Jenice Robinson
Jenice Robinsondevelops, implements and advises on communications strategies to support ITEP’s mission to secure sustainable, progressive tax policies at the local, state and federal levels. She draws on years of experience working on anti-poverty and social justice issues to inform her occasional writings on how tax policy contributes to economic inequality.
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blog January 30, 2019 Why We Should Talk about Progressive Taxes Despite Billionaires’ Objections
It was the tone-deaf remark heard ‘round the world. Last week on CNBC’s Squawk Box, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested that furloughed government employees who hadn’t been paid in a… -
blog September 12, 2018 Observations from Census Data on Poverty and Income
Today’s poverty and income data show that income continues to concentrate at the top; in fact, the top 20 percent continue to capture 51.5 percent of income. Meanwhile, average income for the poorest 20 percent of households is less today than it was 18 years ago.
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blog June 27, 2018 Rigging the System and Poor Shaming (Rightly) Are Incompatible Political Strategies
The absurdity of blaming poor and moderate-income people for their circumstances is close to running its course as an effective political tool, particularly as some elected officials more boldly assert… -
blog April 27, 2018 Trump Administration’s Spending Priorities Echo Tax Cut Priorities: Punish the Poor and Lavish the Rich
In 2017, the Trump Administration released a budget proposal filled with loaded language about “welfare reform” and moving able-bodied people from welfare to work. This narrative is designed to perpetuate the pernicious idea that poor people have personal shortcomings and are taking something that rightly belongs to others.
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blog February 20, 2018 Why We’re Not Eternally Grateful for $1,000 Crumbs
Two narratives that intentionally obscure who benefits from the tax law are emerging. One focuses on the personal income tax cuts that will result in an increase in net take-home pay for many employees once their employers adjust withholding. Anecdotes abound of working people getting a $100 or more increase, after taxes, per paycheck, but the reality is that most workers will receive a lot less than that. Meanwhile, the wealthiest 1 percent of households will receive an average annual tax break of $55,000, an amount that nearly eclipses the nation’s median household income.
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blog December 4, 2017 They Can’t Help Themselves: GOP Leaders Reveal True Intent Behind Tax Overhaul
The hand-written scrawls in the margins of the hastily written 500-page Senate tax bill had barely dried when lawmakers began to reveal the true motivation behind their rush to fundamentally overhaul the nation’s tax code.
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blog November 14, 2017 The Bottom 40 Percent Has Grown Poorer, So Why Are Tax Cut Plans Focused on the Rich and Corporations?
The bottom line is that the rich and corporations are doing fine. We don’t need legislative solutions that fix non-existent problems. Only in a world of alternative facts does the top 0.2 percent of estates need to be exempt from the estate tax, for example.
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blog October 11, 2017 Middle-Income More Likely Than the Rich to Pay More Under Trump-GOP Tax Plan
The Trump Administration and GOP leaders continue to wrap their multi-trillion tax cut gift to the wealthy in easily refutable rhetoric about boosting the nation’s middle class. Later today, trucks… -
blog October 5, 2017 The Data Belie the Trump-GOP Tax Cut Rhetoric
The Trump-GOP tax plan is touted as plan for the middle-class but delivers a boon to the wealthy, throws a comparative pittance to everyone else and even includes a dose of tax increases for some middle- and upper-middle-income taxpayers. The data belie the rhetoric.
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blog September 14, 2017 Census Data Reveal Modest Gains for Working People; GOP Tax Overhaul Could Reverse These Gains
On the surface, census poverty and income data released Tuesday reveal the nation’s economic conditions are improving for working families. The federal poverty rate declined for the second consecutive year… -
blog May 30, 2017 Avocado Toast, iPhones, Billionairesplaining and the Trump Budget
A couple weeks ago, a billionaire set the Internet ablaze when on 60 Minutes Australia he chided millennials to stop buying avocado toast and fancy coffee if they wanted to… -
blog August 24, 2016 The Little-Known Effect of State Tax Changes: More or Less Money to the Federal Government
The Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) this week published a new policy brief whose conclusions may be surprising to those who don’t spend their days analyzing the intersection… -
blog August 9, 2016 Tim Cook’s Disingenuous Argument to Justify Apple’s $215 Billion Offshore Cash Hoard
Tim Cook is a persuasive CEO. In a wide-ranging interview published earlier this week in the Washington Post, he discussed his vision for the company, thoughts about leadership succession, and… -
blog January 28, 2016 Michigan’s “Customer” Service Fail Is a Cautionary Tale about Cutting Taxes and Disinvestment
The Michigan legislature just approved a $28 million appropriation to provide immediate aid in response to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., where vulnerable children and families have been poisoned… -
blog September 3, 2015 H&R Block Uses Corporate Lobbying Might to Make Sure Poor People Use Its Services
Public outrage over the financial crisis may have subsided in recent years, but the lasting legacy is a nation that remains acutely aware of exploitative business practices that line the… -
blog January 20, 2015 Who Pays? Report Brings out the Red Herring Brigade
Last week, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy released Who Pays?, a report that examines the state and local tax system in all 50 states. The analysis concludes that… -
blog September 18, 2014 What’s the Matter with Kansas Is What Ails All 50 States
It’s easy to hold up Kansas as the poster child for regressive tax policies gone awry. By now it’s apparent Gov. Sam Brownback and his allies in the state legislature… -
blog September 16, 2014 Poverty Data Not Surprising, No Matter How You Spin It
The top 20 percent of households captured more of the nation’s collective income (51 percent) than the rest of population, according to the Census report Income and Poverty in the… -
blog March 11, 2014 Kansas Supreme Court Case Shows Public Services Suffer When Tax Breaks for Wealthy Take Priority
Far too often, lawmakers use tax cuts to score political points and throw around phrases such as “more effective government” to gloss over the lasting, negative effects of starving public…