Economic Security Project

The Federal Reserve's independence is "a fiscal concern just as much as a democratic one," ESP's @mtkonczal told a House Oversight Committee roundtable on federal spending and the national debt today. Presidential pressure on the Fed creates a political instability premium, raising rates on the credit cards, mortgages, and auto loans Americans use every day. This erodes trust in the institution that will take a generation to rebuild.

🚨HAPPENING NOW: ESP's Senior Director of Policy and Research @mtkonczal is at a House Oversight Committee roundtable, sharing recommendations on federal spending and the national debt. Watch here: youtube.com/watch?v=Xcrhf7…

Chanelle Brown is a mother of two, pregnant with her third child, and a POWER-PAC Illinois parent leader with Community Organizing and Family Issues (@COFIOnline). And like forty percent of mothers who give birth in Illinois, she relies on Medicaid. Having a baby is beautiful. It is also uncertain, vulnerable, and for too many moms, far too expensive. As new federal cuts threaten Medicaid coverage, families are left to absorb costs that no new parent should have to carry alone. Advocates and policymakers in Springfield are working to change that. The Newborn Equity Support Transfer (NEST) program would provide expectant mothers on Medicaid with $1,500 in their third trimester and $500 a month for the first six months of a baby’s life.  Read Chanelle’s letter to the editor in the @Suntimes to hear directly from her about what that support would mean.  🔗 chicago.suntimes.com/letters-to-the…

$160 and 9 hours. That’s what filing taxes costs the average American, not in taxes, in fees to private companies that have spent decades lobbying to keep the system complicated. In 2024, Direct File proved it didn’t have to be this way. Free, no middleman, 94% satisfaction. Then it was shut down. We documented what worked, what we learned, and what comes next in our new report. Our Tax Filing Fellows built a roadmap for how a future administration can bring it back and make it too essential to ever take away again.  Read the full report: economicsecurityproject.org/resource/the-f…

Child care in America is broken — and families and providers are paying the price.  1 in 3 families spends more on child care than on rent. Childcare workers earn poverty wages and have had their healthcare and SNAP benefits cut. Corporations are raising prices on everything from gas to groceries. This system is unaffordable and unsustainable. This is why TODAY, we're standing with parents and providers for a #DayWithoutChildCare — demanding public funding that makes care affordable, thriving wages and benefits for providers, and an economy that works for all of us. Because when child care works, families thrive. Communities thrive. Everyone wins. Visit DayWithoutChildcare.org to learn more!  #ChildcareChangemakers #DWOCC26 #UniversalChildCare @communitychange

10 years ago, the idea of #guaranteedincome was written off as wishful thinking.  Today, alongside @communitychange, and @Move_UpTogether, we’re hosting the third Guaranteed Income Now convening — bringing together hundreds of organizers, policymakers, researchers, and participants who've turned a once-impossible idea into a movement reshaping how this country thinks about cash, trust, and economic freedom. What started with two pilots in Stockton, CA and Jackson, MS has grown into a nationwide movement of 230 pilots that puts cash in the hands of 70,000 families. We're gathering at a moment when the affordability crisis, AI disruption, and climate upheaval are transforming our economy — and when guaranteed income has emerged as one of the most tangible solutions we have to help families navigate this period of deep transition. The next decade is ours to shape. #GINow2026

1/ Last week, under the shadow of the Michigan state capitol, I gave a keynote address to the hundreds of people gathered to ask a question 250 years in the making: Are we fulfilling the promise of democracy in America?

What do we owe the people whose work built the AI technology that’s transforming our economy? In a new paper, ESP fellow Rayan Semery-Palumbo argues that #guaranteedincome is one of the answers — but how we frame that cash will determine whether it empowers people or quietly tells them their work is obsolete. His proposal: Reframing cash support as recovered wage. Repayment for what we are owed. Since 1975, $79 trillion in income has been redirected from the bottom 90% of American workers to the top 10% — nearly $1 million per worker over a career. That missing income becomes the home never bought, the retirement never saved. It is years of worry that could have been spent living with agency and the freedom to live life on their own terms. Now AI is arriving on top of that loss, threatening jobs that workers have long built their lives around and closing off career pathways for younger generations. Cash is a powerful stabilizer in moments of transition, but how people interpret, receive, and are affected by cash can vary based on framing and delivery. The same cash can land very differently depending on whether it’s presented as charitable assistance or as money earned and owed. That difference shapes whether people claim the benefit with pride or accept it with a sense of shame for being left behind. Rayan brings academic research and lived experience to this argument. His mom spent fifteen years at a call center before AI, trained on calls like the ones she made daily, replaced her in 2024. She is one of millions of workers — caregivers, drivers, cashiers, teachers — whose contributions held this country together and were never fairly paid for their work. Recovered Wages names what they are owed, and makes the case for finally giving it back. Read the full paper: economicsecurityproject.org/resource/recov…

