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Sunday, May 10, 2026

American men are vanishing from the workforce – Daily Beast

“Labor Department data shows the share of men participating in the workforce has fallen to a record low. Figures released Friday found that one in three American men was out of the workforce in April, as male-dominated industries continued to shed jobs, baby boomers retired, and younger men increasingly stepped away from work to study or because of illness or disability…”

US employment boom? Maybe, maybe not. A look under the jobs report’s hood – Reuters

“The U.S. labor force – the total of those people with a job or unemployed and looking for one – is smaller today than when President Donald Trump returned to the White House for his second term. There were about 700,000 fewer people in the workforce in April than in January 2025, and it has declined in four of the past five months.

“In fact, the workforce has been shrinking at a historic rate since late 2025. About 1.55 million people have left the labor force since it touched a record high last November, a departure wave exceeded over a comparable time horizon only by the short-lived exodus of workers during the COVID-19 pandemic shutdowns in 2020. With households reporting a sharp drop in employment, the drop in the labor force level of about the same magnitude is the only reason the unemployment rate has not risen.”

Labor force growth, breakeven employment, and potential GDP growth – Federal Reserve Board

Management Charged Them $100 a Week to Work, Workers Say. They’re Fighting Back. – Labor Notes

“After talking about their experiences with New Bedford’s Centro Comunitario de Trabajadores (Workers’ Community Center), workers filed a class action in October against Marder, the staffing agency through which they were hired (Workforce Unlimited), and their former manager Francisco Ixcotoyac Dionicio, who they claim imposed the weekly payments. Lawyers representing the workers estimate that more than half a million dollars were extorted from them between January 1, 2021, and May 27, 2025…”

Help Low-Wage Workers Travel to the 2026 Labor Notes Conference in Chicago

WGA West Staff Union Says Tentative Deal Reached After Nearly 3 Months On Strike – Deadline

“Per the WGSU’s memo to members on Friday, the agreement’s provisions include:

  • Seniority provisions in layoff procedures that prioritize institutional knowledge and dedication to Writers Guild members. 
  • Minimum 12 percent increases for all Writers Guild staff over the course of the three-year term, including eight percent increases for all in the 2026 calendar year.
  • Raising the salary floor from $43,000 to  $57,000 retroactive to August 11, 2025, significantly improving take home pay for our lowest paid members…”

Poorest US state is eliminating income tax as affordability crisis persists – msn/Daily Express

“…Some Mississippi residents and tax policy analysts worry that removing the income tax could exacerbate existing inequalities in the state. Like every state, Mississippi relies on tax revenue from its residents to finance government operations and services. The Mississippi Center for Public Policy notes that the state’s income tax brings in approximately $2.1 billion each year, accounting for 28% of the general fund.

“The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has indicated that once fully enacted, the legislation will drain roughly one-third of the state’s entire general fund budget, placing additional pressure on the nation’s poorest state. The nonpartisan research and policy institute wrote that the legislation could lead to ‘harms such as fewer teachers in classrooms, longer wait times for health care, and deferred repairs to already crumbling infrastructure.’ Furthermore, it said, ‘Future revenues that could have helped maintain roads and bridges, reduce child poverty, invest in schools, or support public health initiatives are now off the table.'”

Lower demand for US dollars could jack up the US debt. Connect the dots:

Cracks widen in US petro-dollar regime- How Iran’s Hormuz leverage is reshaping global oil trade? – WION

“…The Petrodollar regime and how it’s crucial to fund US debts: The Petrodollar regime was born out of the 1974 deal struck between Saudi Arabia and the then-US President Richard Nixon. Saudi Arabia agreed to price oil in US dollars and invest the surplus in US assets. Nixon decided that the dollar would not be valued at the gold standard, but it would be backed by the oil trade, and in return US would provide military support to its Gulf allies. What the deal did was create an artificial global demand for dollars. Oil is the lifeblood of the global economy, the primary energy to fuel transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, and industrial production. Every country needs oil for its economy, so they need to hold dollars in exchange for trade. So the US could fund its social welfare scheme, sophisticated living standard of its middle class and focus on financialisation of the economy. It did not have to worry about the Current Account Deficit; it would just print more money, and the global economy would absorb it as inflation. The US exploited this by having a $39 trillion debt. But all of this was based on social contracts, a contract between the US and its allies in Europe and in the Gulf, that the US would provide security. Specifically, countries like the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait and Bahrain are not traditional nation-states. They do not have food production, nor proper groundwater to sustain life. The cities were built on the social contract that they are safe, for tourism, finance and tech. But that illusion has been shattered by both Iran and the US itself. Iran has attacked several energy facilities, and the US has failed or, at times, seemed not interested in defending its allies. The US was betraying the system that was making it an empire. It was challenging the very rule-based order that was at the base of the global economy.

