#robert dewey

Jason Bourne (2016)

Jason Bourne (2016)

When it comes to protecting endangered wildlife, the demands of special interest groups have more weight with some in Congress than the majority of American voters. If you think that’s upsetting, imagine the thousands of animals that could die because of it. Tell your Members of Congress to protect our wildlife by upholding the Endangered Species Act (ESA) from attacks in Congress! There aren’t a lot of things that are 99 percent effective – but the ESA is one of them, in its ability to prevent the extinction of listed endangered species. So why would Congress want to attack one of our nation’s most effective and popular conservation measures, despite the 90 percent of American voters who support the ESA? Because special interest groups don’t want to protect wildlife – they’re only interested in getting them out of their way, no matter what the cost. And Congress is listening to them. More than 80 bills, riders and amendments have been proposed this Congress to undermine our nation’s most important environmental law. This is a crucial time for wildlife. A record number of anti-ESA measures have been placed in the FY 2016 House and Senate bills that fund the Interior Department and other key wildlife agencies, threatening wolves and other endangered wildlife in America. These measures attempt to block or remove protections for individual species and undermine key sections of the ESA – like making it significantly more difficult for citizens to bring government agencies to court for failing to follow the law. Urge your Members of Congress to oppose the record number of anti-ESA proposals in Congress! The ESA has saved so many species on the brink of extinction – won’t you help us protect this bedrock of environmental law so that other imperiled species can be saved? Alawa and Zephyr are captive-born gray wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) in South Salem, NY. They are among the 'ambassador wolves' that the WCC, a non-profit organization, uses to help teach the public about wolves and their vital role in the environment. Although their little brother Nikai is not seen in the video, you can hear him howl, squeak, and growl under the camera.

California Welcomes First Wolf Family In Over 80 Years

California Department of Fish and Wildlife released photos today of California’s first wolf pack – the Shasta pack – since the state’s gray wolf population went extinct in 1924. State and federal authorities announced Thursday that a remote camera captured photos earlier this month of two adults and five pups in southeastern Siskiyou County.

Will New York one day celebrate a similar homecoming? We hope so.

Recognizing the need to explore the need for this apex predator and the potential for its recovery in the Northeast USA, the Northeast Wolf Coalition was established in March, 2014 as an alliance of conservation organizations in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut and beyond. The Coalition’s work is guided by some of our nation’s best and brightest conservation scientists to ensure the foundation of its work is based on the application of the best available and most current scientific principles. The Coalition believes the return of the wolf will reflect a more fully functional and wild Northeast, with wolves fulfilling dynamic and evolving ecological functions in the changing environments that comprise our region.

As conservationists in the 21st century, we are faced with the challenge of helping nature continue to heal and flourish for future generations. Thus, the need to explore the critical factors that affect the wolf’s return and its potentially positive impact to the natural biological diversity of the Northeast has never been more important.

The Northeast Wolf Coalition envisions an ecologically effective wolf populations in healthy, diverse ecosystems managed as a public trust across North America. Wildlife conservationists must be equipped with a foundation of knowledge and the necessary tools to proceed with due diligence when promoting wolf recovery in the region. Thus, it’s the a priority of the Northeast Wolf Coalition to first and foremost encourage effective trans-boundary cooperative relationships with federal, state, and provincial agencies, organizations, and the general public that lead to responsible best practices that promote wolf recovery in the region.

Learn more about the Northeast Wolf Coalition here.

Federal and State Wildlife Authorities Should Educate Public About South Dakota Wolf

The purpose of the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is to perpetuate, conserve, manage, protect, and enhance South Dakota’s wildlife resources, parks, and outdoor recreational opportunities for the use, benefit, and enjoyment of the people of this state and its visitors, and to give the highest priority to the welfare of this state’s wildlife and parks, and their environment, in planning and decisions.

With what looks to be a gray wolf roaming the Black Hills of South Dakota, it’s key to let hunters there know that wolves are protected by Federal law and killing one is a crime.

It’s a MUST that federal and state wildlife authorities tell the public NOW about this federally protected wolf’s presence so it can’t be mistaken for an unprotected coyote.

Nationwide there have been several accounts where protected gray wolves are mistaken for coyotes and killed. And due to the U.S. Justice Department’s “McKittrick policy,” a detrimental “loophole” that prohibits prosecuting individuals who kill endangered wildlife unless it can be PROVED that they knew they were targeting a protected animal, these crimes go unpunished. Learn more.

