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Joint Economic Committee Democrats

Publications

Mar 13 2024

Transmission upgrades and efficient energy demand management are essential for the clean energy transition

The United States requires a consistent supply of energy to both improve Americans’ quality of life and grow the economy. Currently, the United States is shifting to clean electricity and moving away from fossil fuels to mitigate climate change and reduce the impacts of price volatility. To achieve these goals, the United States will have to create more electricity than it currently produces. Renewable energy generation is projected to increase from 21% of electricity generation in 2021 to 44% in 2050. This will help meet the demand for increased electricity, but more will need to be done. Other opportunities include expanding existing transmission abilities and streamlining the construction, deployment, and connection of new clean energy investments to the broader power grid.

Mar 11 2024

Raising Revenue to Address the U.S. Debt Trajectory

The United States does not have a spending problem; it has a revenue problem. Republican tax cuts for the wealthy have reduced revenues and driven up the national debt. Despite this reality, Republicans want to further cut important social programs, harming millions of Americans while doing little to correct the country’s fiscal balance.

The United States should reduce the deficit, but not on the backs of working people. The deficit can and should be reduced by closing tax loopholes for the wealthiest of the wealthy and going after tax cheats among the wealthiest of individuals and big corporations—a move that requires maintaining funding for the Internal Revenue Service. Next year, there is also a crucial opportunity for Congress to put the country’s fiscal path back on track by letting key provisions of the 2017 Republican tax package expire.

Mar 11 2024

State by State Data: January Employment Data

Each month, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) releases national and state-level data on U.S. employment, which provide useful information about the state of the labor market and progress toward building a better America. The below map and chart created by the Joint Economic Committee highlight key trends in the most recent monthly data for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. The most recent state-level data, which cover the month of January 2024, were released on March 11th, 2024. The latest national data were released on February 2nd, 2024 and revised March 8th, 2024.

Mar 06 2024

Democrats Are Taking on Corporate Greed and Fighting for American Families

Big companies have used their market dominance to rake in profits by raising prices on families. These price hikes have played a detrimental role in driving inflation and resulted in persistently higher prices for American families. This has been especially clear with the price of food, where industry consolidation in sectors like meat production gave corporations more extreme pricing dominance and major returns in profits. Some companies have also reduced the size of essentials like food and household paper products without lowering prices, shorting families while pushing up profits.

Feb 08 2024

What is a carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM) and what are some legislative proposals to make one?

A Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) is an emerging bipartisan tool that aims to cut global pollution and support American industry A CBAM is a fee applied to products upon entry or imports that accounts for the amount of greenhouse gases (GHG) emitted during their production in their country of origin. When in place, these fees can improve domestic industries’ global competitiveness against cheaper, higher-polluting imports and prevent producers from flocking to countries that lack environmental protections. A CBAM can be designed as a permissible import fee under the World Trade Organization. To be clear, it is not a carbon tax. In fact, a CBAM in the United States would make domestic steel and aluminum more cost-competitive and help producers capture an additional $8.5 billion and $6 billion of their respective markets by 2030.