Wall Street’s coronavirus panic means little for Americans without wealth to invest
Andrew L. Yarrow,
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
Deborah Weinstein,
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.’
David Elliot,
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
David Elliot,
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.
CHN Analysis: Two-Thirds of Human Needs Programs Have Lost Ground Since 2010
David Elliot,
February 19, 2020
A new analysis released today by the Coalition on Human Needs found that since 2010, a large number of programs providing health care, housing, training and education, nutrition, child welfare and other social services of special importance to low-income people have seen significant reductions. CHN analyzed spending for 191 human needs programs funded by the federal government. It found that two-thirds (127 programs) were funded at a lower level this year than in FY 2010, adjusted for inflation. More than a quarter of these (49 programs) lost 25 percent or more of funding over the decade. Nearly six out of ten (112 programs) dropped by more than 10 percent.