Do you think it’s incumbent on federal and state wildlife authorities to educate the public about this protected wolf’s presence ASAP?

Posted in News | Tagged educate, McKittrick policy; South Dakota, wolf | Leave a comment

Wild Wolf Sighting in South Dakota?

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Maggie

Wolf Sighting in South Dakota? New video captures what appears to be a gray wolf in the Black Hills of South Dakota!

Currently, wolves have returned to less than 10% of their historic range in the lower 48 states. But wolves do wander and if given a chance, they can establish themselves in area with suitable habitat and availability of prey.

In recent years, there have been reports of wolves from Canada crossing the frozen St. Lawrence Seaway into Maine, wolves traveling miles south into the southern Rocky Mountain states of Utah and Colorado, a pioneer and media sensation (wolf OR-7) who made the Golden State home, and a homecoming on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon where “Echo” broke new ground.

Run free and be safe. ‪#‎standforwolves‬

SOURCE: AP/Cliff Owen

House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) holds up a synopsis of the House Republican leadership's budget proposal on Capitol Hill on March 17, 2015.

The Center for American Progress reports that the talking points from congressional Republican leaders are now filled with concern about inequality, the struggling middle class, and stagnant wages, but their budget plans do not match this rhetoric.

The new talking points are at least an improvement over the old rhetoric that attempted to downplay rising inequality and portrayed many struggling Americans as lazy takers. For example, in 2012, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), then chairman of the House Budget Committee, toldthe conservative MacIver Institute, “We risk hitting a tipping point in our society, where we have more takers than makers in society. Where we will have turned our safety net into a hammock.” The year before, Rep. Ryan released a report on economic inequality, and while he acknowledged the “painful fact that millions of Americans are materially impoverished,” he attempted to diminish and undermine this fact by arguing, “In many important respects, the difference between ultra-elites and average Americans is less pronounced today.” This claim was based on the increased affordability of consumer goods such as televisions, cell phones, and cars, but the availability of inexpensive electronics and vehicles does not make it acceptable for a working family to struggle to afford even basic housing, nutritious food, and utilities.

What a difference a few years can make. Rep. Ryan now says he “was wrong to talk about ‘makers and takers.’” And other congressional leaders are tripping over themselves to express their newfound interest in addressing stagnant wages, rising inequality, and the detrimental effects of poverty. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says inequality is a problem that his caucus wants to address. Rep. Ryan spent a significant amount of time on an anti-poverty tourin 2014. Indeed, the House budget itself talks about how “wages have stagnated, median income is down.” So have these congressional leaders become the new champions for working and middle class families?

Hardly.

Rising income inequality and wage stagnation are the greatest economic challenges of our generation. But there is a big difference between congressional leaders’ rhetoric and the reality of their proposals and policies. In reality, little has changed. On the issues that matter to everyday American families—from combating income inequality to providing economic security for families, from boosting economic growth overall to boosting wages for workers specifically—the congressional budgets fail. Instead of offering new solutions to address these challenges, the congressional budgets resort to the same trickle-down policies that have increased inequality and hurt economic growth.

The congressional budgets increase income inequality

Congressional leaders are using a new sales pitch, but they are selling the same old thing. While these politicians are correct about the problems of rising income inequality and stagnant wages, the solution they propose—cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans—would only exacerbate inequality and hurt working- and middle-class families. This is the same tired policy that trickle-down believers have pushed for decades as being good for the economy, but a growing body of economic research demonstrates that tax cuts for the rich do not generate economic growth. And while correlation does not prove causation, trickle-down adherents still need to explain how these tax cuts can possibly be such a powerful growth engine when low top tax rates are actually associated with periods of relatively low economic growth.

Both the Senate and House budgets propose massive spending cuts without seeking to raise even a nickel of new tax revenue. While struggling families lose the programs that offer a foothold to climb into the middle class, these budgets give a free pass to millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations. Both budgets cut taxes on wages and investment income for high-income taxpayers by repealing the tax changes in the Affordable Care Act. The House budget also repeals the Alternative Minimum Tax—a tax cut that would almost exclusivelybenefit taxpayers making more than $200,000 per year. The White House estimates that these tax changes would cut taxes by at least $50,000 per year for the average millionaire.

