Republican Tax Law

Rep. Rosa DeLauro held a press conference Thursday to release a report outlining the effects of the Republican Tax Law. The report was prepared by the Democratic staff of the Joint Economic Committee. She used the report to highlight how the law is impacting Connecticut's working families and seniors. It details how the $2 trillion in tax cuts for millionaires, billionaires, and corporations come at the expense of Republican budget cuts to programs including Medicare, Medicaid, social security and the Affordable Care Act.

Jul 14 2018

ABC News - Paul Ryan says economy is booming, but warns that new tariffs 'are not the solution'

Beyond tariffs, Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., said Republicans had ruined the economy for working-class Americans. “The Trump Administration and the GOP Congress have one major legislative accomplishment: gutting Medicare and Social Security to slash taxes for CEOs and the wealthy," Rep. Don Beyer, D-Va., a member of the Joint Economic Committee, told ABC News in a written statement. "Because of their policies, wages are stagnant and health care costs are soaring.

Jul 13 2018

Carlsbad Current-Argus - Heinrich questions NPS officials on maintenance backlog

Rural communities such as Carlsbad especially rely on national parks for tourism – a major driver of rural economies, Heinrich said. Heinrich referenced data from a recent report by the Joint Economic Committee he said showed that rural communities who host NPS units recovered faster from the recession in 2007.

Jun 29 2018

KRWG - The State Of Rural Communities: A Report

Recently, the Joint Economic Committee Democrats released a report that evaluated that state of the economy in rural communities, and proposed policies that could help them. Donna Resendez examines this report, with the help of a JEC press conference featuring Senator Martin Heinrich.

Jun 27 2018

E&E News - Dems tout bipartisan measures as key to improving rural economies

Democrats on the Joint Economic Committee are urging Congress to "resist" efforts by the Trump administration to shrink public lands and instead get behind legislation to increase access and economic opportunities on these lands and improve the lives of rural Americans. The report, titled "Investing in Rural America," focuses on the overall economic state of rural communities but includes a detailed section on the importance of public lands to the residents in these areas.

Jun 22 2018

RFD-TV

Joint Economic Committee Democrats released a report that finds 14% of the U.S. population is made up rural Americans. Lawmakers say these residents play an essential role in the overall economy, starting new businesses and supplying the country's food supply. The report reiterated the importance of expanding broadband access, the farm bill, and also strengthening Medicare as parts of rural America lag behind.