The Middle Class Wins in Congress

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Meghan Miller

Meghan Miller is an intern with the Center for American Progress.
Number of posts: 1
Email address: email

Posts by Meghan Miller:

Party of "No, Says, "Yes"

The Middle Class Wins in Congress

by Meghan Miller | 1, Add your Comment | Feb 19, 2012

New Law on Payroll Tax Extension Is Great News

Congress today passed an extension to the payroll tax cut, unemployment benefits, and the “doc fix” for the rest of 2012, avoiding the March 1 expiration and a potential hit to middle-class families across the country. The final vote ensures hard-working Americans and those unemployed through no fault of their own will be able to help contribute to our economic growth as the economy picks up steam.

Payroll tax cuts allow American workers to take home more money in their paychecks: $120 billion more in 2011 alone. Unemployment benefits, through which the government assists people who lost their job through no fault of their own, kept 3.2 million Americans out of poverty in 2010. And without the doc fix doctors would earn 27 percent less in Medicare reimbursements.

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Rising From the Ashes

In this day of anonymous email trashings, un-informed blog posts, and you tube mistakes that last forever, we rarely see political second chances. But last week a disgraced public servant rose like a Phoenix from the ashes to reclaim former glory in the political arena. Mark Sanford has been elected to represent Charleston, and South Carolina, in the United States Congress. In a room where everyone is addressed as “honorable” Sanford will have an opportunity to regain the revered glow that accompanied him during his magical time as governor of one of the self-proclaimed great states in this country, and finally bec Read on →

A New Book—Favorite Places

Your favorite place ... For many it would be home, that safe harbor we have shaped to our own needs and likes, that refuge from the world’s ills, stresses, and bothers. Home makes for an easy choice. Suppose, however, an editor asked you what your favorite place is other than your home, and what if she said, “Write about it and we’ll put it in a book.” That’s precisely what happened to me. Three years ago the former editor of Sandlapper magazine, Aida Rogers, emailed me asking me if I would write about my favorite place in South Carolina. And I wasn’t th Read on →

Heritage Inaction

For some reason, a letter from the lobbying arm of the Heritage Foundation was characterized as having been received by NBC News, as if it were some sort of privileged communication. In fact, the thing was a press release and rather obviously designed to change the conversation about the Heritage Foundation from trying to defend the indefensible "study" of Hispanic intellectual insufficiency to food stamps, a real two-fer issue. Two-fer in the sense of being offensive on two fronts since the dollars doled out represent a subsidy to industrial agriculture, even as they serve to remind the indigent that, if they're Read on →

Interpreting at the Free Clinic

I had an interesting morning yesterday at the Free Clinic. Once a week I’m a Spanish interpreter in an organization supported by over 400 volunteers who give a few hours a week of their particular expertise in a smoothly run team. We cater for patients with chronic conditions needing regular medication, having no access to health insurance. Yesterday we met a new patient who is deaf and mute since birth. We took her through her eligibility interview with a social worker, then a nurse took her health history, followed by a doctor's consultation and a laboratory test. In the seven years I Read on →

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Meghan Miller

Posts by Meghan Miller:

Party of "No, Says, "Yes"

The Middle Class Wins in Congress

Worthy of Comment

Also on the Dew

Rising From the Ashes

A New Book—Favorite Places

Heritage Inaction

Interpreting at the Free Clinic