The House budget calls for lower tax rates for large corporations and individuals with business income, which would be a windfall for those at the top. Corporate taxes are mostly paid by the wealthy, with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimating that the top 1 percent of households paid 48.7 percent of corporate income taxes in 2011. If a corporate tax reform package ended enough tax breaks, it would be possible to lower the corporate tax rate and reduce deficits at the same time, but the congressional budgets do not identify even a single tax loophole to close. A special low rate for business income not taxed at the corporate level would also disproportionately benefit the wealthy. While business income only accounted for 7 percent of the total market income for all American households in 2011, the top 1 percent received 22 percent of their income from this source.

While this year’s congressional budgets do not specify how much to lower tax rates, their tax reform parameters are consistent with more specific tax cuts from earlier House budgets, which would have cost approximately $5.7 trillion over 10 years. The lack of details is troubling for low- and middle-income taxpayers, since any tax reform that cuts taxes so steeply for the rich will have to raise taxes on others to make the numbers add up. Cutting the top tax rate might not be correlated with economic growth, but it is correlated with making the rich even richer and increasing inequality.

The congressional budgets make middle-class economic security even more unaffordable

Congressional leaders have also recently expressed concern about the rising costs of living for the middle class. Rep. Ryan remarked that it is becoming “a serious problem for many Americans,” while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) spoke about how the American dream is “increasingly difficult to achieve for far too many” in part because “everyday costs have risen.” Both are right about the challenges families face with rising costs. An analysis by the Center for American Progress shows that from 2000 to 2012, a median-income married couple with two kids saw their income rise by a mere $600, while the cost of the pillars of middle-class security—such as health care, child care, housing, retirement, and higher education—rose by more than $10,000.

Yet while these politicians may be saying the right things, their actions tell a different story. Rather than strengthening programs that build middle-class economic security, the congressional budgets would shift even more costs to American families.

Health care gets hit the hardest, potentially doubling the number of uninsured Americans. Both budgets repeal the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, taking away health insurance from millions of Americans. And repealing the ACA means that all Americans lose the protectionsprovided by the law to ensure that health insurance will actually cover necessary treatments without discriminating based on gender and pre-existing conditions. The House budget also turns Medicare into a voucher program, jeopardizing the guarantee of dependable and affordable Medicare coverage for seniors. The 69 million low-income Americans who are covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program suffer worst of all under the congressional budgets. In 2016, both budgets would eliminate coverage for about 12 million low-income Americans by repealing the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and then leave states to decide how to implement even more cuts.

The congressional budgets also undermine federal housing and higher education programs, which would make homeownership and college even more unaffordable for middle-class families. Both budgets push a gimmick they call fair-value accounting, which would artificially inflate the fiscal costs of mortgages and student loans. Current accounting rules alreadyaccurately measure the costs, benefits, and risks of federal credit programs, and these new rules simply add the additional cost that the free market would charge for the same loans. This is really just added-cost accounting, since the federal government is not a private company and is uniquely situated to manage these programs. If this new system is adopted, mortgages and student loans would suddenly appear to be much more expensive for the federal government, and bringing those costs down would require charging Americans higher interest rates and fees for the same loans. The House budget also freezes the maximum Pell Grant that each low-income student could receive for 10 years, making college less and less affordable at the very moment when the nation’s employers are crying out for more college graduates.

Even worse, while congressional leaders are using accounting tricks to exaggerate the costs of these middle-class programs, they are using a different accounting trick called dynamic scoringto hide the full costs of tax cuts for the rich. The House of Representatives already changed its rules to force dynamic scoring, and the Senate budget follows suit with its own dynamic scoring requirements.

Finally, stagnant wages mean that many full-time jobs pay below the poverty level, placing strain on working families. Many minimum-wage workers have to turn to programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, to make ends meet and feed their families. Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would save the federal government an estimated $4.6 billion per year on SNAP benefits. But instead of raising the minimum wage, the House budget cuts about $140 billion from SNAP benefits, which were already cut in the most recent farm bill. Again, despite their stated concern about inequality and poverty, congressional leaders are cutting a critical lifeline that keeps nearly 5 million Americans out of poverty.

