EPI in the news

• Experts warn of federal government brain drain that could be ‘devastating’ for the U.S. economy

  In fact, “nearly 50% of federal employees have been in federal service for more than a decade, acquiring deep expertise and knowledge,” reports the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute. Heggeness warns that losing all of these medical professionals, public health officials, regulators, scientists, and so on could be a long-term threat to the U.S.’s global standing.

  Fortune | February 27, 2025
• A Tale of Two CO Representatives: One Who Stands With Working People, the Other Who Would Rather Just Go With It

  When Evans claimed that he voted for this budget because of Colorado’s undocumented immigrants, what he really means is that Colorado spends too much on households making less than $56,000 per year. According to a study by the Economic Policy Institute, Colorado households making less than $30,000 stand to lose about $14,000 of that income due to Medicaid cuts. 

  Colorado Times Recorder | February 27, 2025
• Can the Movement for Reparations Survive Under Trump?

  In this context, where is the movement for reparations? In a new report, economist Kyle Moore writes “Reparations is our North Star for equity, providing a counterweight against a backslide into white supremacy.”

  GUEST: Kyle Moore, Economist with the Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy at the Economic Policy Institute. He recently authored a report called Why we have to keep talking about reparations in 2025.

  Rising Up with Sonali | February 27, 2025
• DOGE is a doomed cause

  While all of us should care about seeking out government waste and abuse, there are too many ambiguities and contradictions with DOGE and the Trump administration’s role in downsizing the federal government. As Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute writes, DOGE is “clearly a bad-faith effort rooted in ignorance and a knee-jerk desire to shrink the federal government, both for ideological reasons and the creation of space to preserve the tax cuts for the rich and corporations that will be locked-in later this year.”

  Iowa State Daily | February 27, 2025
• Kevin O’Leary Says Government Needs ‘More, More Cutting’—Urges ‘Slashing and Hacking’ to Fix Federal Spending

  Meanwhile, Josh Bivens of the Economic Policy Institute has warned that DOGE’s approach could cause long-term damage to essential services rather than improving efficiency, calling it “a bad-faith effort rooted in ignorance and a knee-jerk desire to shrink the federal government.”

  Benzinga (via Yahoo! Finance) | February 27, 2025
• Opinion

  A series of focus groups convened by the Urban Institute found that many people had no idea work reporting requirements were in place. Among those who did, many were not internet savvy and had tremendous difficulty navigating online portals. Many others lacked access to the internet. This is a pattern seen not just with Medicaid work requirements, but with work requirements for other programs like SNAP, the Economic Policy Institute found.

  Idaho Statesman | February 27, 2025
• What would Colorado’s tipped minimum wage bill do? And why does it impact Denver so much?

  In California and Washington, tipped employees get at least $16 an hour in wages. That’s because in those states and several others, there is no special tipped minimum wage — all employees get the regular minimum wage. Advocates like the Economic Policy Institute argue this is a better approach, since paying lower wages to tipped employees only reinforces the issues with tipping.

  Denverite | February 27, 2025

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