“Meanwhile, China emerges as an alternative, the largest trading partner for Saudi Arabia, military/tech sales without conditions, and currency swaps in yuan. If Gulf States abandon the petrodollar, global dollar demand collapses. Rising interest rates would force impossible budgetary choices on the US, $700 bn per year per 2 per cent rate increase. This does not imply a direct collapse, but an inevitable decline. This would need a major structural change among the elites to avert the course.“

Trump’s China Trap: Why Xi Keeps Winning the Summitry Game – Foreign Affairs

Tennessee Republicans pass new map erasing majority-Black US House district – Reuters

“The Supreme Court decision found that Louisiana had relied improperly on race when drawing a second majority-Black district to comply with the Voting Rights Act’s safeguards for minority voters. The 6-3 ruling opened the door for Louisiana and other Republican-led states to eliminate Democratic majority-Black districts that had long been seen as legally protected.”

Democratic senators press US military on Israel’s evacuation zones, warning of legal risks – AP

“Since the beginning of the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran and the latest Israel-Hezbollah war in Lebanon, the Israeli military has regularly issued maps covering large areas of territory along with warnings telling all residents of the zones to flee. Israel had previously used a similar approach in Gaza. The senators said the sweeping warnings have ‘been used to permanently displace people and destroy homes and towns’ and that some civilians who refused to leave their homes in the areas have been killed by subsequent strikes…”

The pendulum swings: The slow death of Europe’s pro-Israel consensus – Z Network

The pro-Israel political consensus is collapsing in both parties – WaPost

“Democratic congressional hopeful Dorothy McAuliffe fielded a poll in April with a question that rarely would have been asked in a Democratic primary race even two years ago: Should the United States cut off arms sales to Israel?

“The poll by McAuliffe, a former first lady of Virginia, illustrated how the U.S.-Israel alliance has rapidly gone from a point of bipartisan consensus to a wedge issue dividing both parties. Almost half of Republicans (47 percent) and three-quarters of Democrats (72 percent) called support for Israel an issue that was causing problems in their respective parties, according to a CNN poll in late March. Some Democrats and Republicans alike are now campaigning on ending foreign aid to Israel…

“‘If you can’t call a genocide a genocide, if you can’t stand up against that, if you can’t stand up to the interests of your own party telling you that you cannot tell the truth about the obvious murder of children, then it’s kind of hard to believe that you’re going to stand up to anybody,’ said Abdul El-Sayed, a former Wayne County health official and strong critic of Israel running as a Democrat for Senate in Michigan. ‘It tells folks who you are.’ … “

Low-income Americans can expect more hospital bill collectors knocking at their doors:

Hospitals face growing fallout from ACA coverage cliff – Becker’s Hospital Review

“…The turbulence reflects a broader structural unraveling of the ACA marketplace that is accelerating this year and as major payers pull back coverage, shrink service areas or exit the ACA entirely amid mounting financial losses. Total exchange enrollment has dropped to 23.1 million — a 5% decrease from 2025 — as the expiration of enhanced premium subsidies pushed average out-of-pocket premiums from $113 to $178 per month, according to CMS. The premium shock drove a dramatic shift in plan selection: Bronze enrollment surged 26% nationally, rising from 30% to 40% of total ACA enrollment, even as overall enrollment declined.

“Hospital leaders are not just absorbing a financial hit from the exchange contraction. They are trying to manage it in real time, with incomplete data, moving targets and no clear sense of where the floor is. The most direct impact is the shift from insured to uninsured volume…”

WORKING FOR THE RICH: The Growing Divide Between Workers and Fat Cats – Oxfam International

“Between 2019 to 2025, in real terms (adjusted for inflation), food prices increased by 15% 1 gasoline prices by 14%. One in four people globally face hunger and 48% of the world live in poverty (at the PPP$8.30 line). In 43% of countries, governments have not increased minimum wages in line with inflation between 2019 to 2024/25…

“In 2025 remuneration of the 1,500 top paid CEOs increased 20 times more than global worker wages. It would take 490 years for the average worker to make what the average CEO made in 2025 alone. Workers have faced a 12% real-terms pay cut between 2019 to 2025 while CEO pay increased by 54% over the same period…”

Europe Has Too Few Workers and Too Many Retirees. Cutting Immigration Will Make the Math Worse. – Reason

“…reality cannot be deferred forever. You cannot sustain a growing welfare state when there are ever fewer people left to pay for it. You cannot grow an economy while shrinking its workforce. And you cannot solve a demographic crisis by turning away the very people who can help alleviate it.

