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      ​Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell

      Ignoring Warnings of Mass Job Loss, Fed Hikes Rates to Highest Level in Decades

      "The dangerous reflex to hike rates, no matter the causes of inflation, is both a policy failure and a failure to imagine a world in which workers are anything other than expendable," said one economist.

      Kenny Stancil
      Jul 26, 2023

      Progressives on Wednesday rebuked the U.S. Federal Reserve for raising interest rates by another 25 basis points, arguing that the move threatens to throw millions of people out of work while failing to address the root causes of inflation.

      Wednesday's interest rate hike—the 11th in 16 months—pushes benchmark borrowing costs to a target range of 5.25%-5.5%, their highest level since early 2001. It also ignores the advice of numerous academics and lawmakers who have long contended that job-killing rate hikes are incapable of tackling the corporate price gouging that is contributing significantly to the cost-of-living crisis.

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      Kevin McCarthy

      Progressives Say IRS Cuts Should Be 'Off the Table' as GOP Reneges on Debt Ceiling Deal

      With House Republicans pledging to limit new spending on a range of programs, Democrats are "no longer obliged to move forward with the IRS cuts" in the handshake deal, said more than a dozen groups.

      Julia Conley
      Jul 14, 2023

      More than a dozen economic justice groups on Friday called on the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee to move forward with fully funding the Internal Revenue Service, arguing that Republican actions have nullified a debt ceiling deal struck by the Biden White House and GOP leaders.

      Under the terms of the handshake agreement, the nation's borrowing limit was suspended for two years in exchange for a two-year limit on non-military spending—rescinding Covid-19 relief funds; clawing back more than $20 billion in IRS funding that was a signature element of the Democrats' climate and healthcare law, the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA); and enforcing new work requirements for recipients of nutritional and economic aid.

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      U.S. Federal Reserve Board Chair Jerome Powell speaks during a news conference following a Federal Open Market Committee meeting in Washington, D.C. on June 14, 2023.

      With Inflation Down, Economists Demand Fed Permanently Halt 'Dangerous Rate-Hiking'

      "As interest rates have risen to 'cool' the economy, who do you think has shouldered the burden? Working people," said Robert Reich. "There's no reason to continue punishing them when they aren't to blame for inflation."

      Jessica Corbett
      Jun 14, 2023

      After the latest consumer price index update signaled cooling inflation, the Federal Reserve's interest rate-setting committee on Wednesday temporarily paused hikes, an approach that progressive economists and others want the panel to continue.

      The Federal Open Market Committee confirmation that, as expected, it will keep the federal funds rate at 5-5.25% follows 10 consecutive hikes since early 2022 that have increasingly generated concerns of a recession and major job losses.

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