But one researcher said Ryan’s budget is a “very austere vision” for America.
“The insane amount of cutting that he’s calling for is absolutely undoable given our economy’s weakness right now,” said Rebecca Thiess, budget policy analyst for the Economic Policy Institute, in an interview with Progress Illinois. “The Republicans are trying to sell to the American people that cuts are necessary because we have such runaway projected debt levels, but his budget doesn’t actually target what our debt levels actually come from, which is projected health costs.”
Thiess said the Economic Policy Institute helped draft the House Progressive Caucus budget, called “Back To Work.” In stark contrast to Ryan’s budget, the Progressive Caucus budget includes a $4.2 trillion tax hike and $2.1 trillion in economic stimulus and investment from 2013 to 2015. Saying that it would create 7 million jobs in the first year, the budget is set to decrease the deficit by $4.4 trillion over 10 years. It would also increase the highest tax rate from 39.6 percent to 49 percent.
Ryan’s budget is likely to pass in the House though, according to Thiess, but it will “go nowhere” after that.
“Paul Ryan’s budget is saying ‘no budget deficit’ is what we should be pursuing right now,” she said. “It has no regard for what we need given our current economic context, which is jobs. We’ve got 4 million Americans unemployed and economic growth and what the American people need isn’t getting their safety net crushed right now.”
Progress Illinois
March 19, 2013
However, the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) recently broke down the implications of the BLS survey, and determined that greener industries actually grow faster than the overall economy: For every increase of one percentage point in the share of green jobs that made up an industry’s employment — or its “green intensity” — overall employment in that industry increases 0.034 percentage points higher.
Think Progress
March 13, 2013
“America was much more equal when you go back to the late ’50s, and ’60s,” Nicholas Finio, a researcher at the Economic Policy Institute, told Campus Progress. “Deliberate policy decisions have allowed this to happen.”
The silver lining: Higher marginal tax rates and better labor protections can make America more equal. “Policy is what made it this way,” Finio said, “and policy can turn it back.”
Campus Progress
March 13, 2013
“The fact is that we have an economy now that’s working well only for those at the very top,” said Lawrence Mishel at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington D.C. “Unless we adopt a new approach to economic policy, we’re going to continue going down this path, which means growth that does not really benefit the great majority of people in this country.”
Nationally, Mishel says the declining value of the federal minimum wage is a major factor driving inequality.
Associated Press
March 13, 2013
Some argue that raising the minimum wage offers benefits to those who may not need them. This argument is also flawed. The Economic Policy Institute’s latest analysis shows that most low-wage workers live in low-wage households, and 84% of the workers in low-wage jobs are at least 20 years old. But, regardless of age or need, anyone who shows up to work and puts in hard hours deserves a wage that keeps him or her out of poverty.
Los Angeles Times
March 13, 2013
“The strong showing in February is welcome,” said Heidi Shierholz, an economist with the Economic Policy Institute. “But given the jobs deficit of 8.9 million jobs (from the 2007 recession), even at February’s growth rate we wouldn’t get back to the pre-recession unemployment rate until 2017.”
NBC News
March 13, 2013
“There is no evidence of a ‘skills’ mismatch in the labor market,” said economist Heidi Shierholz of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C. “What we have is a broad-based lack of demand for workers, not a skills problem.”
In her view, businesses aren’t hiring because demand for their goods and services hasn’t risen enough to require new workers.
Detroit Free Press
March 13, 2013
BOBKOFF: It’s simple math. We are still way below employment levels from before the financial meltdown. Heidi Shierholz is a labor market economist at the Economic Policy Institute. She says we still need 9 million more jobs to get back to healthy levels.
HEIDI SHIERHOLZ: It’s a little sobering ’cause you start to think, okay, but even if we got a report this strong every single month from here on out, given how large the job deficit is in our labor market, it would still take until the middle of 2017 to get back to the pre-recession unemployment rate.
BOBKOFF: And Shierholz says much of the drop in the unemployment rate can be attributed to job seekers dropping out of the labor force. But enough with the naysayers, says Brian Jones of Societe Generale.
NPR
March 13, 2013
Monique Morrissey, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute, told the Post that life expectancy “has increased mainly among the privileged class.” For many, she says, raising the retirement age would amount to a significant benefit cut.
AARP Blog
March 13, 2013
“Life expectancy has increased mainly among the privileged class,” said Monique Morrissey, an economist who focuses on retirement issues at the Economic Policy Institute, a liberal-leaning research organization. “For many people, raising the retirement age would amount to a significant benefit cut.”
The Washington Post
March 13, 2013