The House’s Build Back Better Act (BBB Act) will expand low-to-middle income families’ access to medical care by extending increased tax credits from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) that make health insurance sold on federal and state marketplaces more affordable. These increased tax subsidies from the ARP have already lowered families’ monthly premiums and out-of-pocket costs, and have helped total enrollment on marketplace plans reach a record high as of August 2021. If Congress makes these subsidies permanent through the BBB Act instead of letting them expire at the end of 2022, researchers estimate that 4.2 million more people will be insured compared to before the ARP was passed. This increase would help millions of families access health care, have more stable household finances and would put more money in their pockets to spend on other necessities.
Oct 05 2021
Universal Paid Family and Medical Leave Will Generate Economy-Wide Benefits and Spur Economic Growth
The Build Back Better legislation being considered by the House would provide 12 weeks of universal paid family and medical leave for all U.S. workers, a crucial policy to improve the economic security of families, support small businesses and increase economic growth. The need to take leave is inevitable over the course of a lifetime, whether to care for a new family member, as in the birth or adoption of a child, or to handle a personal health crisis, and yet the United States is the only OECD country that does not require paid leave for new mothers and is one of only two OECD countries that does not require paid medical leave.
Oct 01 2021
Education Can Help Narrow the Racial Wealth Gap, but Structural Solutions Are Needed to Close It
In the United States, the typical white family has nearly eight times the wealth of the typical Black family. Wealth serves as an enabler of opportunity, such that racial disparities in education, income, housing, retirement and other outcomes can be traced in part to the persistence of the racial wealth gap.
Oct 01 2021
Economic Update - October 1, 2021
Sep 27 2021
Breaching the Debt Ceiling Could Harm Millions of Americans and Produce Economic Devastation
The U.S. economy is again facing the grave threat of a breach of the debt limit. Past debt-limit brinkmanship crises inflicted substantial uncertainty on businesses, drove huge declines in the stock market and consumer confidence and led to higher borrowing costs for taxpayers and consumers. Debt-limit brinksmanship resulted in the first-ever downgrade of the U.S. credit rating and cost the country billions of dollars in lost economic activity, even though a default was ultimately avoided.
Sep 24 2021
Economic Update - September 24, 2021
Strong labor force participation is a key input to economic growth, but the labor force participation rate in the United States among both men and women has fallen in recent decades. While women’s labor force participation had increased dramatically over the course of the second half of the 20th century as gender norms changed, women pursued more education and wage stagnation necessitated two incomes to support household income, it stalled and even declined after 2000. A critical cause of this decline is the lack of structural support for women’s full economic participation.
Sep 17 2021
Economic Update - September 17, 2021
The recent U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) review of the Thrifty Food Plan will result in increased benefits under the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), helping 42 million people afford food. This review, mandated under the bipartisan 2018 Farm Bill, will permanently increase the maximum SNAP benefit 21% above pre-pandemic levels. The increased benefit levels will result in an estimated $31.8 billion annually in additional economic activity, helping small businesses and local farms.
Emergency food programs enacted during the coronavirus pandemic were vital to working families who lost jobs through no fault of their own, and SNAP is projected to keep almost 8 million people out of poverty in 2021. Permanently increasing benefits under SNAP will benefit the whole economy as it helps individuals, working families, seniors and disabled people, and provides long-term benefits for low-income children.
Emergency food programs enacted during the coronavirus pandemic were vital to working families who lost jobs through no fault of their own, and SNAP is projected to keep almost 8 million people out of poverty in 2021. Permanently increasing benefits under SNAP will benefit the whole economy as it helps individuals, working families, seniors and disabled people, and provides long-term benefits for low-income children.
The U.S. economy relies on the 62 million Hispanic Americans who make up a disproportionate share of the essential workforce and face significant barriers in the workplace. This report provides a comprehensive look at the essential contributions of Hispanic workers and the structural barriers they face.
