On Wednesday, the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) will release its second estimate of how much the economy grew in the first quarter. While Gross Domestic Product (GDP) numbers are an important and closely-watched measure of the economy’s strength, they don’t tell you whose incomes rose and who saw their incomes fall. GDP tells an incomplete story.
National spending on prescription drugs is rapidly growing in the United States, faster than any other type of health care spending. And on an international level, U.S. per capita drug spending far outpaces other countries. In 2015, the U.S. spent $1,011 per person on drugs, more than double what the U.K. spent. The Trump administration continues to make empty promises when it comes to reducing drug prices, recently proposing that the U.S. persuade other countries to raise their drug prices. But higher prices abroad will not result in lower prices here at home. Instead, Americans need a stronger approach that will crack down on excessive drug prices.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) helps struggling families get through tough times. But it does more than that, SNAP also sets children up for future success, leading to better health and economic outcomes and ultimately putting children into a position where they are less likely to need assistance as adults. House Republicans are currently working on a plan that erodes this investment in children, though. If passed, more than a million recipients will lose SNAP benefits, with most of them living in households with children.
The labor market has steadily improved since 2010, as the economy recovered from the Great Recession. Looking past the headline unemployment rate, though, shows that there is still room for employment to grow. In January 2007, 80.3 percent of Americans between the ages of 25 and 54 were employed, today that rate is 79.2 percent. Getting back to the higher rate would mean that 1.4 million more Americans would have jobs.
May 10 2018
GOP Tax Law Has Not Led to Real Wage Growth
Today’s latest inflation data shows American workers are not seeing real raises. The average hourly wage for production and nonsupervisory workers in April was only 0.1 percent higher than what it was a year ago, after adjusting for inflation. Wage growth for most workers is weak and now that inflation is starting to pick up, wages are barely keeping pace. And this comes on top of decades of stagnating wages for most workers. If wage growth is barely keeping up to inflation, American families will see little improvements in living standards.
May 08 2018
Trump to Push Gas Prices Higher?
Gas prices have increased almost 50 cents a gallon in the past 12 months, reaching their highest levels since 2015, and are poised to jump higher if President Trump pulls out of the nuclear agreement with Iran when it comes up for renewal this week.
After the implementation of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), the percent of adults without health care insurance declined steadily. The individual marketplaces and expansion of Medicaid in many states opened up new avenues to insurance for families who could not get coverage through employers. The Trump administration and Congressional Republicans are working hard to reverse this progress, though, and the data show that they are succeeding in reducing access to health care. A new survey shows that the number of nonelderly adults without health insurance rose again in 2018, particularly in states that have not expanded Medicaid.
Four months after the GOP passed a tax bill that sliced tax rates for big banks nearly in half, large financial institutions are reporting record profits and returning billions of dollars to wealthy shareholders. And yet, these same banks continue to fall short for the millions of “unbanked” or “underbanked” Americans who still lack access to basic financial services and struggle to attain economic security.
Last Wednesday, House Republicans passed a bill out of committee that would negatively affect millions of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) recipients. SNAP provides low-income families with vital financial assistance to fend off food insecurity and hardship, and in 2016 lifted roughly 3.6 million Americans out of poverty, including 1.5 million children. The Republican bill would cut more than $15 billion in benefits and impose harsh work requirements, despite the fact that nearly three quarters of beneficiaries already work within a year of receiving assistance. Cuts would be especially damaging in rural communities, where 16 percent of households depend on SNAP.
Teacher pay is falling across the country after factoring in inflation. In addition, teachers are being required to pay more for their health care, now paying nearly $1,300 more in annual premiums than the average for state and local employees.