Bay State Banner Op-Ed: Creating a level playing field
This is a special moment in history. In August, we commemorated the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, when Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. shared his dream of equality and called for action. Later this year, we will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, one of the enduring legacies of the March on Washington. The Civil Rights Act was a landmark moment in the ongoing fight for equality, enshrining in law the principle that ensure no one should be discriminated against because of who they are.
Huffington Post Blog: Senate Women Say: Raise The Minimum Wage!
Last week, the Democratic women senators stood together at an amazing event where we delivered a very important message: No American woman should ever work a full-time job and still raise her children in poverty.
Huffington Post Blog: Coming to a Post Office Near You: Loans You Can Trust?
The poor pay more.
According to a report put out this week by the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) of the U.S. Postal Service, about 68 million Americans — more than a quarter of all households — have no checking or savings account and are underserved by the banking system. Collectively, these households spent about $89 billion in 2012 on interest and fees for non-bank financial services like payday loans and check cashing, which works out to an average of $2,412 per household. That means the average underserved household spends roughly 10 percent of its annual income on interest and fees — about the same amount they spend on food.
Patriot Ledger Op-Ed: Flood insurance shouldn't soak homeowners
Families purchase flood insurance so they don’t lose their homes in a bad storm. But now, because of changes to FEMA’s flood maps and unexpected insurance rate hikes, many families fear that the price of flood insurance could be just as devastating as any storm.
Salem News Op-Ed: Social Security is under attack
A generation ago, middle-class families were able to put away enough money during their working years to make it through their later years with dignity. On average, they saved about 11 percent of their take-home pay while working. Many paid off their homes, got rid of all their debts and retired with strong pensions from their employers. And where pensions, savings and investments fell short, they could rely on Social Security to make up the difference.
Lowell Sun Op-Ed: Protect, expand Social Security
For a generation now, working families have been squeezed by stagnant wages and rising costs for housing, health care, and college. Even as families have cut back on expenses for things like food, clothing, furniture, and appliances, it hasn’t always been enough; many have been forced to take on more and more debt just to pay for necessities.
Patriot Ledger Op-Ed: Sending money transfers abroad just got easier
For anyone in the Commonwealth with family and friends in other countries, sending money abroad often is done by money transfers.
Daily Hampshire Gazette Op-Ed: Reasonable compromise thwarted by GOP shutdown of government
In western Massachusetts and across the Commonwealth, families are feeling the effects of the unnecessary and avoidable government shutdown. The shutdown has sent thousands of federal employees in Massachusetts home without paychecks and has disrupted access to critical services, piling onto the damage already caused by the idiotic sequester.
Cape Cod Times Op-Ed: Shutdown is Bad for Massachusetts
The federal government has been shut down for more than a week now, and we’ve been seeing the consequences here in Massachusetts. This shutdown is an unnecessary, self-inflicted wound that’s hurting families, and it comes while we are still dealing with the effects of the senseless sequester – drastic, across-the-board spending cuts that have crippled Meals On Wheels, Head Start and investments in medical research.
Boston Globe Op-Ed: Scaling back ‘too big’
FIVE YEARS have passed since the financial crisis, but we all remember its darkest days. Credit dried up. The stock market cratered. There were legitimate fears that the dominos of our financial system would never stop falling.