“Serious reform of benefits systems will be necessary to resolve long-term fiscal problems. But Europe desperately needs more working-age people. In a continent where about three-quarters of immigrants are of working age, they represent an immediate way to expand the tax base and slow the pace of fiscal doom.”

Yes, Social Security Can Run Budget Deficits – TPC

CCSE work on this issue:

Why Social Security’s big benefit cut won’t happen: The U.S. Treasury already is filling its funding gap – Statement to Senate Budget Committee

What if Social Security Was Capped at $100,000 Annually? – Reason

Capping Social Security benefits above what the vast majority of beneficiaries get today could save the program money in the long run if the limit isn’t adjusted for inflation or other factors. But major benefit cuts would not help Social Security’s finances much in the near term. That’s because the government would have to implement benefit cuts gradually (probably over decades) to give people enough time to adjust their financial planning and savings to make up the lost retirement income.

In contrast, tax increases can help the program immediately. And Social Security needs help ASAP to continue paying promised benefits. Lawmakers must increase program income by about one-third, or lower scheduled benefits by about one-fourth, or adopt a combination of these approaches, the program’s chief actuary recently told Congress.

CCSE work on this issue:

A ‘chop the top’ approach could save Social Security – Karl Polzer/The Hill

News Nation interview following up the Hill article.

Center on Capital & Social Equity work on Social Security and retirement savings (updated March 2026).

California braces for uncertainty as last shipment of Persian Gulf oil arrives in Long Beach – LA Times

Shortages, inflation and stagnation – Michael Roberts

“…The real issue now for the world economy is the inevitable global shortages of essential commodities, not just oil, but oil products like air fuel and a whole range of raw materials needed to sustain agricultural and industrial production through this year. Already US oil inventory data show steep declines in crude and fuel stockpiles…

“As I have argued in previous posts, stagflation (ie slowing real GDP growth and rising inflation), had already been emerging well before the Iran conflict broke out. The war has only accelerated that process –  the major economies are like a pair of scissors; the bottom blade (growth) is dropping further while the upper blade (prices) is rising faster – so the gap between the blades is widening…

“The war will also intensify the widening gap between the rich elite and the rest of us. In the US, this gap is called a “K-shaped” economy, namely the better-off get richer and the worse-off get poorer.  A new report by Oxfam shows that the inequality gap in global pay has widened dramatically through the 2020s.  When adjusted for inflation, global worker pay declined 12% between 2019 and 2025, the equivalent of 108 days of free work during that time period. In comparison, chief executive officer (CEO) ‘compensation’ increased by 54% between 2019 and 2025. CEO pay increased 20 times faster than average worker pay around the world in 2025…

“The Trump administration is now asking the US Congress for a 50% increase in US defense spending for the next year to $1.5trn.  In Europe and Japan, ‘defence’ spending is also set to rise sharply. This will add to already record-high public debt in the US and elsewhere and to the burden of servicing that debt through cuts in government spending and rising interest costs – more guns, less butter; more arms, less fuel; more weapons, less food.”

Who Killed Spirit Airlines? – Matt Stoller/BIG

“It wasn’t Biden antitrust enforcers. There were many factors – Trump’s Iran War, JetBlue, the big four airlines, and behind all of that, deregulation. And this story has happened hundreds of times.”

Sunday, May 3, 2026

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Featured

Thanks to The Hill for running our op-ed:

Trump’s 401(k) proposal could be a major step toward retirement security – Karl Polzer/Hill

“To succeed, Trump’s proposal must meet two fundamental requirements: funds to save and invest and accounts overseen by a fiduciary. The millions of workers with no money left over from their paychecks after covering the cost of living need more than just access to a retirement account — they also need money to put in that plan, week by week and month by month. This is why, without congressional action, most low-income workers will likely still be left out…”

Thanks to the Richmond Times-Dispatch for publishing this column:

New governor prioritizing ‘affordability’ should push reforming Va.’s regressive tax code – Karl Polzer

“…It will take some time for the new governor and Democrats running the state legislature to find effective ways to make life in Virginia more affordable. Reducing the tax burden on low-income families should be part of their agenda. Meanwhile, legislators should avoid adding taxes that hit the poor the hardest.”

