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Remembering Susan Rees
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February 28, 2020

Susan Rees passed away on February 1. At this sad moment, we at CHN celebrate Susan’s vision and strength, and to rededicate ourselves to further her work. Susan helped to build the Coalition on Human Needs into an organization that has endured, committed to reducing economic injustice and poverty. As Executive Director from 1983 to 1991, Susan strengthened a coalition of faith groups, labor, policy experts, service providers and civil rights groups to fight against the Reagan Administration’s efforts to weaken the federal role in helping low-income people and protecting against racial discrimination.

Wall Street’s coronavirus panic means little for Americans without wealth to invest
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February 27, 2020

Monday’s 1,031-point stock market plunge certainly brought panic to financiers, traders, policymakers and investors. But did the long stock market rise parallel the fortunes of America’s real economy? "Journalists are obsessed with the stock market,” says Jacob Hacker, director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies at Yale University. “But for most Americans, it's a side show in their economic lives. What really matters to them is the security of their jobs and health care, and the amount they have to pay for big-ticket items like housing and education.”

Euphemism Radar and the Trump Budget
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February 25, 2020

When I turned my attention to President Trump’s new budget, my Euphemism Radar was engaged. And there’s a lot. The Trump Administration wants to do a lot of modernizing, modifying, reallocating, reforming, and improving program or payment integrity. A common theme emerges: they’re all about cutting.

‘The shameful state of our children is not an inevitability – it is a choice.’
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February 24, 2020

Every two seconds in America, a public school student is suspended. Every nine seconds, a high school student drops out. Every 43 seconds, a young person is arrested and every 47 seconds, a child is abused or neglected. A child or teenager is killed with a gun every two hours and 34 minutes; suicide claims the life of a young person every five hours. These are but a few of the sobering statistics included in "The State of America’s Children 2020," recently published by the Children’s Defense Fund.

Not one dollar for The Wall – but let’s not waste money on the Pentagon, either
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February 20, 2020

Last week the Trump Administration announced plans to “reprogram” $3.8 billion appropriated for military spending, including exorbitant military hardware, and use the funds for further construction of the President’s wall along the southern U.S. border. When we heard the news, the phrase “politics makes strange bedfellows” came to mind. On the one hand: CHN opposes any funding whatsoever for President Trump’s wall, which is divisive, expensive, and won’t do a whole lot to deter illegal immigration. On the other hand: much of the $3.8 billion that is being “reprogrammed” includes funding for things the Administration never requested and the Pentagon never asked for and says we don’t need.

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