Tag Archives: tax credits

GOP Threatens to Hold Economy Hostage to Slash Climate Investments

“If Republicans take over Congress, they plan to hold the government hostage and ransom our future,” said one climate advocate.

By Jake Johnson  Published 10-25-2022 by Common Dreams

Screenshot: CNN

In addition to threatening cuts to Social Security and Medicare, congressional Republicans are reportedly plotting to use the debt ceiling and an end-of-year clash over government funding to target popular climate investments approved in August as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

The Washington Post reported Tuesday that “while some Republicans do favor brinkmanship over Medicare and Social Security… some aides and analysts think the GOP may be more likely to demand changes to other Democratic priorities.” Continue reading

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I told lawmakers about my stillborn child – and helped pass a key bill

Louisiana has approved a law that will alleviate the emotional and financial burdens for bereaved families. The rest of the US should follow suit

By Joni Hess.  Published 7-26-2021 by openDemocracy

Illustration: Inge Snip

I drove an hour and a half to the Louisiana state capitol building in Baton Rouge, on 26 April, to tell legislators about my daughter Eliana.

On the journey, I kept thinking to myself: would I be able to do this? I had rarely spoken about what had happened. Now, I was about to do so before strangers who had the power to vote ‘no’ on a bill that could help many other women like me.

Eliana weighed 5 pounds, 4 ounces when she was born on 8 February 2019. In my hospital bed, I held her tightly, fighting back tears so they wouldn’t cloud my final views of her face. Sometime that morning, she had passed away in utero. We never found out why.

Continue reading

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States are on the front lines of fighting inequality

 

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Rally in support of raising the minimum wage in University City, Mo. AP Photo/Jeff Roberson

Christopher Witko, Pennsylvania State University

When Democrats regained control of the U.S. House of Representatives, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., almost immediately took aim at America’s growing income inequality by recommending a 70 percent tax rate on income over US$10 million.

Income inequality refers to the unequal distribution of income between the rich and poor.

Inequality in the U.S. has dramatically increased since the 1970s, under both liberal and conservative administrations in Washington. And the kind of policy Ocasio-Cortez is proposing will be impossible to pass with the polarized politics in Washington D.C. Continue reading

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