States Can Push Back Against Reckless Federal Tax Policy. Here’s How. – Governing

Beware of Republicans bearing cash!

Substituting Cash for Health Insurance Can Drive Up Costs, Medical Bankruptcy – Karl Polzer/CCSE

Not! (for now)

Senate GOP health care plan fails on mostly party-line vote – Hill

As suspected, the two health care subsidy votes were performative art organized by Senate leaders setting a high bar (60/100 votes). Clock’s still ticking for millions of Americans needing health insurance they can afford.

Health Care–Related Savings Accounts, Health Care Expenditures, and Tax Expenditures – JAMA
“Conclusions and Relevance: Participation in FSAs is associated with higher health care expenditures and tax expenditures, while HSAs are not associated with reduced expenditures. Tax policy could be better targeted to enhance insurance coverage and health care accessibility.”

Why Substituting Cash for Insurance Can Drive Up Both Total Costs and Individual Medical + Financial Risk – Statement to US Senate Finance Committee

Submitted to Finance Committee Hearing: “The Rising Cost of Health Care: Considering Meaningful Solutions for All Americans”

“No matter how many adjustments the government might make, giving people money to leave the risk pool and bargain on their own with the players in health system undermines the basic concept of insurance – which is pooling risk and resources to make hard-to-predict future expenses more affordable.”

A ‘conservative/progressive’ path to negotiating Social Security solvency: Bend the cost curve, grow revenue, and protect low earners – Karl Polzer/IQInk

Updated Oct. 8, 2025

“This paper presents options – some favored by conservatives, others by progressives – as a framework for negotiating an equitable solution to Social Security’s financing shortfall.  Taken together, the changes could generate up to twice as much in savings and revenue as needed to balance Social Security’s books…

“Congress could strike a deal drawing about half the savings needed to fix Social Security through a gradual benefit reduction by changing the formula for determining initial benefit levels while protecting the lowest earners.  The rest of the gap could be filled through tax increases.  These financing options provide room for targeted benefit improvements to help the lowest income pay their bills and families raise children.”

Judge says Trump administration ‘used antisemitism as a smokescreen’ against Harvard – USA Today

Trump Administration’s Cuts to Harvard Funding Are Unconstitutional, Judge Rules – msn/WSJ

CCSE correspondence with Harvard President Garber

“Prediction: Harvard University will be teaching students from all over the world long after what remains of Trump and his brain trust rest in silence beneath the ground. BTW, White House staff could benefit from taking free public finance courses at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Harvard has a positive fund balance. The United State government, not so much.”

No peace, no prize. – Karl Polzer

“Republican members of the US Congress, which is financing Israel’s now escalating ethnic cleansing of Gaza, have nominated President Donald Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize.  It is hard to fathom the depth and irony of their fawning depravity.  The Nobel prize is clearly a trophy that he covets. But shouldn’t a peace prize have something to do with reducing conflict and killing? The US president and Congress, including a majority of Democrats, are doing the opposite of making peace.  They are facilitating Israel’s daily, systematic killing, starvation, and displacement of entire populations of Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank…”

Trump ‘1-2 punch’ shifts tax burden from top onto middle-and lower-income Americans – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“Economists and business analysts increasingly agree that Trump’s tariffs are raising prices. There is far less awareness that the historic spike in tariffs – coupled with the tax cuts just made permanent by Congress – comprise a major shift in the tax burden. Taken together, these two changes promise to make the US tax system more regressive. In our increasingly unequal country, taxpayers at the bottom of the economic pecking order are taking on proportionally more of the tax burden as the well-off shoulder less…”

New capitalism III: Capital – Branko Milanovic

“Why is capital so concentrated and why so few have it?”

“The new capitalism has even in the rich countries failed to produce what Margaret Thatcher, and Friedrich Hayek before her, called ‘property-owning society’. (For good measure, Thatcher added ‘democracy’ too.) Even when we include income from forced savings that becomes pension wealth, between one-half and almost 90 percent of the population in rich countries are financial-capital destitute. That percentage becomes more than 90, or even more than 95, in less developed countries…”

Related CCSE work:

Half of Americans have no retirement savings — here’s how Congress can look after them …. op-ed

How the U.S. Retirement Saving System Magnifies Inequality – Society of Actuaries

Growing inequality has shrunk Social Security’s revenue. Revitalizing its tax base could help restore solvency without cutting benefits.

