Our Work

Links to Our Work

– The Democratic Party has miles to go to reconnect with the working class

– Trump, Congress allow Israel to determine dangerous, costly US foreign policy – letter to WaPost

– High Tariffs: Trump’s Golden Shower Rains on Congress

– Letter to US citizens: Student expulsions are an attack on all Americans’ freedom of speech

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

– Multiple conflicts of interest: Elon Musk’s dalliance in government may cost him and investors billions in federal contracts

– Trump’s Gaza plan means ethnic cleansing + profits for US/Israeli contractors – at US taxpayer’s expense – letter to the editor

– Youngkin pitch to exempt tips from taxes could benefit some.  A better option is raising the $2.13 tipped minimum wage … Many questions, few answers about exempting tips from taxes – op-ed

– A ‘conservative/progressive’ path to Social Security solvency: bend the benefit cost curve, grow revenue, and protect lower earners … Click here for statement to House Appropriations Committee

– CCSE work on Social Security and Retirement Savings issues – updated November 2024

– Congress should protect consumers from both high credit card interest rates and transaction fees

– Four ‘low-budget’ ways Congress can help working-class families raise more children – op-ed … Click here for longer version including references and related articles.

– After Senate blocks fix in election-tinted vote, child tax credit remains unfair to low-wage families

– Can J.D. Vance help the little guy?

– Eating away available income, the rising cost of housing is a hot point for US voters

– CCSE work contributes to Congressional hearing on financing Social Security

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

– Congress must not wait to refinance Social Security – op-ed

– Could long-term Treasury bonds and Fed financing help close Social Security’s funding gap? … Comments to Senate Finance Committee & House Ways & Means Committee

– Missing the obvious: life expectancy in the US is closely related to income.

– Senate minimum wage bills make bipartisan compromise possible.  Now for the political energy to get it done. … Washington Examiner op-ed.

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

– Unwilling to link Israel’s brutality to rising anger in the US, Chuck Schumer may be fanning the flames of anti-Semitism

– One way to make living easier in Virginia – Letter to the Washington Post

– Covid stimulus buoyed family finances, but gaps between well-off and low-wage households didn’t change much: Fed study. Meanwhile, U.S. national debt soared.

– Congress should extend expiring childcare support – but avoid the poorly targeted, inflationary approach in the Administration’s failed BBB legislation

– The Constitution’s indirect process of electing presidents might provide a way to bypass incompetent frontrunners produced by the major party duopoly

– Statement to U.S. Senate Budget Committee hearing: “Protecting Social Security for All: Making the Wealthy Pay Their Fair Share”

– Congress is letting Americans down with the debt ceiling standoff – letter to WaPost

– Debt ceiling negotiators focus on a ‘speck’ in benefits for the poor, ignore the ‘logs’ in their own eyes.

– Has DT crossed the line into delirium tremens? 

– Social Security’s threatened 20% benefit cut won’t happen: The Treasury already is filling its funding gap. – analysis

– Raising Social Security’s retirement age would slam low-wage workers yet again – op-ed

– East Palestine needs help, but another PPP isn’t the answer – op-ed

– What can trillions in Covid stimulus spending teach us in preparing to head off a future financial disaster?

– Instead of crying about socialist boogiemen, Home Depot, other corporate giants, could use a different brand of capitalism – op-ed & essay

– Who’s More Likely To Find Gifts from Congress under the X-Mas Tree? Low-income Families – or Well-off Retirees and Corporate Shareholders?

– Sen. Hawley is right on doing more for workers – but the GOP (and Dems) need to deliver concrete economic benefits – Letter to WaPost

– California’s paid family leave program has stiffed low-wage workers. Congress should ensure national social insurance programs do not. … Washington Examiner op-ed.

– How Much Pain Will It Take for the ‘Bottom 50%’ To Realize Its Political Power? What Then?

– Capitalizing on College Football

– Bipartisanship can be golden – but grossly unfair. Congress should slam the brakes on 401(k)/IRA legislation, rethink retirement financing policy

– Op-ed: The case for renewing the expanded child tax credit – Richmond Times-Dispatch

– Congress’ failure to re-up expanded child tax credit displays longtime favoritism toward higher income – updated April 29, 2022

– COVID Ended In-Person State Hospital Visits So Father Pushed For Virginia Law Allowing Zoom-Like Calls For Patients – Pete Earley

– Russia, Nuclear Disaster and What To Do with Our House

– A reality check on Ukraine – letter to the Washington Post

– Legislative testimony: Ensure video visitation is available to residents of psychiatric hospitals and their families

– What about a few paid sick days? Are low-wage workers simply invisible to Virginia’s elected leaders?

– Why our grandchildren will being moving back from the ocean and heading north

– White House’s promised childcare subsidies face a host of ‘devils in the details’

– Call for work requirements reveals bias against low-income families, could hurt many needing help the most

– Virginia Gubernatorial Campaigns’ Answers to Our Questions

– As Congress Whittles Down the Spending Package, Don’t Bet Low-Income People Will Get Much More – or the Monied, Much Less.

– Getting Inflation out of Capital Gains Taxation Is Fair – and Might Help Reach a Deal on Taxing the Dead

– Where Are the Workers?? … Show Them the Money – and Benefits!!

– A Smart Way To Tax the Rich: Let Sleeping Billionaires Lie – letter to the Washington Post

– A Low Budget ‘Infrastructure’ Deal for the Bottom 50%

– SSI is a disgrace. Congress needs to fix it. – op-ed and essay

– Biden’s spending spree could destabilize Social Security

– How much can we tax the wealthy to finance long-run social and physical infrastructure needs?

