Brendan Duke
@brendanvduke.bsky.social
10K followers 490 following 790 posts
Fiscal policy wonk at Center on Budget & Policy Priorities| Former Biden-Harris White House National Economic Council | Former Senate Aide | CAP/JEC Alum | Brock Purdy Fan Club Founder
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brendanvduke.bsky.social
The Admin’s actions have created an enormous roadblock for Congress to reach a bipartisan 2026 funding deal because lawmakers justifiably need to know that if they reach a deal that the President won’t unilaterally and unlawfully undo it.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
And these firings are only one way that the Admin has shredded the last bipartisan funding bill; it has also illegally canceled & frozen funding– eg for medical research, education, or mental health treatment -keeping it from reaching the people & communities it’s meant to serve.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
It’s worth remembering that the Administration has already engaged in large-scale firings, undermining the functioning of critical services that people depend on.

The 2025 bipartisan funding bill provided the $ needed for staff—the Admin chose to fire people anyway.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
Firing federal employees during a shutdown is not only illegal but must be seen for what it is: blatant extortion.

The Trump Administration is using working people and their families as pawns in a power play with no concern for who gets hurt.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
These are all commonsense, reasonable approaches to dealing with an Administration that has broken the budget law the President signed in March and creating a pathway to reaching a bipartisan deal to fund the government for 2026.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
The bill would eliminate fast-track rescissions, ensuring that if 60 votes in the Senate are required to make a deal, 60 votes are required to change it.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
The Democrats' proposed short-term funding bill takes important steps to address the Administration’s abuses and ensure that, for next year’s funding, a deal is a deal. Here’s how…
brendanvduke.bsky.social
The Trump Administration’s continued efforts to break the 2025 funding deal reached in March are seriously undermining efforts to reach a funding agreement for 2026 because lawmakers need to know if they reach a deal, it will be kept. 🧵
Reposted by Brendan Duke
erikamcentarfer.bsky.social
The larger-than-usual downward revision last month was in large part driven by a negative skew in the job growth distribution among late reporting firms. That’s unusual, but it’s happened before when the pace of job growth slows rapidly. This print is more evidence that was the case
bencasselman.bsky.social
U.S. employers added 22,000 jobs in August and the unemployment rate ticked up to 4.3 percent.
Data: www.bls.gov/news.release...
Live coverage: www.nytimes.com/live/2025/09... #NumbersDay
Employment Situation Summary - 2025 M07 Results
www.bls.gov
Reposted by Brendan Duke
brendanvduke.bsky.social
NEW analysis on the GOP megabill's core policy choice: each millionaire's tax cut is paid for by taking away health insurance from 4 people while reducing health care benefits from many others.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
NEW analysis on the GOP megabill's core policy choice: each millionaire's tax cut is paid for by taking away health insurance from 4 people while reducing health care benefits from many others.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
The Trump Administration’s new spending cuts package is clearly illegal. David Super & Sam Berger explain four reasons why.

www.cbpp.org/research/fed...
Reposted by Brendan Duke
its-the-atmosphere.bsky.social
the new BLS 'head' ... turns out he's quite the NAZI

his presentation given was in front of a multi panel painting of a ship ... a WARSHIP ...

the pride of the German Navy ... the BISMARCK

they air brushed out the German flag
brendanvduke.bsky.social
An example of the explicit policy choice made by Congressional Republicans and Trump: they could have had zero cuts to Medicaid and SNAP while reducing the top 10%'s tax cut for the same fiscal cost.

The top 10% would've still gotten a tax cut.

They chose different.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
CBO shows GOP megabill will make the bottom 20% of households poorer. What is impressively depressing about the GOP megabill is it *borrows money* (which the CBO analysis considers costless) and it still manages to leave millions of Americans worse off.

www.cbo.gov/publication/...
Distributional Effects of Public Law 119-21
CBO estimates that as result of P.L. 119-21, resources will decrease for households toward the bottom of the income distribution, whereas resources will increase for households in the middle and towar...
www.cbo.gov
brendanvduke.bsky.social
NEW: Congressional Budget Office analysis of who wins and loses in the GOP megabill.

Top 10% gets $13,600 a year (2.7% increase in income)

Bottom 10% *loses* $1,200 a year (3.1% drop in income)

This isn't shared sacrifice--it's class warfare.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
The tradeoff at the heart of the flawed GOP megabill: cutting programs that help people afford groceries and health care in order to cut taxes for households making over $500k.
brendanvduke.bsky.social
Our analysis of the full Joint Committee on Taxation tables of the flawed GOP megabill: a $1T tax cut for the top 1% and a staggering $2.4T tax cut for the top 10%.

Tax cuts of around $500B for households in the bottom 60%--the very folks who also face the brunt of cuts to Medicaid and SNAP.