Universal Free School Lunch Is an Absolute No-Brainer
Public school in the US is already provided universally, free of charge. There’s no reason we shouldn’t provide free lunch to every child at school as well.
152 Articles by: Matt Bruenig
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Matt Bruenig is the founder of People’s Policy Project.
It’s Still Incredibly Common for Americans to Be Uninsured
The typical measure of Americans without health insurance underreports how many people are going without coverage. Examining how many people go without insurance in a given year reveals that over 20 percent of Americans have gone uninsured in recent years.
The “Equality vs. Equity” Distinction Doesn’t Explain What Matters for Social Justice
The nonprofit jargon of “equity” isn’t helping us tackle basic questions of how to live in a better, more equal society.
Every State-Level Parental Leave Program in the US Is Horrendous
Thanks to exclusionary work history requirements, the 12 state parental leave programs in the US make one in three women ineligible for benefits on average. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Passing Universal Pregnancy Coverage Is a No-Brainer
The US health care system forces new parents to pay thousands of dollars simply to have their child delivered into the world. That’s absurd. We could easily make childbirth free for all.
New York’s New Child Tax Credit Proposal Is a Means-Tested Disaster
A laudable effort to consolidate tax credits in New York State is hampered by policymakers’ obsession with means testing.
In Just One Year, Starbucks Workers Have Won 267 Union Elections
A year ago today, Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionize. Since then the campaign has exploded nationwide, with an impressive 267 Starbucks locations now unionized.
The Child Tax Credit Can Be a Poverty-Fighting Machine
The Child Tax Credit expansion last year lifted several million children out of poverty, before Democrats failed to extend it. Now Congress is debating the policy again — and this time they have the chance to ensure even more children receive the benefit.
Even After Dobbs, Abortions Still Haven’t Plummeted
The Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade was a blow to reproductive rights. But fortunately, new data suggest that most of those seeking abortions still seem to be getting them.
Universal Benefits Are Actually Cheaper Than Means-Tested Ones
The argument that means-tested welfare programs reduce inequality and poverty more than non-means-tested programs is based on an accounting trick. Universal benefits are the best and cheapest way to alleviate poverty.
“Raising the Retirement Age” for Social Security Just Means Cutting Benefits
GOP leaders say they want to raise the Social Security retirement age. That’s just a deceptive way of saying they want to cut benefits — punishing nonwealthy Americans while leaving untouched the massive government spending on tax shelters for the rich.
Yes, the US Still Has a Child Poverty Problem
The New York Times released a big story this week declaring that child poverty has plummeted over the last thirty years. But their numbers are misleading: unlike social democratic countries, the US is still plagued by sky-high child poverty.
Build Back Better Wasn’t So Great
Moderates claim that Biden’s BBB failed because it simply “went too far.” The truth is that even if it had passed, it would have excluded scores of working families.
The Starbucks Union Drive Is Slowing Down but Still Moving Forward
A year ago, nobody would have expected that thousands of US Starbucks workers would unionize. But they have. The pace of Starbucks workers’ victories slowed slightly last month, but the union is still rolling on.
Joe Biden Has Barely Expanded the Welfare State
Remember all that talk of Joe Biden being the next FDR? Going into the midterms, the most he’s going to deliver is one minor tweak to the welfare state — hardly the sweeping measures to help workers and the poor that we were promised.
Starbucks Workers Are Winning 90 Percent of Their Union Elections
Starbucks workers are unionizing at a breakneck pace. We ran the numbers and found that more than 2,000 Starbucks workers are now unionized — and that number will likely triple in the coming months.
Democrats’ Policymaking Apparatus Is Wildly Dysfunctional and Undemocratic
When Matt Bruenig realized a Democratic childcare proposal had major flaws, he did what seemed sensible: he publicly pointed out the bill’s flaws. Doing so set in motion a chain of events that reveals how Democrats turn bad ideas into bad policies.
Joe Biden Can Control the Tennessee Valley Authority
The Tennessee Valley Authority recently opted to invest in more fossil fuel generation, not less. Joe Biden can reverse the TVA’s decision, if he wants to.
Nationalize All the Oil Companies
The price of oil and the myriad horrors of climate change that oil exacerbates make it too important for us to leave in the free market’s hands. The oil companies should be nationalized.
Why We Need the Welfare State
You can redistribute income and power from capital to labor. But if you want to make sure that the final income distribution is sensitive to differences in household composition, there is no substitute for a universal welfare state.