President Trump has regularly touted 2017 employment gains as signs that he is making America great again. The truth is that the labor market in 2017 mostly continued down the path that it had been on since well before he took office. The American job market has been slowly and steadily improving since the enactment of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. In fact, average monthly job growth under President Trump has actually slowed and is at its lowest level since 2010.
Jan 05 2018
President Trump Job Tracker December 2017
Joint Economic Committee Democratic staff are comparing job growth each month to the average in the late 1990s (a boom time in the economy), but also to the best individual month each series has ever seen.
The federal safety net lifted nearly 11 million children out of poverty in 2016—led by refundable tax credits raising 4.4 million children out of poverty, SNAP and Social Security 1.5 million children each, and housing subsidies 1 million children. Poverty leads to worse health outcomes, developmental delays, and poor academic outcomes for affected children, all of which have lifelong effects. House Speaker Paul Ryan and other Republican leaders intend to target many of these successful programs for cuts in 2018.
Jan 03 2018
December Economic Snapshot of the States
Although the U.S. economy overall continues its expansion following the Great Recession and associated financial crisis, the recovery can look very different from state to state. The lion’s share of economic gains are not only concentrated at the top of the income and wealth distribution, but also in a small share of regions. While some parts of the country have surged ahead, millions of Americans in urban and rural communities are still waiting for their wages to start rising again and struggling to make ends meet.
This year has turned out to be a rough one for working Americans. In his first year in office, President Trump and Congressional Republicans hurt workers’ pay and benefits, rolled back consumer financial protections, targeted public lands for commercial development, and attempted to strip health care coverage from millions of Americans. Just one year into the Trump presidency and already the harm to people, communities, and the environment is considerable.
Dec 18 2017
Republican Tax Cuts Will Mostly Go to Wealthy
Despite claims that the Republican tax cuts are aimed at working families, wealthy owners of pass-through businesses (such as partners in large law firms and hedge funds) will see substantially more benefits than workers. In 2019, primarily-wage workers in the bottom 20 percent of earners would average a $40 tax cut. This contrasts with an average tax cut of $87,000 for pass-through owners in the top one percent. Because of the windfall that high-earners will see by becoming a pass-through, many more will seek to use the pass-through loophole in the future—eroding tax revenues and worsening income inequality.
With equity market valuations at highs only seen right before the stock market crash of 1929 and the Dotcom crash of 2000, now is the time that policymakers should be focused on maintaining stability, protecting consumers, and promoting sustainable growth. Instead Republicans are pursuing an agenda that will feed bubbles, leave consumers and small investors vulnerable to fraud and abuse, and undermine financial stability.
