December 8, 2017 (Jobs Byte)

Dean Baker
Jacobin, December 7, 2017

Dean Baker
Democracy, December 6, 2017

Dean Baker and Jared Bernstein
The Washington Post, December 5, 2017

The Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD) in Washington, D.C. aims to provide affordable housing and economic opportunities to underserved households and communities through its housing development projects. One of the three strategic objectives listed by DHCD is “…revitalizing neighborhoods, promoting community development and provide economic opportunities.” Like other large cities across the US such as Boston, New York, and San Francisco, Washington D.C.’s government and its stakeholders are placed with a difficult task to secure space for their communities as their cities accommodate an influx of young professionals, and as a commentator recently pointed out “…[t]hese new District residents have undeniably changed the demographic makeup of D.C., which on the whole has become whiter, wealthier, and younger over the past decade.”

By some indicators, D.C. exemplifies the displacement of people of color to a level that is explicitly contradictory to the city’s stated objectives.

Public-private residential development around the city has contributed to unsustainable rent hikes, gentrifying neighborhoods and causing displacement. Private companies push forward luxury apartment development and retail spaces that ignore the needs of the greater Washington community and the many hurdles it faces towards reaching racial and socioeconomic equity.

Dean Baker
Truthout, December 4, 2017

The Republican tax bill is an abomination. It gives hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks over the next decade to the country's richest people. The Trump family alone stands to pocket more than $1 billion from the reduction in the estate tax and other provisions in the bill.

Furthermore, instead of making the tax code simpler, it creates all sorts of new gaming opportunities. Corporations will have enormous incentive to have their profits show up in tax havens, where they will be able to escape U.S. taxation altogether.

The new rules on pass-through businesses means that anyone is a complete schmuck if they don't arrange a 23 percent tax deduction by having their pay come through their own pass-through. And the repeal of the Johnson Amendment means that rich people will now be able to get taxpayers to subsidize their unlimited campaign contributions by donating to the Church of Republican Politicians.

But one argument repeatedly made by opponents of the bill — that it imposes some huge burden on children — is just painful to see. What do these people think they are saying when they make this assertion?