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Matt Bruenig is the founder of People’s Policy Project.
Thousands of Americans cohabitate but don’t marry because doing so would result in the loss of Medicaid eligibility. Marriage penalties (and bonuses) are just part of why we need a universal social-democratic welfare state.
The National Labor Relations Board has been a bright spot for progressives. Don’t think Trump’s team hasn’t noticed.
Yesterday Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema voted to block the reappointment of Democrat Lauren McFerran to the National Labor Relations Board. This means that when Donald Trump takes office, he can immediately establish a GOP majority on the board.
Since the shooting of UnitedHealthcare’s CEO, a number of pundits have claimed that the main cause of exorbitant US health care costs is overcharging by providers, not health insurance companies. The argument doesn’t hold up: insurers are mostly to blame.
The Biden administration’s more aggressive approach to antitrust has been much discussed by proponents and critics alike. Yet the administration’s regulatory moves have really been small-bore tweaks around the edges, with little impact felt by voters.
Donald Trump will probably sack National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo, who has been friendly to unions, on day one of his presidency.
Last month, the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint against the Audubon Society concerning treatment of its employees. In a wildly aggressive response, the nonprofit is arguing that the NLRB is unconstitutional.
Thanks to a corporate challenge to the National Labor Relations Board’s constitutionality, labor protections for tens of millions of workers have effectively been repealed until the Supreme Court can weigh in on the meaning of two words in the Constitution.
Keir Starmer’s means-testing mania has produced its most absurd policy yet. Limiting access to the Winter Fuel Payment won’t lead to meaningful savings — but it will make it harder for low-income pensioners to access their benefits.
Matt Bruenig reviews Kamala Harris’s new economic policy proposals — from money for first-time homebuyers to fighting grocery price gouging to an expanded child tax credit. Some of her ideas are good. Some are bad. Most are meh.
Yesterday a National Labor Relations Board judge found that the ACLU fired an employee for engaging in the protected activity of criticizing her working conditions.
The most likely outcome of the current constitutional challenge to the National Labor Relations Board is not that the Supreme Court will destroy the agency — it’s that the board will be unable to operate in many states while the litigation is proceeding.
SpaceX just won a preliminary injunction in a Texas federal district court against the National Labor Relations Board. The decision moves us closer to a potential Supreme Court decision declaring the NLRB unconstitutional — and massively empowering bosses.
NBA bylaws allow the league’s commissioner to punish players for statements “prejudicial or detrimental to the best interests” of the NBA or a team. The rule violates workers’ rights — which is why I’ve filed unfair labor practice charges against the NBA.
Welfare programs can’t be replaced by policies that redistribute income from some businesses to others, or from capital to labor — the primary function of the welfare state is to provide for children, disabled people, and others outside the labor force.
The progressive ACLU is trying to establish a precedent that would strike a huge blow against workers’ rights across the country and make union organizing much more difficult. Let’s hope the organization comes to its senses soon.
Though inflation-adjusted wage growth resumed earlier this year, real wages are still down overall since Joe Biden took office. It’s not crazy to suppose that this could be affecting people’s attitudes toward the economy.
There are many good reasons to be unhappy with the economy today: by conventional social democratic metrics like union density, welfare generosity, and public ownership levels, the economy is not in good shape, and recent trends have been mixed at best.
The US could learn from the Faroe Islands, a Danish territory where the state automatically removes taxes owed and adds welfare payments to workers’ paychecks. It’s way easier for workers and shows why universal benefits are better than means-testing.
Some have defended Joe Biden’s economic record by noting that median household wealth has increased on his watch. But that uptick is mostly due to home and car value inflation — meaning it’s of limited use to regular people who need their home and cars to live.