|
|
|
|
PPI Statement on President Biden's FY 2024 Budget Proposal
By Ben Ritz
Director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Funding America’s Future
Ben Ritz, Director of the Progressive Policy Institute’s Center for Funding America’s Future, released the following statement on President Biden’s new budget proposal:
“With inflation still running high and the national debt on track to break its historical record as a share of economic output three years sooner than projected last year, both parties should be working together to improve our nation’s finances. We thus applaud President Biden’s decision to call for nearly $3 trillion of deficit reduction over the next decade in his Fiscal Year 2024 budget proposal to Congress — a target that’s three times as ambitious as the one he set in his proposal last year.
“However, we are concerned that this budget does not really tackle the financial challenges facing Social Security and Medicare. The budget’s proposed reforms are largely limited to improving the solvency of Medicare Part A Hospital Insurance, which only finances about 40% of Medicare spending. They do so in part by diverting savings from the other components of Medicare, such as Part D prescription drug benefits, thereby making the broader budget’s financial problems harder to solve. And the proposal makes no meaningful attempt to improve the solvency of Social Security, which faces automatic benefit cuts of over 20% when its trust funds are exhausted in roughly a decade.
|
|
|
New from the Experts
Biden’s $6.8 Trillion Budget Pitch Sets Up a Showdown, ft. Ben Ritz, Director of PPI's Center for Funding America’s Future
⮕ The New York Times
Biden turns rote budget into campaign-style attack on oil, ft. Paul Bledsoe, Strategic Advisor for PPI
⮕ Politico Pro
How Biden Got From ‘No More Drilling’ to Backing a Huge Project in Alaska, ft. Paul Bledsoe, Strategic Advisor for PPI
⮕ The New York Times
Dan Abrams Live, ft. Will Marshall, President and Founder of PPI
⮕ NewsNation
Legislation Was Introduced to Support Justice Impacted Individuals Entrepreneurship, ft. PPI
⮕ Michigan Business Network
Trade Fact of the Week: Southeast Asians work the longest hours
⮕ PPI's Trade Fact of the Week
|
|
|
Weighing the Risks of Right to Repair for Consumer Tech Products
By Malena Dailey
PPI's Technology Policy Analyst
For PPI Blog
Who has the “right to repair” a product after it’s been purchased? The intuitive answer would be the person or business that purchased it, but in the case of products with sophisticated technology and software — an increasingly common characteristic for just about any product — this becomes more complicated. In these cases, repairs likely require specialized equipment or software programs from the manufacturers, which in turn runs a higher risk of exposing trade secrets or reducing the security built into the product by requiring backdoor entry for repairs or diagnostics.
Legislators have grappled with trying to find this balance for some time. For example, take the case of cars, which now have complex onboard computers. Massachusetts passed a comprehensive right to repair bill in 2013. It required that manufacturers allow independent mechanics access to the same diagnostic and repair information provided to franchised dealerships. Similar issues have arisen around repairs for other complex technologies such as medical and agricultural equipment, for which 11 states have introduced legislation creating a general right to repair.
But consumer tech, such as smartphones, raises the issue of security to a new level. Opening any device to repair by third parties increases its vulnerability to unauthorized, unwanted software such as malware or spyware. It also gives third-parties access to sensitive user data which, without proper vetting of the third party, may put consumers at risk. Things like phones, tablets, and laptops store an enormous amount of personal data, and by ensuring third parties can access devices, backdoor security risks are inevitable.
|
|
An Overview of Global AI Regulation and What's Next
By Jordan Shapiro and Jillian Cota
Director of PPI's Innovation Frontier Project
For PPI Blog
Artificial intelligence (AI) is the new subject of large-scale regulation by governments around the world. While AI has many benefits, such as increased productivity and cost savings, it also presents some risks and challenges. For example, AI systems can sometimes be biased or discriminatory, leading to unfair outcomes. They can also raise concerns about privacy and data security, as these systems often rely on large amounts of personal data.
As a result, governments around the world are starting to introduce regulations to ensure that AI is developed and used in a safe, responsible, and ethical manner. These regulations cover a range of issues, from data privacy and security to algorithmic transparency and accountability.
This piece will unpack the novel AI regulation in the U.S., EU, Canada, and China and how each country approaches the technology as they seek to balance economic, social, and public priorities with innovation.
|
|
|
|
Radically Pragmatic:
Child Care, It is a Workforce Issue!
In this episode of the Radically Pragmatic podcast, PPI's Taylor Maag, the Director of Workforce Development Policy speaks with national and state leaders, Linda Smith from the Bipartisan Policy Center and Ashli Watts from the Kentucky Chamber on child care policy in our nation, how it is affecting women in the workforce and bold new solutions to address child care challenges at scale.
|
|
|
THE NEOLIBERAL PODCAST:
How Silicon Valley Bank Collapsed, ft. Joseph Politano
How did Silicon Valley Bank collapse, and what does it mean for the tech sector and the economy? Founder of apricitas.io Joseph Politano returns to the show to help Jeremiah explain what happened over the last week. How did the largest bank collapse of the last decade happen?
|
|
|
|
Staff Spotlight: Nick Buffie
Nick Buffie
Senior Policy Analyst, Center for Funding America's Future
Nick Buffie is a Senior Policy Analyst at PPI's Center for Funding America's Future, where he focuses on tax reform, income security programs, pro-growth public investments, and fiscal sustainability. He previously worked as a tax and budget policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, as an economic policy advisor to Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign, as a research assistant at the Center for Economic and Policy Research, and as an intern at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Nick's research has been cited in many of the nation’s most widely read media outlets, including the New York Times, Washington Post, Meet the Press, and National Public Radio. He has published op-eds and other short writings in MarketWatch, Business Insider, Quillette, the Huffington Post, and Real Clear Policy.
Nick holds a Masters in Public Policy from the Harvard Kennedy School and a BA in Economics and Spanish from Wesleyan University. He is a fluent Spanish speaker. |
|
|
|
Don't Miss These PPI Reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
