Donations spotlight: Help the Center for Economic and Policy Research expose the heist in Washington and protect programs that serve working people

Note from the CREDO Mobile team: This July, the Center for Economic and Policy Research is among three amazing nonprofits that will receive a share of our monthly grant. Funding from the CREDO Mobile community will support CEPR in its work to promote democratic debate on the important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives—and Expose the Heist happening in Washington now.

Read this important message from CEPR, then visit CREDO Donations and cast your vote to help send vital grant money to the group to assist its efforts—and the efforts of our other outstanding July grantees.

The federal government is in a precarious state, with entire agencies and major social safety net programs under threat. With so many sweeping changes happening at once, it can be difficult to know where to get a clear understanding of the issues and then to know which policies best support everyday people.

The Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) has a 25-year history of cutting through the noise to highlight the true effects of government policy. Our research is based on real numbers and straightforward analysis so that policymakers—and the everyday people who rely on them—understand how economic policy impacts workers, their families and their communities.

Attacks on our social safety net are bringing real pain to real people

Right now, some of the most important social safety net programs in the country are under assault. Programs like Medicaid and Social Security, which keep millions of people out of poverty and provide them with life-saving medical care. Like the disaster-preparedness and recovery programs of FEMA and other agencies, which protect vulnerable communities from the devastating effects of climate change. Public lands, public data and public health have all been gutted. Even the U.S. Postal Service is on the chopping block.

Meanwhile, lawmakers are hard at work enabling powerful and wealthy special interests to lay waste to our shared economy. Medicare “Advantage” programs funnel taxpayer money to private insurance companies at the expense of patient care. Private equity firms are given free-rein to gamble with workers’ hard-earned pensions. And the Trump administration is weakening consumer protections in the already barely regulated cryptocurrency market. Through it all, Elon Musk’s DOGE department is running up a bill that working families will have to pay.

CEPR is standing up for working Americans

There is certainly a lot of bad news out there but there is good news too: CEPR is fighting back. Our researchers challenge false narratives and expose the corruption in Washington to protect the programs that serve working people. Right now, we’re focusing on these vital areas:

Defending disaster preparedness

Climate change-related disasters are more common every year and vulnerable communities across the country rely on FEMA and other government agencies to support them when a disaster strikes. CEPR climate analyst Matt Sedlar writes about the importance of these programs. When wildfires ravaged Los Angeles, he called attention to the Trump administration’s cuts to fire protection and how they now put more communities at risk in the future. Sedlar also highlighted the importance of BRIC, an under-the-radar FEMA program ended by the Trump administration that gave funding to at-risk communities for preventative measures, helped them improve infrastructure and address risks posed by future disasters.

Protecting Medicaid

It is no secret that Republican lawmakers want to cut Medicaid, the program that provides healthcare coverage to 83 million low-income Americans. CEPR co-director and health policy expert Eileen Appelbaum writes about how these cuts will hurt healthcare for everyone, even people who aren’t on Medicaid. Max Sawicky explains how “block grants” are just a deceptive way of saying “cuts to Medicaid.” And Emma Curchin exposes the phony arguments behind proposed work requirements for Medicaid recipients: the truth is that most Medicaid beneficiaries already work.

Uncovering real government waste: Medicare Advantage

If policymakers truly wanted to make the government more efficient, they could start with Medicare Advantage programs. Medicare Advantage pays private insurance corporations to care for patients with taxpayer dollars. The program provides a set amount for each patient, which incentivizes those corporations to withhold care, because the less money they spend on actual healthcare, the more they get to keep as profit. CEPR’s Brandon Novick writes about ending the program to make healthcare better and more efficient for everyone, instead of allowing private companies to keep sucking up taxpayer dollars.

CEPR will continue to fight for all Americans

CEPR was founded in 1999 and one of our very first efforts was combating the misinformation warning of a phony “crisis” in Social Security. Decades later, the names and dates have changed but the need for clear and accurate policy research is the same—and we’ll keep providing it.

Vote for CEPR in July’s CREDO Mobile donations election and you’ll help us continue pushing back against false narratives and exposing the way the economy is rigged in favor of those at the top.

Learn more about CEPR’s work to “Expose the Heist” here.