Economy and Business
If You Want to Collect Social Security, Trump’s Tax Plan Is an Outrage
How much did your paychecks total last year? You know the answer, of course. So does the Social Security Administration. The totals for every American’s paycheck income are sitting in Social Security’s computers. Once every year, Social Security does a serious data...
An Independent Thinker’s Guide to the Tax Debate
For 40 years, tax cutters in Congress have told us, “we have a tax cut for you." And each time, they count on us to suspend all judgment. In exchange, we’ve gotten staggering inequality, collapsing public infrastructure, a fraying safety net, and exploding deficits....
Robots Aren’t Taking Our Jobs. Corporations Are.
There's a robot in your future. Not one of those cute little labor-saving automatons — like a "Roomba" vacuum cleaner. Far from saving you from doing extra labor, this new wave of robots is being brought into your workplace to rescue corporate bosses from paying you...
Your Boss Shouldn’t Get to Have ‘Religious’ Objections to Your Health Care
When Obamacare — aka, the Affordable Care Act — became law in 2010, it mandated coverage of birth control without co-payments. Some employers didn't like the rule, and Hobby Lobby hated it so much that the company filed a lawsuit to stop it. Company owners said they...
So Many Tax Lies, So Little Time
In most cases, it’s best practice to cut through the media noise and go straight to the source to understand what’s happening in public policy. Donald Trump’s tax plan is not one of those cases. The president is crisscrossing the country giving speeches to crowds...
Tax Cuts for the Rich, Paid for with Your Health Care
When Republican leaders tried to repeal health care in the spring and summer, many Americans raised the alarm and made a ruckus. We asked hard questions, looked at the independent analyses, held town halls, told our health care stories, and took to the streets....
What Happened to Trump’s Pledge to Close This Billionaire Loophole?
These are hard times for America's gold miners. They're scrambling to get ahead, but seeing their pay dropping. Take Bob Mercer, who's been a top miner for years, but last year even Bob was down. He pulled in only $125 million in pay. Can you feel Bob's pain? Well,...
American Child Care Is In Crisis
When I found out I was pregnant, one of the very first things I worried about was how to find a way to juggle family and work — which meant finding child care. I researched day care centers and found that every single facility within a mile of my home or workplace was...
Don’t Mess With the Disability Community
The GOP twice failed to pass health care legislation this year. The bills fell short for many reasons, but I see an important one: By including drastic cuts to Medicaid benefits in their bills, Republican leaders picked a fight with the disability community. Hell hath...
We Get Sick, They Get Rich
Our current health care system in the United States works just fine — for the corporate executives who run it. Take, for instance, Michael Mussallem, the CEO at Edwards Lifesciences — a California-based company that makes heart valves and assorted other medical...