– Politicizing the Georgia shootings – letter to the editor

– Yes, Raise the Minimum Wage, But Don’t Stop There – Washington Examiner op-ed

– Analysis: Ways To Raise the U.S. Minimum Wage To Help Workers, Families, While Minimizing Negative Impacts

– By spreading stimulus dollars too far up the totem pole, aid legislation may leave the lowest earners unable to pay for food and rent. – Washington Examiner op-ed

– Low-income Americans are left out of covid stimulus – letter to Washington Post

– Politics and the pandemic darken the Fed’s findings of a fragile turnaround in American economic inequality

– Could new tools allowing the Fed to pump money through ‘the people’ make U.S. monetary policy more equitable and effective?

– Race-neutral, progressive economic policies deliver $$ to minority communities

– Opposing Racism and Human Bondage in the United States

– On Being “White” … and Other Lies – James Baldwin

– It’s past time the White House, Congress required – and funded – Covid testing in nursing homes

– Upgrade Medicaid. Don’t Gut it. – Karl Polzer

– “Capital and Ideology”: Notes and Figures – Thomas Piketty

– Addicted to Identity Politics, Progressives May Miss a Historic Chance To Connect with America’s Working Class

– The spreading virus calls for fast action on paid sick days for health and personal care workers – at very least

– Case & Deaton: “Deaths of Despair and the Future of Capitalism”

– A Wealth Tax Could Be Both Fair and Enforceable

– Making Sure We Get to Universal Coverage: letter to Sen. Bernie Sanders

– How to make carbon taxes more equitable – letter to WaPost

– Essay: A Widening Gap in Life Expectancy Makes Raising Social Security’s Retirement Age a Particularly Bad Deal for Low-Wage Earners – Society of Actuaries (2020)

– 2020 Inequality Agenda: Increase economic inclusion at reasonable public cost

– Presentation: Will Growing Inequality Make Social Security & Long Term Care Financing Fixes Harder?

– A Health Policy Wish List for Santa – op-ed & ungated article

– How Golf Clubs Can Help the Homeless and Make More Money

– Saez & Zucman’s “The Triumph of Injustice: How the Rich Dodge Taxes and How To Make Them Pay”

– Raising the Minimum Wage

– Moving a Wealth Tax from Rhetoric to Reality Is Hard. Why Isn’t the Left Talking about the Shortest Distance between Two Points?”

– Branko Milanovic’s new book, “Capitalism Alone”

– By ignoring high credit card swipe fees, US lawmakers raise prices for all, shift billions to the wealthier

– Ways To Fix the Cadillac Health Plan Tax – HealthAffairs

– Mixing Capitalism and Socialism: Policies To Moderate Systemic Wealth Concentration in the U.S.

– U.S. Needs To Think Big on Border Wall 🙂

– CBO Updates Analysis of U.S. Income Distribution before/after Taxes and Transfers

– It’s Time All U.S. Workers Had a Few Paid Sick Days

– If Alive Today, Adam Smith Might Favor a More Inclusive Economy

– Op-ed: Half of Americans have no retirement savings — here’s how Congress can look out for them.

– Growing inequality has shrunk Social Security’s tax base. Revitalizing it could restore solvency without cutting benefits.

– Including All Workers in Our Retirement Savings System Requires Two Things: a Universal Tax Credit and a Secure Place To Invest It. Congress should be working on both.

– Don’t exclude low-wage workers from planning for retirement savings programs – letter to WaPost

– Leadership Needed To Create Universal Retirement Savings System Complementing Social Security

– Better Than the Lottery: Here’s one retirement savings strategy, while government thinks about how it might help.

– How Growing Inequality Is Altering The Long-Term Care Policy Battlefield, While Tightening The Financing Knot

– A socially enlightened big-business solution for reducing US gun violence: gun clubs for the mentally ill

– Is DC Safe? Articles Paint Very Different Pictures – letter to WaPost

– If crimes against children can’t be stopped from within, the Vatican & its subsidiaries need purging from the outside – letter to WaPost

– Presentation: America’s Inequality and What To Do About It: The Poor Will Always Be with Us. Will the Middle Class?

– DoL Association Health Plan Rule Could Undermine the ACA in Several Ways

– World Inequality Report 2018

– Are Workers Receiving the EITC Being Shortchanged on Social Security? – updated October 2017

– Expanding Use, Scope of EITC and Child Tax Credit a Win-Win for Workers and Employers

– Eyes on the Prize: Universal Coverage is the Goal, Single-Payer Just a Way To Get There – letter to WaPost

– Obama Signs Bipartisan Bill To Speed Miracle Cures to Market. Who Will Have Access to the New Technology? Who Won’t?

– Modest Changes in Health, Retirement Tax Breaks Could Produce Major Gains in US Health Access, Financial Security – at Little or No Added Government Cost

– Reflections on American Wealth Concentration – and What To Do About It (2016)

– How the U.S. Retirement Saving System Magnifies Inequality

– How Can We Reduce Financial Risk for the Very Old? – Society of Actuaries study & presentation: “Financing future LTSS and long life through more flexible 401ks and IRAs – Exploring Reform Options”

– Republicans, stop with being the party of no. Let’s sell health insurance “across states lines” – through Medicare

– Let’s Play Immigration Pinata

– Virginia’s push to end veteran homelessness faces steep challenges

– So What Does Jesus Say about Wealth Concentration and Inequality?

– Easter Essay: Is the Golden Rule Enough? Mathematics of the Two Great Commandments

– The Economics of Inequality