Archives: Voices

Fact of the Week: 600,000 employees will gain paid sick days

If you’ve been to a doctor’s office or pharmacy lately, you’ve seen the signs announcing that flu season is here, and urging you to get your flu shot now. On my daily commute, I walk by no fewer than three CVS pharmacies, all warning me to get my shot before…

Partially Happy New Fiscal Year!

Congress has enacted temporary spending to last through December 9, and the President has signed the bill. It’s very good news that there is no interruption in funding for housing, emergency food, education, child care, and a host of other important programs with the October 1 beginning of the new…

Resources from around the Coalition: Poverty data edition

In the wake of the Census Bureau’s release of data on poverty, CHN members have been hard at work organizing their analysis of the data into reports and articles. Many reports echo a similar sentiment: a lot of progress has been made in improving the poverty rate, but there is more…

What to know and do if you ever face homelessness

According to the public policy organization Demos: one in seven Americans will face homelessness at some time during their lives. In addition, 10,000 Americans turn 65 every day and will continue to do so for the next 15 years. Americans approaching retirement age are looking at the prospect of not being…

The high cost of being poor in the U.S.

Today, fresh off the new U.S. Census Bureau poverty numbers, we released The High Cost of Being Poor in the U.S., which explores challenges the 43.1 million adults and children still living in poverty face. These challenges include high costs in areas such as rent, food, child care and predatory…

Impossible Choices.

Of course we know that hunger exists in America – and that an estimated 15.3 million children in our country, or one in five, live in a household where there is a real risk they will go hungry. Often studies of childhood hunger involve very young children – up to…

Five pints of Guinness

By now you probably have heard the news: The European Union has ruled that Apple has received billions of dollars in illegal tax breaks from Ireland’s government and owes $14.5 billion in back taxes. Although Ireland already has a (relatively low) 12.5 percent corporate tax rate, the EU’s European Commission…

Ignoring an epidemic

This is what the expansion of an epidemic looks like. The Zika virus has now been detected in 67 countries, including most of the Americas. In the 50 states of the U.S., more than 2,500 cases of Zika have been reported, affecting every state except for Alaska and Wyoming. Almost…

The next reform to welfare reform

Editor’s note: This Letter to the Editor originally appeared in the Washington Post on August 24. Make sure to also read Debbie’s entry on TANF’s 20th anniversary posted on this blog on August 22. You can find additional resources on the impact of TANF  at it’s 20th anniversary here.  The Aug….

We’ve Heard about Income Inequality. What about Wealth Inequality?

You may recognize this statistic: In the U.S., CEOs of large firms make 276 times the pay of an average worker. That is the very definition of income inequality. But now, courtesy of the Center for Economic Development and the Institute for Policy Studies, we are reminded that we need…

TANF at Twenty

Twenty years ago today, President Bill Clinton signed the law that placed a time limit on cash assistance for poor families with children and required some degree of work, job search, or training to receive benefits. The new program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), replaced Aid to Families with Dependent…