In its deliberations to develop a plan to reduce the federal deficit by more than a trillion dollars over the next decade, the Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction considered a proposal to calculate cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) in all government programs using the Chained Consumer Price Index-Urban (C-CPI-U), rather than the Consumer Price Index (CPI-U).

Implementing this proposal would dramatically reduce Social Security benefits for recipients. Although reducing federal program benefits by changing the COLA computation is indeed one way to reduce the deficit, reducing benefits is not the only way to eliminate the 75-year projected shortfall (of 2.2 percent of taxable payroll) for the Social Security system.

The shortfall can be closed by holding benefit levels harmless and, instead, increasing revenue directed to the system. A recent report of the Commission to Modernize Social Security Plan for A New Future: The Impact of Social Security Reform on People of Color offers recommendations for doing just that.

Read more at GlobalPolicy.tv and the Joint Center Blog.

On November 18, I participated in the inaugural event for the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies’ launch of its Institute on Civic Engagement and Governance. I had the opportunity to participate on a plenary panel to discuss the challenges and effects of inequality on public policy with Professor William Darity, from Duke University.  I reflected on President Obama’s unique record in handling record levels of income inequality.

Data from 2010 on income and poverty from the US Census Bureau highlights that the bottom 20 percent of households in America earn only 3.3 percent of total income in the US.  The next quintile, the lower-middle income, earns 8.5 percent of the total, and the middle quintile, the mathematical middle-class, earns 14.6 percent.  This means that the poor, and the middle class and lower-middle class earn a combined 26.4 percent of US income.  That is, the bottom six-in-ten of America gets less than three-in-ten of the income.  This results in a disadvantage for the bottom sixty percent and also develops an economic minority.

Read more at The White House Blog.

Faith-based lobbying in Washington D.C., is a nearly $400 million per year industry and the number of faith-based lobbyists in the nation's capital has tripled since 1970.

Nonetheless, the effectiveness of the religious-interest efforts are questionable, despite the staggering monetary and practician figures.

Experts say it is because of the fragmented nature of religion in the U.S.

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People lobbying in Washington, D.C., are looking for national solutions, David Bositis, Senior Political Analysts at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, told CP.

Read more at christianpost.com.

The black population in the Alle-Kiski Valley grew about 15 percent over the last decade, but you won't see that growth reflected in the faces of local elected officials.

Local leaders were hard-pressed to name more than two black people serving as school board or council members, mayors or township supervisors in nearly 60 Valley communities.

In the cities of Arnold and New Kensington, which have the largest concentrations of black residents locally, officials don't believe there ever has been black representation on the councils or in the mayors' offices.

The number of black elected officials nationally and in Pennsylvania nearly doubled in the last 30 years, according to the Washington-based Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, which has maintained the Black Elected Officials Roster since 1970.

Read more at Tarentum Valley News Dispatch.

Stung by summertime allegations that they neglected their bedrock African-American constituency, the White House and President Barack Obama’s reelection team have cranked up their outreach to black voters, selling the president’s first-term achievements as accomplishments that will pay long-term dividends for the black community.

Top administration aides and Cabinet officials have fanned out to black communities, touting those accomplishments — including health care reform, unemployment insurance extensions, public-education overhauls and programs encouraging minority entrepreneurship — and last month, they hosted a summit on African-American issues.

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Summit participant Ralph Everett, president of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, said it helped clear up perceptions that Obama has given short shrift to black communities.

“This administration, no matter what you hear in the news and what you hear other [Republican presidential candidates] talking about, is working hard to look after the interests of all Americans and, at the same time, is doing a lot to look after African-Americans” who are suffering, Everett said.

Read more at politico.com.

Congressional map-drawers in states across the country are struggling to maintain majority-black congressional districts as African Americans move out of urban areas. And now, it appears plausible that one of those new districts could be won by a non-black candidate.