The congressional budgets hurt economic growth overall and wages for workers

A key way to help boost wages for all workers is to ensure that the government makes the investments needed to ensure the nation’s economic competitiveness. Public investment in education, research, and infrastructure creates good-paying jobs. It also helps workers build the skills they need to compete for higher wages and increases long-term economic growth and competitiveness for the country as a whole.

Congressional leaders may seem to be on board with efforts to grow the economy and increase wages in their rhetoric. For example, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) says he is “committed to pro-growth solutions that will help get the American people back to work.” But when we look beyond this rhetoric, we see the same stale trickle down ideas. The House budget slashes $759 billion from nondefense discretionary spending, which is the part of the budget that funds the investments that Congress should be making to grow the economy. The Senate budget cuts $236 billion from this sector.

Earlier rounds of misguided spending cuts have already done enough damage to the economy. A study by Macroeconomic Advisers found that discretionary spending cuts eliminated 1.2 million jobs between 2010 and 2013. After the government shutdown in 2013, a bipartisan two-year budget agreement finally reversed some of these cuts and enabled modest investment to help grow the economy. With the bipartisan agreement expiring on September 30, 2015, this year’s congressional budgets must determine what to do next. But instead of adjusting their policies to match their new rhetoric and economic reality, congressional leaders keep pushing more failed austerity.

Conclusion

Congressional leaders are right to express concern about income inequality, declining wages for the middle class, and the many issues facing low-income families. But despite their new rhetoric, the ideas in their budgets would hurt working- and middle-class families while benefiting the very wealthy few.

This year’s congressional budgets differ in one meaningful way from earlier budgets proposed under Rep. Ryan’s leadership of the House Budget Committee: They hide even more of the details, particularly in the Senate’s version. But the agenda remains the same. Politicians who are truly serious about helping families should support real policies to grow the economy, raise wages, and help families afford the pillars of middle-class security.

Harry Stein is the Director of Fiscal Policy at the Center for American Progress. Anna Chu is the Director of the Middle-Out Economics project at the Center.

To speak with our experts on this topic, please contact:

Print: Allison Preiss (economy, education, poverty) 202.478.6331 or [email protected]

Print: Tom Caiazza (foreign policy, health care, energy and environment, LGBT issues, gun-violence prevention) 202.481.7141 or [email protected]

Print: Elise Shulman (Oceans) 202.741.6256 or [email protected]

Print: Chelsea Kiene (women's issues, Legal Progress, Half in Ten Education Fund) 202.478.5328 or [email protected]

Print: Tanya Arditi (Immigration, Progress 2050, race issues, demographics) 202.741.6258 or [email protected]

Spanish-language and ethnic media: Jennifer Molina 202.796.9706 or [email protected]

TV: Rachel Rosen 202.483.2675 or [email protected]

Radio: Chelsea Kiene 202.478.5328 or [email protected]

Act Now: Protect wildlife from the budget ax!

Support Conservation Funding

Lack of funding has led to the loss of sea turtle hatchlings.

Speak up for wildlife and public lands conservation now. Urge Congress to protect conservation funding!

There are only a few federal programs that focus on protecting and recovering our nation's imperiled wildlife and public lands. They are:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species and Cooperative Recovery Program;

U.S. Forest Service Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management Program; and

Bureau of Land Management Threatened and Endangered Species and Wildlife and Fisheries Management Program.

For years, these agencies, tasked with conserving our endangered wildlife and wild lands, have suffered a debilitating loss in funding. And now, funding for these federal conservation programs is once again on the financial chopping block. If these programs continue to be starved of resources, it will surely lead to irreversible harm to vulnerable species and habitat. Tell your members of Congress to support increased funding for key programs that protect imperiled wildlife! Each year, your members of Congress communicate their funding priorities to the Appropriations Committees, who then make the final decision about funding levels for federal programs – many of which protect and save some of our nation’s most beloved wildlife and wild lands. In recent years, lack of funding has hindered the recovery of manatees and led to the loss of sea turtle hatchlings, seabirds and endangered monk seals in the Hawaiian Island National Wildlife Refuge. Sadly, we are continuing to see the sobering consequences of years of continued and crippling budget cuts. We need your help – tell your members of Congress how important these federal programs are to our endangered wildlife and ask them to increase their funding! The future of imperiled species and public lands rests heavily on our federal financial support decisions. But you can make a difference. From protecting wildlife on the brink of extinction with the Endangered Species Act, to ensuring that our public lands remain valuable landscapes for both recreational use and wildlife habitat, these federal programs are vital to the future wildlife heritage of this country. Your member of Congress has until March 23rd to tell the Appropriations Committees to increase funding for our wildlife and public lands. Please send your message now, before it’s too late!

