Inequality and Poverty

Feb 8, 2016

Top 400 Taxpayers See Tax Rates Rise, But There’s More to the Story

As Americans were gathering party supplies to greet the New Year, the Internal Revenue Service released their annual report of cumulative tax data reported on the 400 tax r...

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Feb 4, 2016

Chlorine Bleach Plants Needlessly Endanger 63 Million Americans

Chlorine bleach plants across the U.S. put millions of Americans in danger of a chlorine gas release, a substance so toxic it has been used as a chemical weapon. Greenpeace’s new repo...

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Jan 25, 2016

U.S. Industrial Facilities Reported Fewer Toxic Releases in 2014

The Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) data for 2014 is now available. The good news: total toxic releases by reporting facilities decreased by nearly six percent from 2013 levels. Howe...

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Jan 22, 2016

Methane Causes Climate Change. Here's How the President Plans to Cut Emissions by 40-45 Percent.

UPDATE (Jan. 22, 2016): Today, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) released its proposed rule to reduce methane emissions...

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House Saves Program for Measuring Results of Government Assistance

The House voted Jun. 13 to partially fund the Census Bureau's Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP), saving what is considered an essential tool for assessing how well government assistance programs are working.

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Congress Drops the Ball on Minimum Wage Again

Congress failed last week to raise the federal minimum wage which has stagnated for nearly a decade. The failure to act means its unlikely American workers will see a minimum wage increase any time soon. In the Senate, two measures to raise the minimum wage were voted down. In the House, an appropriations bill that contains a minimum wage increase is being kept from the floor, and Republicans have simultaneously rebuffed a Democratic effort to link an increase in the minimum wage with a bill that would nearly repeal the estate tax.

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House Democrats Continue Fight for Minimum Wage Hike

Jun 27, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Although the Senate defeated two minimum wage increase proposals last week, Democrats in the House are working to bring their minimum wage hike to a floor vote. Their resolve is grounded in a simple principal neatly summarized by House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD): "We want people to work hard and play by the rules. And when they do, they should not be relegated to poverty."

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Minimum Wage Increase Defeated in the Senate

Jun 22, 2006 by Craig Jennings

The Senate voted yesterday (twice) to keep low-wage workers in poverty.* The first vote was on a Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-MA) plan to increase the minimum wage from $5.15 to $7.25 per hour over two years. The measure was an amendment to the FY2007 Defense appropriations bill. The second vote to keep the minimum wage at the 1949 level** was on a Republican bill, introduced by Sen. Mike Enzi’s (R-WY), and would have increased the minimum wage to $6.25 per hour.

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Think Tank Focuses on Economic Security

The incongruity between Congress's priorities and the needs of average Americans was in stark contrast last week. As the Senate prepared to vote on estate tax repeal, the Center for American Progress held a briefing June 6 to explore the growing problem of economic insecurity facing many Americans. Panelists speaking at the briefing were:

Jared Bernstein, Economic Policy Institute economist and author;
Louis Uchitelle, New York Times reporter and author;
Paul Krugman, New York Times op-ed columnist and author: and

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Prof. Frank Teaches Econ 101

May 18, 2006 by Craig Jennings

Yesterday, we listened to President Bush mislead Americans about the role the 2003 tax cuts played in the economic growth we've seen since 2003. Mr. Bush was not the only administration member misleading Americans. The Wall Street Journal blog, Washington Wire, caught this exchange bewtween Treasury Secretary John Snow Representative Barney Frank (D-MA) during testimony to the House Financial Services Committee on the International Financial System and the Global Economy.

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Wage Gap Between Immigrant and U.S.-Born Workers Has Grown

Apr 20, 2006 by Guest Blogger

A new report, "Changing Patterns in the Relative Economic Performance of Immigrants to Great Britain and the United States, 1980-2000," finds that the gap in earnings between U.S. born and immigrant workers increased significantly between 1980 and 2000. The paper uses data from the 1980, 1990, and 2000 Censuses to look at changes in the pace of the economic assimilation of immigrants. The executive summary states that the evidence suggested "that immigrants lagged farther behind US-born workers in 2000, than they had in the 1990 and 1980."

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Surprise, Surprise: Bush Tax Cuts Mainly Benefit Wealthy

Apr 19, 2006 by Guest Blogger

As we've said time and again, one of the main reasons why the Bush tax cuts are so egregious -- besides the fact that they are draining the Treasury of revenues and causing important federal programs to get squeezed -- is the that the beneficiaries of these tax cuts are overwhelmingly the very richest people in our society. As this well-written article puts it, "things will get even worse if the Bush administration gets its way.

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A Closer Look At Inequality in America

Apr 12, 2006 by Adam Hughes*

Former Clinton economic advisor and current Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress Gene Sperling takes a closer look at economic inequality in America in his most recent column for Bloomberg News. Sperling unpacks the recent statements by Secretary of Treasury John Snow that income inequality has actually shrunk under President Bush and explains why a closer look at the numbers shows it is difficult to back up such a claim. Bloomberg News: A Disappointing Decade for Inequality

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Krugman Responds to Secretary Snow's Assertions

Mar 24, 2006 by Guest Blogger

Following up on yesterday's post regarding income inequality, Paul Krugman has an op-ed in today's NY Times in which he challenges Secretary Snow's recent comments on income inequality going down between 2000 and 2003. As Krugman points out, even though the economy grew fast in 2004, few families saw the benefits of this growth. Instead, the rich got richer. As he says, "Forbes tells us that the compensation of chief executives at the 500 largest corporations rose 54 percent in 2004." Most others he says, have not seen their incomes rise. He says:

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