Former congresswoman Debbie Halvorson (D-Ill.) is trying to do what few before her have accomplished: win a majority-black district as a non-black candidate. She faces an ethically wounded Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. (D-Ill.) in a primary in a district that has been stretched from the South Side of Chicago far out into the Cook County suburbs and Will County, which Halvorson represented for one term before losing in 2010.

Only two majority-black districts have been won by a candidate who isn’t black in recent years. One is the Memphis-based district currently held by Rep. Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.); the other was a New Orleans-based district briefly held by Rep. Joseph Cao (R-La.).

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David Bositis, an expert on race and politics at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies and a friend of Jackson’s, said black voters are actually more apt to vote for white candidates than the inverse. It’s simply a matter, he said, of white candidates not running in majority-black districts.

“Contrary to what a lot of people think, black voters do tend to be very pragmatic,” Bositis said. “They look to elect somebody who is going to benefit them.”

Read more at The Washington Post.

Herman Cain’s turn atop the polls in the contest for the Republican presidential nomination captured the attention of journalists and pundits and sparked excitement among grass-roots conservative activists. But is it really possible that he — a black man who overcame poverty in the segregated South to become a wealthy entrepreneur and front-runner in the GOP race — would be the one to bring African American voters back to their original political home?

Cain seems to think so. In a mailer sent to Iowa voters recently, the candidate says “as a descendent of slaves I can lead the Republican party to victory by garnering a large share of the black vote, something that has not been done since Dwight Eisenhower garnered 41 percent of the black vote in 1956.”

It is a proposition that was quickly dismissed by political scholars and analysts, including some members of Cain’s party. Although he has done better than any other black Republican presidential candidate in terms of attracting support, few believe Cain could snare a sizable number of black voters in a general election, especially against President Obama.

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David Bositis, senior political analyst at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, argues that as the Republican Party grows more white and conservative, it represents the interests of most black people less.

“The fact of the matter is, there are no more savvy voters in the country than African American voters, and they’re not interested in any candidate who is not promising them more and better jobs, more and better education, more and better health care and an agenda that aims to deal with the historic racism in the country,” Bositis said. “None of those things are being offered by the Republicans, including Herman Cain.”

Read more at The Washington Post.

A review of the 2007 Survey of Consumer Finances data reveals a troubling disparity: the top black 1 percent of households by income did not include a woman as head of the household . The same is true for for Hispanics. This doesn't mean female-headed households do not exist among the top income earners, but their numbers appear to be small.

"It's somewhat depressing, but it kind of shows us for every Sheila Johnson or Oprah Winfrey, clearly hundreds of thousands are financially struggling and not where they want to be in terms of income and net worth," says Lynnette Kalfani-Cox, Co-founder of Askthemoneycoach.com, a free financial advice blog.

Black women lack participation in so-called "wealth builders," says Wilhelmina Leigh, Senior Research Associate at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies , Leigh says looking at the drivers of wealth underscores the scarcity of black women in the top 1 percent.

Read more at The Grio.

The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, one of the preeminent Black think tanks, recently announced the formation of a Civic Engagement and Governance Institute, a group which will provide information, research and analysis on civic and political participation among people of color.

“While America has made significant progress in racial equality in the four decades since the Joint Center was founded, and while African Americans have vastly increased their representation in elected and appointed positions across most levels of government, a closer look at life in communities of color still finds enduring disparities in areas such as housing, employment, health, income, criminal justice and voting rights,” the organization said in a news release announcing the new institute.

Read more at The Afro.

Conferences held by think tanks are par for the course in Washington, but the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies sponsored an afternoon of plenary sessions that set this effort apart from the pack.   
 
Policy experts, scholars and leaders in business, politics and civil rights gathered at the National Press Club to take part in the Joint Center’s African-American Economic Summit. It featured discussions focusing on ways to address economic inequalities, build an equitable economy in a competitive world, and devise policy solutions so that all Americans can succeed.

Ralph B. Everett, president and CEO of the Joint Center said, “We wanted to put some solutions on the table so people would have something to be hopeful for. It doesn’t feel good to rehash how bad things are so we wanted to give people something to work toward.”

Read more at BET.