Deborah Weinstein

Today, the Coalition on Human Needs sent a letter making these points to every senator.

May 16, 2012

Dear Senator:

Today you will have the opportunity to vote on a number of budget resolutions: the House-passed budget and plans by Senators Toomey, Paul, and...

The president's budget proposal for FY 2013 recognizes some basic truths: we cannot speed up economic recovery without investments that create jobs and increase workers' readiness to do those jobs. And we must protect people from destitution when they are not able to work, both to reduce...

The "basic American promise," as the president described it in his State of the Union address, is that people who work hard should be able to raise a family, own a home, send their children to college, and save for retirement. The defining issue? "How to keep...

When the House Republicans blew up a bipartisan Senate plan to continue unemployment insurance and the payroll tax cut for two months, they made it clear that they were willing to use the 99 percent as bargaining chips in their fight to protect the top 1 percent.

I say...

Last week reports of competing proposals began to emerge from behind the closed doors of the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, one unveiled by some of the panel's Democrats and another put forward by its Republicans. Although neither plan has been made public, this much seems reliable: the Democratic...

To the Senate:

American workers need jobs. You have the opportunity to create or save at least a million jobs through the American Jobs Act of 2011. The members of the Coalition on Human Needs urge you to vote to move this legislation forward and to enact it as quickly...

Yes, Mr. President: right away is when we need Congress to enact your jobs package.

You are right to recognize the urgency of the matter. Tomorrow the Census Bureau will tell us how many people were poor or precariously close to poverty last year. The new survey is not...

We need jobs. The monthly snapshot of the unemployed, (in August still 9.1 percent), tells only part of the story. Looking over a whole year, close to one-third of workers have lost jobs or had their hours cut, according to a new Economic Policy Institute analysis....

With default eight days away, last night Speaker Boehner laid out his priorities before the American public. To summarize: (1) preserve tax breaks for those at the top at all costs; (2) cater to the most extreme members of his caucus; and (3) stick it to the president. I may...

It comes down to this: Is it more important for millionaires to have all of their tax breaks preserved or for Gail to have her life saved by Medicaid?

Gail lives in Utah. She knew something was wrong with her breast, but didn't have insurance, and so put off...

The number of poor children had already grown by 2.1 million in 2009 over pre-recession levels, with continuing high joblessness among parents raising concerns that poverty will continue to worsen for some time. Since kids who spend more than half their childhood in poverty earn on average

By Deborah Weinstein and Melissa Boteach

Listening to the politically-charged debate over the budget deficit and federal debt limit it's easy to forget that every decision to cut funding for human needs programs affects thousands, sometimes millions, of people.

They are people like Terrence who went from...

Because Congress failed to act in November to continue the federal emergency Unemployment Insurance program, two million unemployed workers are expected to go without income this month. Another million each month will go without unemployment benefits into the New Year. If Congress does not act in December, tax cuts affecting...

In the real world, there are millions of people out of work and getting by on an average unemployment benefit of $293 a week. And there are millionaires, who receive about $110,000 a year from the Bush tax cuts.

But where others see millions of unemployed people, Rep. Michele...

At least one in four children was poor in nearly 190 counties in 39 states in 2009, a time of severe recession. In 33 counties in 17 states, at least one in three children was living in poverty. The American Community Survey for 2009, released yesterday by the...

The Census Bureau poverty data released today makes it clear that our country is facing a state of emergency. In just one year, 3.7 million more people, including 1.4 million children, fell into poverty. Today, more than one in five children is poor.

The depth of poverty created by...

There is ample evidence that young people growing up or coming of age in a recession face long-term constraints on their future success. Jobless parents mean many more children are born into poverty, and poor children are more likely to suffer ill health and fall behind in school. Young workers...

The growth in jobs of the last few months is welcome but fragile. Senators will cast votes this week that will either cost workers hundreds of thousands of jobs or save those jobs and put us on a surer path to create more.

The Senate is debating legislation (

Yesterday the Coalition on Human Needs sent out an alert asking people to call their congressional representatives in support of a bill that will extend the federal Unemployment Insurance program, provide aid to states, and fund important jobs programs. Early this morning I received some emails in response....

Today -- April 5 -- is not a good day for people who've been out of work more than six months. That is because the U.S. Senate failed to extend the federal program of Unemployment Insurance benefits before leaving for a two-week Congressional recess, even though the program was scheduled...