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Statement on House Budget Resolution Vote: Pennsylvania’s Families Are At Risk

  By Blog post, Penn Policy Center, Statement

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on February 26, 2025. February 26, 2025 By Marc Stier Harrisburg, PA — Today, the Pennsylvania Policy Center released this statement from Executive Director Marc Stier on the passage of the budget resolution in the US House of Representatives: “With their votes today for the passage of the House budget resolution, all of Pennsylvania’s Republican representatives have made their priorities clear: they are willing to slash funding for critical programs that support Pennsylvania’s working families, seniors, and children—all to extend President Trump’s tax cuts for billionaires and big corporations. All Pennsylvania Democrats rightly voted against the budget resolution. “The 2017 Trump tax law failed to deliver on its promises—it did not boost wages, lower prices, or expand the economy for working families. Instead, it added $2 trillion to the national debt while giving corporations a lower effective tax rate than everyday Pennsylvanians earning $45,000… Continue reading

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The Other Shoe Drops: Deep Cuts Coming for Medicaid and SNAP to Pay for Tax Giveaways to the Ultra-Rich

  By Blog post

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on February 15, 2025. February 15, 2025 By Marc Stier I’m sure many of you have been following the news over the last few weeks from Washington, DC, with anguish, worry, and despair. We have seen President Trump and his factotum, Elon Musk (or is it the other way around?), engage in a series of illegal and unconstitutional acts. We have seen a cut-off of foreign aid that is already leading to deaths abroad. And we have seen an attack on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs that aim to roll back the all-too-little progress we have made in reducing the barriers that stand in the way of women and Black people. As I wrote last week in a short blog post, Connecting the Dots, as bad as these actions are, they don’t stand alone. They are meant to push forward the Republican plan to… Continue reading

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PPC Statement on PA Governor Josh Shapiro’s 2025–2026 Budget

  By Blog post

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on February 10, 2025. READ IN A PDF READER OR PRINT. February 4, 2025 Loading Viewer… Continue reading

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Pennsylvania Organizations Opposed to Medicaid and SNAP Cuts, and Tax Cuts for the Ultra-Rich

  By Blog post, LTE, Penn Policy Center

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on February 9, 2025. This letter from Pennsylvania organizations was sent to all members of the PA congressional delegation on January 29, 2025. As you know, the incoming Trump administration and the Republican congressional leaders plan to extend and potentially expand the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act (TCJA), which is set to expire at the end of 2025. We urge you to use the expiration of these provisions as an opportunity to address long-standing inequities in our tax code and to raise more revenue to meet our country’s current obligations and address critical unmet needs.  We also urge you not to reduce federal funding for the Medicaid, CHIP, and SNAP programs. No matter what we look like or where we’re from, all Pennsylvanians believe in caring for their families and community. People in our state work hard, giving our all as teachers, delivery drivers,… Continue reading

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Connecting the Dots

  By Blog post, Speech

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on February 9, 2025. This is roughly what our executive director, Marc Stier, said on Wednesday, February 7, 2025, at the “50/50/1” event on the Capitol steps in Harrisburg. More than 400 people were there to protest the Trump administration’s march towards fascism. It’s great to see at least four hundred of you here today. I know a lot of people were afraid to come to this event because they didn’t know who sponsored it. So, I applaud you for joining us. It’s going to take courage to fight back against the terrible things happening in Washington, and you are showing that today. In my remarks today I want to connect the dots between the four things the Trump administration is doing publicly and one other thing that’s happening mostly behind closed doors in Washington. It is the far less public thing that ultimately… Continue reading

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Trump’s Greatest Threat is to the Idea of Civilized Life Itself

  By Fascism, Philosophy, Political philosophy, Racial Justice, White Supremacy and Structural Racism

To understand Trump and his politics and what we have to do to stop it, we must recognize that he is ultimately a threat to the central idea of human political and social achievement, that human beings do better when everyone is included and our aim is the collective good of all. Let me start with one example, and then return to this general point. There is an interesting and complicated discussion in Machiavelli’s Discourses about whether it is better, when one is in a conflict with another state, to fight abroad or at home. There is a lot to be said on both sides when it comes to conventional war. But when it comes to dealing with infectious disease, isn’t it obvious that it’s better to fight abroad? That is, we protect our own citizens from infectious diseases by helping other countries contain outbreaks of them in their own… Continue reading

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Statement: Trump’s Executive Order Freezing Federal Payments Is Harmful, Illegal and Unconstitutional

  By Blog post, Penn Policy Center, Statement

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on January 29, 2025. For Immediate Release January 29, 2025 Contact: Kirstin Snow, snow@pennpolicy.org Late on Monday, the Trump administration issued an executive order halting payment of grants and loans to state and local governments, social service providers, and others. This action is illegal and unconstitutional. And it is likely to cause immediate and widespread harm to people and families across our state and the country. It must be rescinded by the President as soon as possible. There are still many uncertainties about the impact of the order. The U.S. Office of Management and Budget has issued a number of clarifications of it—however, they have done little to clarify the scope and intention of the order. It appears now that funding for state and local programs that provide veterans’ services, ensure public safety, and help seniors will be halted. So will some funding for… Continue reading

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STATEMENT: Trump Priorities Pose Stark Contrast to MLK’s Vision of Equality and Opportunity for All People

  By Blog post, Penn Policy Center, Statement

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on January 17, 2025. VIEW IN PDF READER OR PRINT. Loading Viewer… Continue reading

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Comments Given at the PA Schools Work Press Event – January 2025

  By Blog post, Speech

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on January 16, 2025. January 16, 2025 by Marc Stier I’m here to call on the General Assembly to fill the remaining $4 billion gap needed to adequately fund our schools in four years. Let me explain why PA Schools Work believes this is a reasonable goal. The education budget adopted for the current 2024–25 fiscal year accomplished three very important things. And, unusually for a state budget, the most important accomplishment may be less well known than the less important ones. First, most people know that the state added more than $1 billion to the state’s support for K–12 education. This is the largest one-year investment in the state’s history. Second, many people know that this budget shifted the paradigm for state funding of education. Instead of directing most of the new money through the fair funding formula benefitting all districts, the bulk… Continue reading

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The Barbarians Are at the Gate

  By Blog post

Originally published at Pennsylvania Policy Center on December 23, 2024. Donald Trump and Republicans in Congress are about to seek major cuts in Medicaid to pay for deep cuts to the taxes of the ultra-rich and wealthy corporations. We often talk, with pride, about our American civilization as a high mark of the West. Yet what makes for civilization? Human history is full of great and powerful kingdoms and empires led by, and mostly serving the good of, kings, emperors, and monarchs. They weren’t civilized by our standards. The aim of most of those grandees was not to help those they ruled but to take from them to enrich and elevate themselves. What makes the United States different and truly civilized is that we have attempted to create a government by and for the people, one in which the powerful are constrained by the people to serve the people. And… Continue reading