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When it comes to protecting endangered wildlife, the demands of special interest groups have more weight with some in Congress than the majority of American voters. If you think that’s upsetting, imagine the thousands of animals that could die because of it. Tell your Members of Congress to protect our wildlife by upholding the Endangered Species Act (ESA) from attacks in Congress! There aren’t a lot of things that are 99 percent effective – but the ESA is one of them, in its ability to prevent the extinction of listed endangered species. So why would Congress want to attack one of our nation’s most effective and popular conservation measures, despite the 90 percent of American voters who support the ESA? Because special interest groups don’t want to protect wildlife – they’re only interested in getting them out of their way, no matter what the cost. And Congress is listening to them. More than 80 bills, riders and amendments have been proposed this Congress to undermine our nation’s most important environmental law. This is a crucial time for wildlife. A record number of anti-ESA measures have been placed in the FY 2016 House and Senate bills that fund the Interior Department and other key wildlife agencies, threatening wolves and other endangered wildlife in America. These measures attempt to block or remove protections for individual species and undermine key sections of the ESA – like making it significantly more difficult for citizens to bring government agencies to court for failing to follow the law. Urge your Members of Congress to oppose the record number of anti-ESA proposals in Congress! The ESA has saved so many species on the brink of extinction – won’t you help us protect this bedrock of environmental law so that other imperiled species can be saved? Alawa and Zephyr are captive-born gray wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center (WCC) in South Salem, NY. They are among the 'ambassador wolves' that the WCC, a non-profit organization, uses to help teach the public about wolves and their vital role in the environment. Although their little brother Nikai is not seen in the video, you can hear him howl, squeak, and growl under the camera.

California Welcomes First Wolf Family In Over 80 Years

California Department of Fish and Wildlife released photos today of California’s first wolf pack – the Shasta pack – since the state’s gray wolf population went extinct in 1924. State and federal authorities announced Thursday that a remote camera captured photos earlier this month of two adults and five pups in southeastern Siskiyou County.

Will New York one day celebrate a similar homecoming? We hope so.

Recognizing the need to explore the need for this apex predator and the potential for its recovery in the Northeast USA, the Northeast Wolf Coalition was established in March, 2014 as an alliance of conservation organizations in New York, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut and beyond. The Coalition’s work is guided by some of our nation’s best and brightest conservation scientists to ensure the foundation of its work is based on the application of the best available and most current scientific principles. The Coalition believes the return of the wolf will reflect a more fully functional and wild Northeast, with wolves fulfilling dynamic and evolving ecological functions in the changing environments that comprise our region.

As conservationists in the 21st century, we are faced with the challenge of helping nature continue to heal and flourish for future generations. Thus, the need to explore the critical factors that affect the wolf’s return and its potentially positive impact to the natural biological diversity of the Northeast has never been more important.

The Northeast Wolf Coalition envisions an ecologically effective wolf populations in healthy, diverse ecosystems managed as a public trust across North America. Wildlife conservationists must be equipped with a foundation of knowledge and the necessary tools to proceed with due diligence when promoting wolf recovery in the region. Thus, it’s the a priority of the Northeast Wolf Coalition to first and foremost encourage effective trans-boundary cooperative relationships with federal, state, and provincial agencies, organizations, and the general public that lead to responsible best practices that promote wolf recovery in the region.

Learn more about the Northeast Wolf Coalition here.

Federal and State Wildlife Authorities Should Educate Public About South Dakota Wolf

The purpose of the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks is to perpetuate, conserve, manage, protect, and enhance South Dakota’s wildlife resources, parks, and outdoor recreational opportunities for the use, benefit, and enjoyment of the people of this state and its visitors, and to give the highest priority to the welfare of this state’s wildlife and parks, and their environment, in planning and decisions.

With what looks to be a gray wolf roaming the Black Hills of South Dakota, it’s key to let hunters there know that wolves are protected by Federal law and killing one is a crime.

It’s a MUST that federal and state wildlife authorities tell the public NOW about this federally protected wolf’s presence so it can’t be mistaken for an unprotected coyote.

