According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), for 2018, the maternal mortality rate was 17.4 per 100,000 live births in the United States. The rate of deaths for Black women is over twice that figure.
by Arielle Kane and Veronica Goodman
Among the lesser reported elements of the Covid-19 relief bill making its way through Congress this month are several improvements to Medicaid to bolster health insurance coverage for low-income individuals. One specific provision would allow states to extend Medicaid coverage to women for up to a full year after giving birth. Newborns in the U.S. are currently covered…
The United States broke records with the swift development and distribution of new Covid-19 vaccines, but after the Trump administration’s hydroxychloroquine debacle, the focus on treatments was pushed to the side.
by Arielle Kane, Director of Health Care
The United States broke records with the swift development and distribution of new Covid-19 vaccines, but after the Trump administration’s hydroxychloroquine debacle, the focus on treatments was pushed to the side. President Biden has acknowledged that even with the new vaccines, the Covid-19 pandemic will likely linger throughout the year. To save lives, we’ll need to increase access to evidence-based treatments by…
As a part of launching his multifaceted Opioid Crisis plan, President Biden should take executive action to remove X-Waivers in a legally surefire and quick manner.
by Kaitlin Edwards, Intern at PPI
From May 2019 to May 2020 the CDC reported over 81,000 overdose deaths from opioids in the United States, the biggest annual death toll to date. In a belated effort to mitigate the crisis, the Trump administration changed regulations to make it easier to access the opioid treatment drug buprenorphine in the waning days of his presidency. …
The minimum wage is a venerable policy, but progressives don’t need to put all of their eggs in this particular policy basket.
by Will Marshall, PPI President
The Congressional Budget Office has dealt another blow to progressive hopes for swift action to raise the U.S. minimum wage to $15 an hour. It released a new study this week estimating that while the wage hike would lift 900,000 Americans out of poverty, it also would cost 1.4 million workers their jobs.
Liberal economists challenged the job loss figures, calling CBO’s methodology outdated. But the report feeds growing doubts that Senate Democrats…
The new analysis is damning evidence, from a source Republicans will find hard to dismiss, that Trump is lying about a stolen election simply to hide his shame over blowing his reelection.
by Will Marshall, PPI President
Donald Trump reportedly plans to defend himself in the Senate impeachment trial by rehashing his bogus “stolen election” claims. To debunk this noxious myth, the prosecution has a new witness it can call: Trump’s own pollster.
Tony Fabrizio oversaw polling for the former president’s 2020 campaign. He’s just issued an unsparing post-mortem on how Trump actually lost to Joe Biden. …
The executive order would use “the full force of current domestic preferences to support America’s workers and businesses.
By Michael Mandel, Chief Economic Strategist
At PPI, we strongly support President Biden’s signing of the Executive Order beefing up Buy American provisions for federal purchases. The executive order would use “the full force of current domestic preferences to support America’s workers and businesses.
But much more needs to be done, since domestic manufacturing is much weaker than most people realize. Most important, multifactor productivity in domestic manufacturing — the broadest measure of the ability of U.S. factories to turn inputs into…
It’s scoundrel time in Washington.
by Will Marshall, PPI President
Today, Congress takes up the usually ceremonial business of tallying the Electoral College votes for president, which Joe Biden won by a comfortable margin of 306 to 232. This time, however, a claque of unpatriotic Republicans in the House and Senate plans to challenge the validity of enough of Biden’s votes to make Trump president.
In the two months since the election, Trump and his lawyers have been unable to present any proof of widespread voter fraud. …
A PPI year in review. Next month, America gets a real president in Joe Biden, who will restore honesty and decency in the White House, along with a commitment to bring our country together rather than tear it apart.
by Will Marshall, PPI President
There’s no getting around it: 2020 has been an annus horribilis for America. We’ve had to endure a deadly pandemic, a frozen economy, a corrupt president’s bid to void an election he lost, and deep racial and civil discord.
And yet our national fortunes seem to be changing. Coronavirus vaccines — developed in record time by…
The idea is probably illegal, because the Constitution gives Congress alone the power to spend money.
by Brendan McDermott, Fiscal Policy Analyst
Refusing to accept that the election is over, President Trump is moving forward with one of the most desperate gambits from his campaign: raiding Medicare to give 39 million seniors a $200 prescription drug card. Fortunately, Trump’s plan to bypass Congress and act by executive order did not come to fruition before the election. But this week, it cleared a regulatory roadblock and the administration says it will start sending the cards before the end of the month.
…
A strong post-vaccine recovery that creates opportunities for economically vulnerable people is within sight, but elected officials should take this deal to ensure Americans can keep paying their bills as the world pushes across the pandemic’s finish line.
by Brendan McDermott, Fiscal Policy Analyst
Dr. James X. Sullivan, a professor at the University of Notre Dame, was shocked when he and his colleagues discovered that poverty did not rise when the pandemic began, despite much of the economy freezing to a halt. He told the New York Times that “when we initially saw our results, we thought, ‘How could this…
Progressive Policy Institute
Radically Pragmatic. We seek to advance progressive, market-friendly ideas that promote American innovation, economic growth, and wider opportunity.