New Capitalism in America: Richest capitalists and richest workers are increasingly the same people – Global Inequality

Branko Milanovic: The World Under Capitalism – Stone Center/Toronto Public Library

Prof. Milanovic discusses two types of capitalism – “liberal capitalism” in the US and “political capitalism” directed by the Chinese Communist Party. Both systems have produced relatively high levels of income inequality.

Comparing United States and China by Economy – Statistics Times

2025 Social Security groundhog day:

US needs $28 trillion more over 75 years to pay promised benefits

“A few months after the Trump Administration chain-sawed Social Security’s leadership and staff, four newly installed senior officials overseeing the program released the annual report on its declining financial condition.  This year’s actuarial forecast is a bit gloomier due in large part to a benefit expansion enacted by the previous Congress.  However, in the big picture, not much has changed.  Social Security’s looming insolvency remains…

“As I have pointed out to the Senate Budget Committee, the process of spending down Social Security reserves already is increasing overall federal spending and pushing up annual deficits. Drawing down reserves in the Social Security trust funds requires the Treasury to sell bonds (or find other sources of revenue) to raise cash to pay the program’s 74 million beneficiaries.

“On pp. 51-52, this year’s report estimates that Social Security will draw down $181 billion from the combined trust funds in 2025 with the amount rising to $405 billion in 2033. As a result, the federal government is gradually moving to finance part of the program’s benefits through newly issued debt substituting for now-insufficient payroll taxes...”

More on these issues can be found in these CCSE articles and testimony:

‘Trump kids accounts’ in budget bill would drive up inequality and raise the national debt – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“Helping young people learn how to save and build up money for college and adult life are worthy goals. But new ‘Trump kids accounts’ embedded in the massive Republican tax and spending bill before the US Senate not only duplicate existing programs.  They also would widen financial gaps between families in our already very unequal country.  In addition, tax subsidies for money invested in Trump accounts would go mostly to well-off families and push up the national debt…”

Failure to prosecute and jail law-breaking employers is wasting $$ billions in the fight against illegal immigration – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“The federal government has had authority since 1986 to criminally prosecute individuals and companies employing workers not legally in the United State, but it has rarely used that authority regardless of the administration in office. A one-year snapshot taken during Trump’s first term found that no company was criminally prosecuted for having workers not authorized to be in the country, a Syracuse University study shows…

“Changing the equation to incentivize employers to help enforce, rather than skirt, the nation’s immigration laws does not mean subjecting them to cruel and unusual punishment.  No need to suspend billionaires and entrepreneurs in cages from a tower or use branding irons.  It does mean applying and stiffening laws against hiring illegals and tax avoidance.  Financial penalties, public shaming, and loss of contracts could be a start.  If that isn’t sufficient, start putting law-breaking employers in jail.  They are lining their pockets by stealing jobs from American workers, both native born and those immigrating legally.”

Thanks to the Virginian-Pilot for running our op-ed:

Many questions, few answers about exempting tips from taxes – Karl Polzer/Virginian-Pilot

“Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposal to exempt tipped income from state taxes — like President-elect Donald Trump’s on a national level — could help some low-wage workers.  However, it also poses risks for others and raises complex issues facing scrutiny as the state legislature begins its work…”

To provide access to all readers (the newspaper’s op-eds are gated), below is the original submission including links to sources:

Youngkin pitch to exempt tips from taxes could benefit some.  A better option is raising the $2.13 tipped minimum wage.

Statement to 11/20/24 US House Appropriations Committee hearing on Social Security:

A way to ensure Social Security can meet short- and long-term promises to American workers and their families: Bend the cost curve, grow revenue, and protect lower earners – CCSE

“As keeper of the federal government’s purse strings, the House Appropriations Committee plays a part in maintaining Social Security’s commitment to American workers, their families, and taxpayers.  First, Committee members can weigh in as Congress and the Treasury find hundreds of billions of dollars annually in cash outside the appropriations process to draw down Social Security reserves.  The Committee can also help ‘leave room’ in future budgets for revenue increases that might be necessary to keep Social Security solvent as it coordinates with House Ways & Means, Budget, and other Committees on tax and spending issues.”