Nationwide there have been several accounts where protected gray wolves are mistaken for coyotes and killed. And due to the U.S. Justice Department’s “McKittrick policy,” a detrimental “loophole” that prohibits prosecuting individuals who kill endangered wildlife unless it can be PROVED that they knew they were targeting a protected animal, these crimes go unpunished. Learn more.

Do you think it’s incumbent on federal and state wildlife authorities to educate the public about this protected wolf’s presence ASAP?

Posted in News | Tagged educate, McKittrick policy; South Dakota, wolf | Leave a comment

Wild Wolf Sighting in South Dakota?

Posted on August 18, 2015 by Maggie

Wolf Sighting in South Dakota? New video captures what appears to be a gray wolf in the Black Hills of South Dakota!

Currently, wolves have returned to less than 10% of their historic range in the lower 48 states. But wolves do wander and if given a chance, they can establish themselves in area with suitable habitat and availability of prey.

In recent years, there have been reports of wolves from Canada crossing the frozen St. Lawrence Seaway into Maine, wolves traveling miles south into the southern Rocky Mountain states of Utah and Colorado, a pioneer and media sensation (wolf OR-7) who made the Golden State home, and a homecoming on the northern rim of the Grand Canyon where “Echo” broke new ground.

Run free and be safe. ‪#‎standforwolves‬

SOURCE: AP/Cliff Owen

House Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-GA) holds up a synopsis of the House Republican leadership's budget proposal on Capitol Hill on March 17, 2015.

The Center for American Progress reports that the talking points from congressional Republican leaders are now filled with concern about inequality, the struggling middle class, and stagnant wages, but their budget plans do not match this rhetoric.

The new talking points are at least an improvement over the old rhetoric that attempted to downplay rising inequality and portrayed many struggling Americans as lazy takers. For example, in 2012, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), then chairman of the House Budget Committee, toldthe conservative MacIver Institute, “We risk hitting a tipping point in our society, where we have more takers than makers in society. Where we will have turned our safety net into a hammock.” The year before, Rep. Ryan released a report on economic inequality, and while he acknowledged the “painful fact that millions of Americans are materially impoverished,” he attempted to diminish and undermine this fact by arguing, “In many important respects, the difference between ultra-elites and average Americans is less pronounced today.” This claim was based on the increased affordability of consumer goods such as televisions, cell phones, and cars, but the availability of inexpensive electronics and vehicles does not make it acceptable for a working family to struggle to afford even basic housing, nutritious food, and utilities.

What a difference a few years can make. Rep. Ryan now says he “was wrong to talk about ‘makers and takers.’” And other congressional leaders are tripping over themselves to express their newfound interest in addressing stagnant wages, rising inequality, and the detrimental effects of poverty. House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) says inequality is a problem that his caucus wants to address. Rep. Ryan spent a significant amount of time on an anti-poverty tourin 2014. Indeed, the House budget itself talks about how “wages have stagnated, median income is down.” So have these congressional leaders become the new champions for working and middle class families?

Hardly.

Rising income inequality and wage stagnation are the greatest economic challenges of our generation. But there is a big difference between congressional leaders’ rhetoric and the reality of their proposals and policies. In reality, little has changed. On the issues that matter to everyday American families—from combating income inequality to providing economic security for families, from boosting economic growth overall to boosting wages for workers specifically—the congressional budgets fail. Instead of offering new solutions to address these challenges, the congressional budgets resort to the same trickle-down policies that have increased inequality and hurt economic growth.

The congressional budgets increase income inequality

Congressional leaders are using a new sales pitch, but they are selling the same old thing. While these politicians are correct about the problems of rising income inequality and stagnant wages, the solution they propose—cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans—would only exacerbate inequality and hurt working- and middle-class families. This is the same tired policy that trickle-down believers have pushed for decades as being good for the economy, but a growing body of economic research demonstrates that tax cuts for the rich do not generate economic growth. And while correlation does not prove causation, trickle-down adherents still need to explain how these tax cuts can possibly be such a powerful growth engine when low top tax rates are actually associated with periods of relatively low economic growth.

