The shame of the $2.13 tipped minimum wage in the U.S. “There’s nothing worse than working a full-time job serving people food and going hungry yourself. Servers should be able to afford to put a roof over our heads, feed ourselves and our families and live our lives without fear…
Archives: Voices
Fact of the Week: Share of Jobless Workers Receiving Unemployment Insurance at Record Low
“There are a lot of people truly hurting… This isn’t just affecting individuals, but families, too…. You go from providing for yourself and your family and then, through no fault of your own, you can’t anymore. You send in application after application after application and sometimes you hear back but sometimes…
Human Needs Report: President’s FY16 Budget Request Paves Road for Needed Investments
This week the Coalition on Human Needs released a special edition of the Human Needs Report analyzing the President’s FY2016 budget request. The report provides an overview of the White House budget with sections on taxes, revenues, and select departmental funding that most directly impact low-income and other disadvantaged populations. The…
Keep Raising Your Voice with #StopTheCuts
Yesterday we partnered with MomsRising.org, MoveOn.org and more than 20 other organizations for a Twitterstorm telling Congress to #StopTheCuts to critical human needs programs in the 2016 budget. With your help and action we got #StopTheCuts trending in DC on Twitter! From the benefits of SNAP to the need for…
Fact of the Week: We Can Reduce Child Poverty in America by 60 Percent Through an Investment Equal to Only 2 Percent of the Federal Budget
“Child poverty is too expensive to continue.” That’s what Children’s Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman said in unveiling their new report, Ending Child Poverty Now. Remarkably, a dramatic reduction in child poverty is not too expensive to undertake. An increase of just 2 percent of the federal budget put…
Tell Congress it’s time to #StopTheCuts
This coming Monday the President will present his budget request to Congress for FY2016. We look forward to reviewing the President’s proposals, and we’ve already heard about important investments he’d make in child care and community college. We’ve heard he will start to reverse damaging cuts to human needs programs….
Head Smacker: McConnell and Boehner Address Income Inequality…But Not Really
On Sunday, the CBS news show 60 Minutes aired the first joint interview with Speaker of the House John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell since the new Republican majority Congress convened. The interview took place only days after last week’s State of the Union address, and Scott Pelley…
Making Child Care Accessible to Low-Income Families
As we noted in a recent Fact of the Week, the average annual cost of center-based child care for an infant is nearly half of the income of a family of three living at the poverty level. In fact, child care is one of the most significant expenses in a…
Fact of the Week: Americans Not in Congress Overwhelmingly Support $12.50 Minimum Wage
In his State of the Union address on Tuesday, President Obama called out members of Congress who have failed to raise the minimum wage, saying, “If you truly believe you could work full-time and support a family on less than $15,000 a year, go try it. If not, vote to…
Share your Thoughts about the State of the Union
Below are my thoughts about the State of the Union address. Please share your comments on the address or the responses by scrolling down to the bottom of this page. The President is asking whether we will be satisfied with an economy that works only for a few, or works to provide opportunities…
SOTU: Things You Can Do
Next Tuesday, President Obama will give the annual State of the Union (SOTU) address to Congress and the nation, followed by responses from the Republican Party and the Tea Party. We’ll share our thoughts about the addresses that evening on our Voices for Human Needs blog, and we hope you’ll join…
Fact of the Week: One-Third of State Budgets Comes from Federal Funds
States rely heavily on money from the federal government. While taxes make up the majority of state general revenue, federal money makes up roughly 32 percent of that total. In separate reports, the National Priorities Project and the Tax Foundation both used data from the U.S. Census Bureau to come…