During the past year, payday lenders and those who issue car-title loans have taken more than $8 billion in fees and interest from families in the U.S. who took out loans that operate as debt traps, according to a coalition of consumer groups and others that has formed to put…
Archives: Voices
Resources from around the Coalition: DACA, CHIP and disaster relief
Today’s the day – Congress will either come to an agreement on another short-term stopgap spending measure (known as a Continuing Resolution, or CR), or we’ll face a government shutdown. The House voted for a one-month bill on Thursday night; Senate action is still uncertain. Along with keeping the proverbial…
Trump’s Medicaid Work Requirements: Meet Real Life
“There’s a stereotype that disability recipients don’t want to work. The reality is very different.” On Jan. 10, the Washington Post published a piece highlighting five Americans who receive federal disability benefits; the quote above is from that piece. Many of the people highlighted in the story talk about how…
Human Needs Report: What Congress Did – and Didn’t Do – at the End of 2017, and What’s on Tap for Early 2018
A lot happened on Capitol Hill right before the holiday break, while many other issues were kicked down the road and remain on the Congressional agenda for early 2018. Where do things stand? CHN just released our latest edition of the Human Needs Report, with a brief rundown on Congress’s…
An affront to democracy
During the last week of December, with the halls of the U.S. Capitol nearly empty and millions of Americans paying attention to anything but the news, word emerged that a Department of Justice official formally has asked the Census Bureau to add a question to the 2020 Census about respondents’…
Immoral and un-American: Immigrant communities deserve the opportunity to grow, thrive, invent and contribute
Editor’s note: CHN Executive Director Deborah Weinstein issued the following statement Tuesday, Jan. 9 in response to the Trump administration’s announcement that it would end work authorization and legal protection for nearly 200,000 El Salvadorans living in the U.S.: “On Monday the Trump administration announced the latest step in its…
America’s deep freeze is no time to be stingy about heating homes of the poor
Editor’s note: This piece was originally published by CNN on January 4. Low-income families struggle to pay their home energy bills in the best of times, and these are not the best of times. Record cold temperatures are bearing down along the East Coast and across the Midwest, and, based…
Cuts by any other name
Over the holidays, Jared Bernstein, Senior Fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, had an interesting op-ed published in the Washington Post. His New Year’s resolution to journalists and others: When talking about changes to the programs that make up our country’s safety net, do not say “reform”…
If our children are so ‘precious,’ we must invest in them
Editor’s note: This piece was originally published by the San Francisco Chronicle on December 23, 2017. We often hear how “precious” a child is, what a “treasure” she is, and how our kids are “our greatest resource.” Neuroscientists tell us that ages 0-3 are the most critical years for cognitive, social and…
The value of seeing and treating poverty as a health issue
In July of this year, Barry Ostrowsky, the CEO of RWJ Barnabas – the largest hospital-based health care provider in New Jersey — sat down with PBS talk-show host Steve Adubato to talk about RWJB’s recently developed “social impact initiative.” In Ostrowsky’s words: “It is an attempt to make communities…
Ryan, McConnell and Trump’s Failed Leadership
Congress’ leaders and President Trump care about getting tax cuts to the wealthy and corporations – that much has been established. But how about carrying out the most basic responsibilities of government? Such as: ensuring the stable continuation of health coverage for children and operations of community health centers; helping…
Tax Bill Grinch steals Christmas — and threatens America’s lower- and middle-income families
Editor’s note: Deborah Weinstein, Executive Director of the Coalition on Human Needs, issued the following statement Tuesday, Dec. 19 in response to the tax bill passed today by the House and up for a vote in the Senate: “Today the tax bill Grinch stole Christmas and handed it over to…