The Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of President Obama’s 2014 budget proposal today. The bottom line? It more than solves our deficit problem for the next decade, and for some time beyond that. And unlike the status quo — which also reduces the deficit, though not by as much — it brings the deficit down gradually over 10 years, rather than reducing it sharply over the next two years and then watching it rise slowly over the next decade. Read More »
The Congressional Budget Office released their analysis of President Obama’s 2014 budget proposal today. The bottom line? It more than solves our deficit problem for the next decade, and for some time beyond that. And unlike the status quo — which also reduces the deficit, though not by as much — it brings the deficit down gradually over 10 years, rather than reducing it sharply over the next two years and then watching it rise slowly over the next decade. Read More »
Sequestering Meals on Wheels funds could cost taxpayers far more than it saves. While across-the-board spending cuts that began March 1, called sequestration, are expected to reduce spending on Meals on Wheels programs this year by an estimated $10 million, these savings will be dwarfed by at least $489 million per year in increased spending on Medicaid, both this year and in each subsequent year that sequestration remains in place. Read More »
On Wednesday, May 8, the House passed the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1406), introduced by Representative Martha Roby (R-AL). The measure, passed by a vote of 223-204 along party lines, seeks to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (PL-75-718) to give private companies the ability to offer employees the choice of receiving regular paid time off instead of overtime pay for hours worked over the standard 40 hours per week. Currently, employees in blue-collar jobs get time and a half for overtime hours worked. Read More »
On Wednesday, May 8, the House passed the Working Families Flexibility Act of 2013 (H.R. 1406), introduced by Representative Martha Roby (R-AL). The measure, passed by a vote of 223-204 along party lines, seeks to amend the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (PL-75-718) to give private companies the ability to offer employees the choice of receiving regular paid time off instead of overtime pay for hours worked over the standard 40 hours per week. Currently, employees in blue-collar jobs get time and a half for overtime hours worked. Read More »
Republicans have started to set their sights on enacting tax reform and on more spending cuts, by making these goals the price of raising the federal debt limit. On May 7, the Washington Post quoted House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) as saying, “The debt limit is the backstop…we need to get a downpayment on the debt; we need entitlement reform; we’re very serious about tax reform because we think that it is critical to economic growth and job creation.” In addition, interest in reforming the tax code has led to bi-partisan work in House and Senate committees to spell out options. Read More »
It looks like we’ve moved to talking about possible scandals just in time, because according to the Congressional Budget Office, the debt disaster that has obsessed the political class for the last three years is pretty much solved, at least for the next 10 years or so. The last time the CBO estimated our future deficits was February– just four short months ago. Back then, the CBO thought deficits were falling and health-care costs were slowing. Today, the CBO thinks deficits are falling even faster and health-care costs are slowing by even more. Read More »
Personal stories about federal programs building the American Dream
“Head Start is the reason my daughter is alive. The reason my family is intact. The reason I can still smile at my daughter’s beautiful face each morning.” -Amanda
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Strengthening America's Values & Economy for AllProtecting important services from harmful budget cuts & save the federal capacity to spur economic recovery and progress for the benefit of all.
Latest Edition: May 13, 2013
Read articles from the May 13, 2013 edition of the Human Needs Report, including pieces on taxes, the debt ceiling and labor standards. Read More »
