News & Stories

From The Nation: Movement building, racial justice, and a recalibration of the progressive movement’s relationship with President Obama is important, as Gara LaMarche and Deepak Bhargava argue, but it isn’t a framework for making progressive ideals a part of actual law, habit, and culture. The roadmap toward economic security, opportunity, and quality of life must […]

From the Everett Herald: It’s not pretty watching President Obama and the Republican minority collude in giving away billions to the wealthy, under the guise of the deceptively named “middle class tax cuts.” The president has pretty much deep-sixed the effort by a majority of Democrats to keep lower tax rates in place for most […]

You’ve probably taken a few surveys in your time. And maybe you’ve done an evaluation before. But I’d like to invite you to try something I call a “survaluation”. It’s an opportunity for you to share your impressions and opinions about the Economic Opportunity Institute — and it’s also a chance for me to learn […]

Social Security Works Washington released this statement following today’s vote by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform: President’s Obama’s Fiscal Commission fell short of the required 14 vote requirement needed to send their proposal to Congress for one simple reason: it didn’t have broad public support, and the members of the commission knew […]

A handful of corporate interests are trying to muddy the waters around Washington’s best-in-the-nation minimum wage. Instead they’re showing just how out of touch they are with basic economics and common business practices. Washington’s minimum wage law is crystal clear – as were Washington voters, who overwhelmingly approved it with 66% of the vote: “(t)he […]

By Stan Sorscher, from the Huffington Post: When I was young, the purpose of public policy was to raise our standard of living. Not so much, anymore. Now, public policy is designed to make business succeed, or be “competitive.” Our current policies are particularly well-crafted to the goal of making large multinational businesses succeed. Our […]

Via Social Security Works – Washington: The Co-Chairs of the National Fiscal Commission have proposed deep cuts to Social Security – increasing the retirement age to 69, cutting benefits for middle-class workers and reducing annual cost of living adjustments. We need your help to stop them! Join today’s National Call Congress Day at 1-866-529-7630 and […]

Webcast Event: “Prosperity, Not Austerity,” A Response to the Fiscal Commission and A Blueprint for Economic Recovery, 12/1, 10 am PST Tomorrow (12/1/2010) afternoon, Pres. Obama’s bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform will release its much discussed final report on federal budget priorities. The report, as previewed in the mark-up published by commission […]

Via Strengthen Social Security: The Fiscal Commission Co-Chairs’ Social Security proposals are an equal opportunity disaster.  So soon after an angry electorate has expressed its frustration with a Washington political class that does not appear to be listening, it totally ignores the will of the people.  Poll after poll has shown that Democrats, Republicans, and […]

From the Columbia Journalism Review What Social Security means to real people Deficit commission co-chair Alan Simpson is fond of saying that the changes he has in mind for Social Security won’t hurt people like Ronald Eaker “one whiff.” Ronald Eaker, who turns sixty-three this month, won’t be bothered by, say, lifting the retirement age […]

In my family, probably like yours, one of our Thanksgiving dinner traditions is to go around the table and say what we are thankful for. It’s an important reminder of how lucky we are to have our friends and family with us. Odds are, no one mentions the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Highway Traffic […]

From the Everett Herald: With unemployment hovering close to ten percent, and foreclosures on the rise, it may be helpful to think back eighty years ago, and consider the path our country took out of the Great Depression, and then into war, and then into a peacetime economic boom. In 1933, 25% of all American […]

Fishing season is open, so it may be no coincidence that a recent federal deficit-cutting proposal includes this whopper: cut Social Security benefits by raising the retirement age to 68. Like fish left out too long, this one smells funny. And no wonder: More than 50 million Americans rely on Social Security benefits to maintain […]

A lot of hay has been made over a recently-released Fiscal Commission proposal for reducing the federal deficit. The plan, developed by co-chairs Erskine Bowles and Alan Simpson, includes several dramatic policy proposals like increasing the Social Security retirement age, cutting the defense budget, major changes to the federal tax code, and a federal government […]

From Columbia Journalism Review What Social Security means to real people “I am so ready to be a drawer on early Social Security,” said sixty-one year old Jennifer Putman. This month she turned sixty-two and visited her local Social Security office to sign up. Putman is not unusual. More than half of all the program’s […]

Via Social Security Works Washington: “As a working mother with limited income, we stretched every penny that came into the house to cover the immediate needs of keeping our family afloat. So there was no luxury of putting money aside for retirement. So in retirement, we rely completely on Social Security.” As a single mother, […]

From the Everett Herald: Do you remember the name of the U.S. Senate candidate whose signs were plastered up and down I-5 this summer? I had to look that one up: Clint Didier. How soon we forget. But maybe that has something to do with the Tea Party only selling its brew successfully east of […]

Via Social Security Works Washington: “Social Security give me the means, the money and the resources to be able to participate in the community and be a part of the community. It’s made the difference between living in poverty and being able to get by.” Social Security benefits make the difference for Jerry Otis. When […]

Via Social Security Works Washington “When the thing I never thought could happen to me did happen, Social Security was there. We were able to keep our house, and the tragedy of my husband’s death was not compounded by a period of instability where my sons would have had to suffer even more.” Marilyn’s husband […]

From the Columbia Journalism Review What Social Security means to real people Twenty-nine-year old Laurie Cooper is a self-reliant, hard-working woman who wants to be a firefighter, and she’s trying to become one. Hoping to boost her chances, she is studying at a junior college for an EMT certificate, and works as a volunteer fire […]

Via Social Security Works Washington “Protecting Social Security means that American families have a reliable source of income from the youngest generation to the oldest elder.” – Teresa Mosqueda Teresa Mosqueda understands the benefits that Social Security provides to old and young people alike . In this video, she explains how Social Security benefits protect […]

A new analysis by the Chief Actuary of Social Security reviewed several proposals billed as ways to reduce the long-term cost of Social Security. The study, commissioned by the House Ways and Means Committee, found several “would have a profoundly negative impact on the retirement security of middle-class seniors in addition to high-income retirees.” From […]

How should government be paid for? Listen to KUOW 94.9 FM now with EOI’s own Marilyn Watkins: http://kuow.org/program.php?id=21744