Congressional Republicans have a plan to fill part of the giant deficit hole created by their tax plan for the wealthy; open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to commercial drilling. Their plan is a shortsighted tactic that arcane budget rules and will ultimately fail to live up to expectations. In fact, early estimates based on recent lease bids of neighboring plots of land underscore how selling these precious protected lands to commercial drilling could generate underwhelming revenues.
Dec 13 2017
The Biggest Losers in the GOP Tax Plan
The GOP tax plan provides big tax giveaways to the wealthy and large corporations, all while hurting...
Budgets proposed by the Trump administration and House and Senate Republicans would all drastically slash federal investment in nondefense discretionary (NDD) funding. NDD funding includes infrastructure, education, and medical and scientific research, among other programs critical to American families and the economy. Senate Republicans have proposed slashing NDD spending by $800 billion over the next decade, House Republicans by nearly $1.4 trillion, and President Trump by more than $1.5 trillion. The President’s budget would bring NDD spending down to 2 percent of GDP, the lowest level in modern history by a wide margin.
Dec 08 2017
President Trump Job Tracker November 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.
It has been 69 days since Congress failed to reauthorize funding for the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), which provides coverage for 8.9 million children across the country. Last week, Colorado became the first state to notify families that they are in danger of losing coverage, and many others may follow. If Congress fails to fully fund CHIP, 36 states and D.C. will exhaust their existing 2017 federal funds by March of next year.
Dec 06 2017
Rural DACA by the Numbers
Dec 06 2017
Rural DACA by the Numbers
Deferred Action Childhood Arrivals (DACA) recipients play a large role in rural communities, where their economic contributions are helping rural towns get back on their feet from years of slow eco-nomic growth. In rural America, these estimated tens of thousands of young people are part of the answer to building sustainable economies in small towns across the country.
Dec 05 2017
10 Ways STEM Strengthens the Economy
Dec 04 2017
Ten Ways STEM Strengthens the Economy
Equipping Americans with science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) skills ensures a more innovative and prosperous economy. STEM workers boost productivity and drive competitiveness, while generating a host of new ideas. These workers advance our nation by doing everything from building roads and bridges to conducting life-saving medical research.
Senate Republicans are pitching their recently-passed tax plan as a middle-class tax cut, but analysis from the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation pokes holes in this claim. The vast majority of households earning under $100,000 will see little tax change by the time the bill is fully implemented in 2027. Twice as many households earning under $100,000 will actually see a tax hike rather than a tax cut. In total, 127 million households earning under $100,000 will see a tax increase or little change, compared with 13 million households seeing a tax cut.