Both the Senate and House budgets propose massive spending cuts without seeking to raise even a nickel of new tax revenue. While struggling families lose the programs that offer a foothold to climb into the middle class, these budgets give a free pass to millionaires, billionaires, and big corporations. Both budgets cut taxes on wages and investment income for high-income taxpayers by repealing the tax changes in the Affordable Care Act. The House budget also repeals the Alternative Minimum Tax—a tax cut that would almost exclusivelybenefit taxpayers making more than $200,000 per year. The White House estimates that these tax changes would cut taxes by at least $50,000 per year for the average millionaire.

The House budget calls for lower tax rates for large corporations and individuals with business income, which would be a windfall for those at the top. Corporate taxes are mostly paid by the wealthy, with the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimating that the top 1 percent of households paid 48.7 percent of corporate income taxes in 2011. If a corporate tax reform package ended enough tax breaks, it would be possible to lower the corporate tax rate and reduce deficits at the same time, but the congressional budgets do not identify even a single tax loophole to close. A special low rate for business income not taxed at the corporate level would also disproportionately benefit the wealthy. While business income only accounted for 7 percent of the total market income for all American households in 2011, the top 1 percent received 22 percent of their income from this source.

While this year’s congressional budgets do not specify how much to lower tax rates, their tax reform parameters are consistent with more specific tax cuts from earlier House budgets, which would have cost approximately $5.7 trillion over 10 years. The lack of details is troubling for low- and middle-income taxpayers, since any tax reform that cuts taxes so steeply for the rich will have to raise taxes on others to make the numbers add up. Cutting the top tax rate might not be correlated with economic growth, but it is correlated with making the rich even richer and increasing inequality.

The congressional budgets make middle-class economic security even more unaffordable

Congressional leaders have also recently expressed concern about the rising costs of living for the middle class. Rep. Ryan remarked that it is becoming “a serious problem for many Americans,” while Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) spoke about how the American dream is “increasingly difficult to achieve for far too many” in part because “everyday costs have risen.” Both are right about the challenges families face with rising costs. An analysis by the Center for American Progress shows that from 2000 to 2012, a median-income married couple with two kids saw their income rise by a mere $600, while the cost of the pillars of middle-class security—such as health care, child care, housing, retirement, and higher education—rose by more than $10,000.

Yet while these politicians may be saying the right things, their actions tell a different story. Rather than strengthening programs that build middle-class economic security, the congressional budgets would shift even more costs to American families.

Health care gets hit the hardest, potentially doubling the number of uninsured Americans. Both budgets repeal the Affordable Care Act, or ACA, taking away health insurance from millions of Americans. And repealing the ACA means that all Americans lose the protectionsprovided by the law to ensure that health insurance will actually cover necessary treatments without discriminating based on gender and pre-existing conditions. The House budget also turns Medicare into a voucher program, jeopardizing the guarantee of dependable and affordable Medicare coverage for seniors. The 69 million low-income Americans who are covered by Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program suffer worst of all under the congressional budgets. In 2016, both budgets would eliminate coverage for about 12 million low-income Americans by repealing the ACA’s Medicaid expansion and then leave states to decide how to implement even more cuts.

The congressional budgets also undermine federal housing and higher education programs, which would make homeownership and college even more unaffordable for middle-class families. Both budgets push a gimmick they call fair-value accounting, which would artificially inflate the fiscal costs of mortgages and student loans. Current accounting rules alreadyaccurately measure the costs, benefits, and risks of federal credit programs, and these new rules simply add the additional cost that the free market would charge for the same loans. This is really just added-cost accounting, since the federal government is not a private company and is uniquely situated to manage these programs. If this new system is adopted, mortgages and student loans would suddenly appear to be much more expensive for the federal government, and bringing those costs down would require charging Americans higher interest rates and fees for the same loans. The House budget also freezes the maximum Pell Grant that each low-income student could receive for 10 years, making college less and less affordable at the very moment when the nation’s employers are crying out for more college graduates.

Even worse, while congressional leaders are using accounting tricks to exaggerate the costs of these middle-class programs, they are using a different accounting trick called dynamic scoringto hide the full costs of tax cuts for the rich. The House of Representatives already changed its rules to force dynamic scoring, and the Senate budget follows suit with its own dynamic scoring requirements.

