In an extreme, out-of-touch vote, House Republicans voted on a Farm Bill Thursday that removed nutrition programs like the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Every Democrat and a dozen Republicans voted against the bill.
A new study from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP) shows states that cut tax rates do worse in terms of economic growth than other states. Numerous Republican governors have pushed for tax cuts under the premise that lower tax rates lead to greater economic growth, but the CBPP study concludes that this premise is wrong.
This month marks the end of the federal extended unemployment insurance benefits program for 35 states with the nation’s highest jobless rates. More than half a million long-term jobless workers have lost their unemployment lifeline. Chad Stone of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ( CBPP ) says:
As we’ve explained previously , EB [extended benefits] will no longer be available in any state, not because most states’ economies have improved to anywhere near pre-recession conditions, but because they have not significantly deteriorated in the past three years.
Any time the idea that the very wealthiest among us ought to pony up their fair share is raised, Republican lawmakers issue dire warnings. ”If—heaven forbid—millionaires are asked to pay a little more in taxes, they will flee like flocks of migratory birds looking for a warmer welcome elsewhere. Their vast wealth forever lost.”
The closer we examine the House Republican budget plan for 2012 put together by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), the worse it looks. Two new analyses show not only would Ryan’s plan to cut Medicaid cost 2 million mostly private-sector jobs, but—and this is scary—if the nation followed Ryan’s budget road map, the federal government would nearly vanish by 2050.
The Republican budget plan unveiled yesterday privatizes Medicare, cuts corporate taxes and taxes for the wealthy, cuts Medicaid funding and repeals health care reform. Says AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka:
Just as Republican governors and state legislators are assaulting the rights of working Americans under the guise of budget crises…Republican leaders in Congress are using the federal budget to further their own political agendas. Their credo is that tax giveaways to the super rich and Wall Street should be paid for on the backs of working people.
The nonpartisan Center on Budget and Policy Priorities ( CBPP ) is setting the record straight and exposing the falsehoods behind the extremist rhetoric about public employees from Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker and his ilk.
It’s been four years since low-wage workers got a raise. Sign the petition to tell Congress it’s time to raise the minimum wage.
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