A ‘conservative/progressive’ path to Social Security solvency: bend the benefit cost curve, grow revenue, and protect lower earners – CCSE

The next President and Congress will face daunting fiscal issues.  In the shadow of historic levels of national debt, lawmakers will be bargaining over trillions of dollars of taxes and spending as they deal with expiration of the Trump tax cuts.  On top of that loom major Social Security financing gaps.   Paying promised benefits will require the government to raise more than $2 trillion in cash over the next eight years and more than $24 trillion to achieve long-run solvency.

This paper presents policy options – some favored by conservatives, others by progressives – as a framework for negotiating a solution.  Taken together, the changes could generate more than twice as much in savings and revenue than needed to balance Social Security’s books. 

Four ‘low-budget’ ways Congress can help working-class families raise more children – Karl Polzer/ Washington Examiner op-ed

– Expand the child tax credit to help more working-class parents and grandparents raising kids.
– Provide Social Security credit for unpaid work raising young children.
– Update/improve SSI so more people with disabilities can work, save.
– If taxes must go up, hold the working poor harmless.

Click here for longer version including references and related articles.

It’s Social Security ‘groundhog day’ as trustees repeat annual forecast of declining finances

“…The trustees’ report, however, neglects to mention how Social Security already is impacting the overall federal budget.  As pointed out to the Senate Budget Committee, the mechanics of spending down Social Security’s reserves require the Treasury to draw funds from general revenue and issue new debt to the public.  As a result, Social Security is gradually and organically moving to paying for current benefits through debt substituting for now-insufficient payroll taxes that it traditionally relies on.”

Missing the obvious: life expectancy in the U.S. is closely related to income – Karl Polzer

“The underlying theory is simple:  More income and wealth allow people and governments to support more years of life.  Fewer resources put them at a disadvantage.  Some politicians who see the connection may be leery of talking about it.  Doing so would lead to awkward questions about improving working and living conditions for millions of Americans and dealing with growing economic inequality.

“The strong relationship between income and longevity is clear when comparing states… (E)ight of the nine states with the lowest median household income also are among the bottom nine in longevity.  Similar clustering occurs comparing the highest ranked states across the two categories. Seven of the nine states with the highest median household income also are among the top nine in life expectancy.   

“Realizing they are rowing in the same economic boat could prompt states to join forces on policy changes, particularly Mississippi, West Virginia, Louisiana, Arkansas, Alabama, New Mexico, Kentucky, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee, and others ranking at or near the bottom…

“Presidential candidate and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley strongly proposes raising the program’s retirement age on the premise that increased life spans are undermining Social Security’s long-term solvency.  If long-held assumptions about longevity were challenged, and potential losses to low-income workers and low-income states caused by raising the eligibility age came to light, would she change her position?  Republican candidate Donald Trump, by the way, opposes cuts in Social Security as do most Democrats…”

Thanks to the Washington Examiner for running this op-ed:

Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible – Washington Examiner

For longer version with references, see:

Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible.  Now for the political energy to get it done. – Karl Polzer/CCSE

Previous work on this issue:

One way to make living easier in Virginia – letter to WaPost

Yes, raise the minimum wage, but don’t stop there – op-ed

Analysis: Considerations on Raising the U.S. Minimum Wage To Help Workers and Families While Minimizing Negative Impacts

The US should take a hard look at the Netanyahu government’s brutality before giving it more weapons – Karl Polzer/CCSE

“More Americans are rightly asking if Israel could neutralize Hamas without massive destruction and loss of civilian life.  Indiscriminate air attacks by the Netanyahu regime already have killed and injured tens of thousands of Gazans with no end to the violence in sight.  To put this in perspective, imagine how Washington, D.C., would look if a foreign government with the power to fence in the District of Columbia dropped a comparable number of bombs here while shutting off access to water and food and destroying most of the capital area’s housing and medical system.  UN officials say conditions in Gaza are catastrophic.”

Thanks to the Washington Post for publishing our letter to the editor:

One way to make living easier in Virginia – Karl Polzer/letter to WaPost

“Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) told reporters he is ‘concerned about the cost of living in Virginia and we’re continuing to evaluate how best to address that,’ as reported in the Nov. 26 Metro article ‘Budget battle looms in Virginia. Facing a tighter fiscal environment and Democratic control of the legislature, Mr. Youngkin and fellow Republicans could help working families without denting the budget by making an expected Democratic push for a higher minimum wage a bipartisan affair.

“The GOP has been trying to attract more minority and working-class voters. However, party leaders have stopped short of addressing core economic issues, such as supporting higher wages and better benefits, and mainly stress cultural issues…”

Background Information on these issues provided to Virginia legislators

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