Inflation is making people nervous. ESP's @mtkonczal explains how rising costs are driving US consumer sentiment to record lows on @BloombergTV's Real Yield 👇 bloomberg.com/news/videos/20…

This week, ESP co-founder @nataliefoster delivered the keynote at the @MichLeague's 2026 forum, with a clear argument: economic security and democracy are inseparable. “Every conversation we have about democracy has to also be a conversation about economic security.” Big thanks to MLPP for convening this conversation, and to all the other panelists who participated. Read more about the event here: michiganadvance.com/2026/04/30/mic…

Skyrocketing health costs, hospitals and clinics closing down, and millions of families losing their healthcare: these are the consequences of H.R.1 unfolding in real time, nationwide. H.R.1 gutted over $1 trillion from Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act. The bill also gave over $1 trillion in tax cuts that mostly benefit billionaires and big corporations. We need better, affordable healthcare for all. Instead, working families are getting stuck with higher costs and coverage losses. As the healthcare crisis continues to escalate, it's time to speak out against the #healthcareheist. Learn more here: economicsecurityproject.org/resource/may-h…

ESP’s Future of Tax Filing Fellows — Chris Given, Jen Thomas, @merici, and Gabriel Zucker — helped build one of the most well-received civic tech tools in recent memory: IRS #DirectFile. For the past year, they've been documenting what has worked and exploring the next generation of public tools to expand access to tax credits. Huge congrats to @FedScoop's @MattBracken, whose profile of the fellow just earned a regional silver Azbee Award from ASBPE. 🏆 Read the profile here: fedscoop.com/direct-file-fu…

We're thrilled to welcome Maggie-Leigh O'Neill to ESP as our newest childcare fellow! 🎉 Maggie brings two decades of experience analyzing federal, state, and local policy — with a deep commitment to protecting and empowering women, children, and survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Most recently a Governor's Fellow for the New Jersey Department of Education, Maggie will be co-authoring a policy and research brief on innovative solutions to advance universal public childcare during her ESP fellowship. We’re excited to work with her in shaping the future of care policy. Welcome, Maggie!

"Moms could tremendously benefit from [receiving cash] and take some of the burden off." That’s doula Raeshanda Payne, reacting to Illinois’s Newborn Equity Support Transfer (NEST) program, which would provide $1,500 during the third trimester and $500 a month for the first six months after birth to eligible families. Nearly 40% of new mothers in Illinois would qualify. Cash at the moment it matters most. That’s what NEST delivers. Hear the full conversation for @WBEZIntheLoop with host @SashaAnnSimons, joined by Dr. Adams, March of Dimes' Michelle Adeniyi, and doulas Raeshanda Payne and Nikena Hannah — on why Black women face higher rates of pregnancy-related complications, and how cash can help address it. Full episode here: open.spotify.com/episode/1ZMogR…

Exciting to see Alex Bores put pen to paper on an AI Dividend. We spent a lot of time studying the pros and cons of the Alaska Dividend early at @EconomicSecProj and what I think is most promising is the advancement of a politics of shared ownership and shared benefit.

"Overall, it locks Democrats in and keeps locking them in further from being able to fund a government that can do all of the things that need to be done.” As lawmakers float new tax proposals aimed at the middle class, ESPs @mtkonczal spoke with @nytimes about what's really at stake. The deeper question isn't which party can cut taxes more – it's whether our tax code can generate the revenue needed to fund the things families rely on, like affordable healthcare, childcare, and a stronger safety net. Without that foundation, meaningful relief for the families who need it most stays out of reach. nytimes.com/2026/04/19/us/…

7/7 Loopholes, subsidies, and special benefits for corporations and the ultra-rich are the real problem in our tax code, yet too many of our leaders refuse to address it. A fair tax system would curb inequality and put cash back into working families’ pockets. That’s the system we’re fighting for.

6/ Now, as President Trump uses #TaxDay to tell a misleading story about his signature tax cuts, the majority in Congress is considering even deeper cuts to basic needs programs. A fair tax system would reverse the cuts and repair the immense damage that’s already been done, instead of making things worse for working people.

1/ Rising prices on everything from gas to groceries to healthcare are pushing working folks to the brink. Instead of offering families relief, the Trump administration has been pursuing an agenda that benefits billionaires and big corporations over working families. 🧵