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
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
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
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
According to new estimates from the Economic Policy Institute, on average, the bottom 40% of earners in every state would see an income reduction from Medicaid cuts, as they would not benefit enough from any extension of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA) to outweigh the value of the health care they lose. Instead, they’d be forced to pay out of pocket for medical care or go without necessary treatments.
Maine Morning Star
February 27, 2025
According to the Economic Policy Institute, the highest-paid employee at a co-op typically earns about $1.45 for every $1 earned by the lowest-paid employee. At traditional firms, that ratio is roughly 344-to-1 for the highest earners.
Philadelphia Citizen
February 27, 2025
Privatizing the Postal Service would hit homebound seniors, people in rural areas, and residents of low-income urban neighborhoods hardest, wrote Monique Morrissey of the Economic Policy Institute: “The corporations that stand to gain will do so not because they are more efficient than the Postal Service, but because they can shed public service obligations and pay their workers less.”
Provincetown Independent
February 27, 2025
In 2024, there were 48 million immigrants residing in the U.S. and working in fields ranging from construction, to nursing, to software development. As the native-born American population continues to age, welcoming new people to the country will be a vital component of continuing to grow the economy, according to a joint analysis by the Immigration Research Initiative and Economic Policy Institute.
Quartz
February 27, 2025
According to the New Mexico Department of Workforce Solutions, as of December 2024, there were 29,600 federal employees in the state of the 898,600 non-farmworkers, but a cross-analysis of the American Community Survey and current employment statistics by the Economic Policy Institute found that there are closer to 44,000 federal government employees living in New Mexico as of Feb. 18.
Albuquerque Journal
February 24, 2025
According to a 2023 report from the Economic Policy Institute, U.S. domestic workers earn an average of 36.6% less per hour than other workers. The median hourly wage for domestic workers is $13.79, compared to $21.76 for the non-domestic workers.
The Center Square
February 24, 2025