Roosevelt Institute

Advancing ideas that rebalance power in our economy and democracy.

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

Today we’re launching The #GoodLife Agenda.

We’ve spent decades told that if the economy grows, people’s lives will get better.🧵

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

.@JessicaCalarco's conclusion is simple:

It’s time to stop treating care as an individual problem—and start treating it as public infrastructure.

Read the report: https://t.co/yfEbhb9vR3

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

New 📰: @JessicaCalarco explores how America's care system works by shifting the burden onto whoever has the least power to refuse it—what she coins the "care cascade."

Calarco spent years interviewing parents and shows how the cascade plays out in real life 🧵

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

The tax cap was never designed for an economy this unequal.

Our CEO @ewwilkins on why inequality—not just demographics—is eroding Social Security's revenue base, via @aimeepicchi

https://t.co/xfglP1ADB1

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

#ICYMI: Our top stories of the week

✅ The cascade effect of broken care infrastructure
✅ The nuts and bolts of implementing a childcare system
✅ How policy gridlock and economic inequality reinforce each other

More in the #RooseveltRundown ⬇️

https://t.co/emCM0hdQtd

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

Time is a core building block of a good life, alongside wages and economic security.

Read more on how organizations like 4C are giving time back to their workers in our #GoodLife Agenda: https://t.co/5v9cModuX5

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

Increased productivity doesn’t have to mean longer hours—it can mean more time for workers.

That’s the thinking behind 4C Health, an Indiana mental health center that moved nearly all staff to 4-day, 32-hour weeks while keeping full pay and 24/7 coverage through team scheduling.

[Todd N. Tucker @toddntucker]

NEW @rooseveltinst from Daniel Driscoll: The Four Pillars of Green State Capacity.

Markets alone can't deliver decarbonization. Here are the four things states need to be able to play their leading role.

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

Important piece in @DemJournal on why progressives should defend, not abandon, income tax.

As our President @ewwilkins puts it, proposals that hollow out income tax risk feeding anti-tax narratives that make it harder to build the government people need.
https://t.co/NECAXpzWdn

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

The answer to that disillusionment isn't to take a sledgehammer to government.

Our polling finds that Americans want government involved in the economy—but in service of working people, not special interests.

Read the polling behind our #GoodLife Agenda. https://t.co/DQPQbVerYe

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

These are the 32% of Americans who are disillusioned by a political establishment that serves corporations and the wealthy instead of working people.

Americans are cutting back on basic necessities while this administration does the bidding of its donors.
https://t.co/GsSdxx5rUw

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

32% of Americans believe the system is rigged in favor of corporations and the wealthy, that government involvement makes things worse, and that federal policies actively hurt the middle class, per the Roosevelt Institute.

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

The debate over Social Security in DC is framed as a choice between benefit cuts or insolvency.

This false binary must be rejected. The real question is how we modernize Social Security for an economy w/ far more inequality than when the program was built.https://t.co/R3D6qJFtbf

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

For over 90 years, Social Security has been one of the few reliable sources of financial stability for millions of Americans.

As @keds_economist writes, “We don’t need to save Social Security. We need Social Security to save Americans.” https://t.co/uhscJq8Cye

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

Kristin Spanos, CEO of @First5Alameda, speaks about what comes after policy wins: implementation.

How do you turn public investment into real outcomes for families? It takes capacity, coordination, and "surgical rigor."

https://t.co/cgUT6jNAX0

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

The cap has also made Social Security less resilient as earnings growth concentrates at the top.

Removing it gets us closer to full solvency. It should be paired with reforms that expand benefits and further strengthen Social Security.

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

.@SenWarren is right: Congress does not need to cut Social Security to strengthen it.

A clear place to start is lifting the payroll tax cap so the highest earners pay into Social Security on all of their income. 🧵
https://t.co/jbwaHCQylP

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

Wages above $184K are not taxed for Social Security. That means most workers pay Social Security taxes on all their earnings, while the highest earners pay only on part of theirs.

That leaves too much income outside the system.

https://t.co/Bx9mkIDLyo

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

The tax cap was never designed for an economy this unequal.

Our CEO @ewwilkins on why inequality—not just demographics—is eroding Social Security's revenue base, via @aimeepicchi

https://t.co/xfglP1ADB1

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

.@JessicaCalarco's conclusion is simple:

It’s time to stop treating care as an individual problem—and start treating it as public infrastructure.

Read the report: https://t.co/yfEbhb9vR3

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

New 📰: @JessicaCalarco explores how America's care system works by shifting the burden onto whoever has the least power to refuse it—what she coins the "care cascade."

Calarco spent years interviewing parents and shows how the cascade plays out in real life 🧵

[Roosevelt Institute @rooseveltinst]

The result is a cycle:

➡️ Low wages
➡️ Worker shortages
➡️ Less available care
➡️ More unpaid caregiving by families
➡️ More burnout

The system functions by pushing responsibility downstream.