College Students To Vote In Record Numbers
More college students expected to vote in 2018 midterms. The Conversation: "The 2016 presidential election results jolted college students – and faculty and administrators at their colleges – to attention. Young Americans preferred Hillary Clinton over Trump by 55 percent to 37 percent, so many were disappointed and surprised by the results. Our research institute provides campuses with individual reports of their students’ registration and voting rates. When campuses saw their rates, which averaged 48 percent in 2016, that was a wake-up call. When I talk with college students throughout the nation, they say they care about immigration and the treatment of Dreamers, #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter, gun violence and ownership, economics and jobs, student loans and the environment. This Harvard poll confirms many of my impressions. Students represent a formidable voting bloc. There are 20 million college and university students nationwide. There are now more eligible voters under the age of 30 than over the age of 65, with 49 million ages 18-29 and 45 million over 65."
GA Activists Blocked From Taking Seniors To Polls
‘This is live voter suppression’: Black Voters Matter blocked from taking Georgia seniors to vote. ThinkProgress: "Seniors in rural Georgia were dancing in the street, preparing to board Black Voters Matter‘s bus to cast their ballots on the first day of Georgia’s early voting period. But the 40 or so elderly African Americans were told by their senior center to get off the bus — an act organizers described as 'live voter suppression.' Black Voters Matter was driving across Georgia Monday in their bus, plastered with photos of African Americans and raised fists, conducting voter outreach and engagement. After speaking with seniors at the Leisure Center in Jefferson County about the importance of voting, they invited them to board the bus to go to the polling place. But once the elderly people were aboard the bus, Black Voters Matter co-founder Cliff Albright announced that they’d have to get off. Leisure Center’s staff said someone had called the county commissioner and complained that the bus should not be taking voters to the polls, he said. LaTosha Brown, Black Voters Matter’s other co-founder, said there was nothing illegal about the group’s activity. The organization is non-partisan and the bus doesn’t endorse any particular candidate. She called it a clear-cut case of 'voter intimidation.'"
Budget Deficit Soars After Tax Cuts
US deficit rises 17% to the highest level since 2012. CNN: "The federal government is running up its credit bill again. The deficit rose to $779 billion in fiscal year 2018, up 17% from last year, according to final figures released Monday by the Treasury Department. That's the largest number since 2012, when the country was still spending massively to stimulate an economy struggling to recover. Government receipts were flat this year from last year. Corporate tax collections fell $76 billion, or 22%, due to the Republican-backed tax cut. But that drop was more than offset by increased revenues from individual and self-employment taxes. The fiscal year ended September 30. Spending rose 3% over the previous year, fueled in part by increases to the defense budget agreed upon in September 2017 as part of a deal between Republicans and Democrats to head off a government shutdown."
U.S. Housing Crisis Affects Young People
America’s housing crisis is breaking young people. Vice: "America’s housing crisis has reached emergency levels. A person working full-time, paid minimum wage, cannot afford a two-bedroom apartment in any county in the country. In all but six states, even if minimum wage were $15, people would still have to work well over 40 hours a week to afford rent. Nearly half of all American renters spend over 30 percent of their income on housing. More than 12 million spend at least half their income on rent. Millions of Americans experience homelessness on any given night, including a growing share of children and young adults. Under these conditions, many of us—especially poor folks and people of color—live one emergency away from an eviction. Meanwhile, after decades of disinvestment, only one in five households that qualify for federal housing assistance receives it, leaving more of the nation’s poor to rent from private landlords than ever before. The private rental market is inconsistently regulated and, in most markets, the demand for affordable housing far outpaces its supply."