Finally, stagnant wages mean that many full-time jobs pay below the poverty level, placing strain on working families. Many minimum-wage workers have to turn to programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, formerly known as food stamps, to make ends meet and feed their families. Raising the federal minimum wage to $10.10 per hour would save the federal government an estimated $4.6 billion per year on SNAP benefits. But instead of raising the minimum wage, the House budget cuts about $140 billion from SNAP benefits, which were already cut in the most recent farm bill. Again, despite their stated concern about inequality and poverty, congressional leaders are cutting a critical lifeline that keeps nearly 5 million Americans out of poverty.

The congressional budgets hurt economic growth overall and wages for workers

A key way to help boost wages for all workers is to ensure that the government makes the investments needed to ensure the nation’s economic competitiveness. Public investment in education, research, and infrastructure creates good-paying jobs. It also helps workers build the skills they need to compete for higher wages and increases long-term economic growth and competitiveness for the country as a whole.

Congressional leaders may seem to be on board with efforts to grow the economy and increase wages in their rhetoric. For example, Rep. Pete Sessions (R-TX) says he is “committed to pro-growth solutions that will help get the American people back to work.” But when we look beyond this rhetoric, we see the same stale trickle down ideas. The House budget slashes $759 billion from nondefense discretionary spending, which is the part of the budget that funds the investments that Congress should be making to grow the economy. The Senate budget cuts $236 billion from this sector.

Earlier rounds of misguided spending cuts have already done enough damage to the economy. A study by Macroeconomic Advisers found that discretionary spending cuts eliminated 1.2 million jobs between 2010 and 2013. After the government shutdown in 2013, a bipartisan two-year budget agreement finally reversed some of these cuts and enabled modest investment to help grow the economy. With the bipartisan agreement expiring on September 30, 2015, this year’s congressional budgets must determine what to do next. But instead of adjusting their policies to match their new rhetoric and economic reality, congressional leaders keep pushing more failed austerity.

Conclusion

Congressional leaders are right to express concern about income inequality, declining wages for the middle class, and the many issues facing low-income families. But despite their new rhetoric, the ideas in their budgets would hurt working- and middle-class families while benefiting the very wealthy few.

This year’s congressional budgets differ in one meaningful way from earlier budgets proposed under Rep. Ryan’s leadership of the House Budget Committee: They hide even more of the details, particularly in the Senate’s version. But the agenda remains the same. Politicians who are truly serious about helping families should support real policies to grow the economy, raise wages, and help families afford the pillars of middle-class security.

Harry Stein is the Director of Fiscal Policy at the Center for American Progress. Anna Chu is the Director of the Middle-Out Economics project at the Center.

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Act Now: Protect wildlife from the budget ax!

Support Conservation Funding

Lack of funding has led to the loss of sea turtle hatchlings.

Speak up for wildlife and public lands conservation now. Urge Congress to protect conservation funding!

There are only a few federal programs that focus on protecting and recovering our nation's imperiled wildlife and public lands. They are:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Endangered Species and Cooperative Recovery Program;

U.S. Forest Service Wildlife and Fisheries Habitat Management Program; and

Bureau of Land Management Threatened and Endangered Species and Wildlife and Fisheries Management Program.

For years, these agencies, tasked with conserving our endangered wildlife and wild lands, have suffered a debilitating loss in funding. And now, funding for these federal conservation programs is once again on the financial chopping block. If these programs continue to be starved of resources, it will surely lead to irreversible harm to vulnerable species and habitat. Tell your members of Congress to support increased funding for key programs that protect imperiled wildlife! Each year, your members of Congress communicate their funding priorities to the Appropriations Committees, who then make the final decision about funding levels for federal programs – many of which protect and save some of our nation’s most beloved wildlife and wild lands. In recent years, lack of funding has hindered the recovery of manatees and led to the loss of sea turtle hatchlings, seabirds and endangered monk seals in the Hawaiian Island National Wildlife Refuge. Sadly, we are continuing to see the sobering consequences of years of continued and crippling budget cuts. We need your help – tell your members of Congress how important these federal programs are to our endangered wildlife and ask them to increase their funding! The future of imperiled species and public lands rests heavily on our federal financial support decisions. But you can make a difference. From protecting wildlife on the brink of extinction with the Endangered Species Act, to ensuring that our public lands remain valuable landscapes for both recreational use and wildlife habitat, these federal programs are vital to the future wildlife heritage of this country. Your member of Congress has until March 23rd to tell the Appropriations Committees to increase funding for our wildlife and public lands. Please send your message now, before it’s too late!

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