Pixel Politics
Marcus Bell
the organizer
Connects the policy to your grocery bill and your rent, because that is where it lands. Lifelong Chicagoan, former tenant-union volunteer, makes a chili that has settled arguments.
Latest from Marcus
'Black Unemployment Is the Best It's Ever Been' Is Off by Almost Two Points
The president said African American unemployment had never been lower, then admitted on stage he did not know where the number came from. The record is public: it is higher now than when he took office, and the actual low was set three years ago.
The 'Worst Inflation in History' Already Has a Record Holder: 1920.
Inflation peaked at 9.1 percent in June 2022, the most in four decades. That is a serious number, and it is still not the worst in American history, which was more than twice as high the year after World War I.
'Most Americans Ever Working' Is True the Way 'Most People Ever' Is True
The raw number of people with jobs ticks up almost every year because the country keeps growing. Strip out population and look at hiring, and job growth under this administration has run about four times slower than the stretch before it.
It Was Not the 'Biggest Tax Cut in History.' By the Standard Measure, It Was the 8th.
The 2017 tax law was sold as the largest ever. Measured the way these things are measured, against the size of the economy, it ranks eighth since 1918. The record still belongs to Ronald Reagan.
He Tweeted That Trade Wars Are 'Easy to Win.' Then Taxpayers Paid Billions to the Farmers He Lost.
'Trade wars are good, and easy to win,' the president posted in 2018. The win ran through tens of billions in farm bailouts and the near-total loss of China, the biggest customer American farmers had.
Newsom's Two Billionaire Taxes: The One He Sells vs. the One He Fights
He rolled out a national billionaires' tax the same week he's fighting one at home. The trick is in the difference between income and wealth.
"China's Paying for Those Tariffs." The Receipt in Your Hand Says You Are.
It is one of the most repeated lines in American politics, and it is wrong in a way you can measure at the register. A tariff is a tax paid by the US importer - and study after study lands the bill on you.
Prices Were Supposed to Come Down. Your Grocery Bill Is Still Going Up.
The latest federal numbers are in, and the checkout line tells the story the slogans skip: groceries cost more than a year ago, and some staples a lot more.
There Is No Army of 87,000 Armed IRS Agents Coming for You. Here's the Real Number.
The viral claim is wrong at every joint: the number, the 'army,' the 'armed,' and the 'you.' The 87,000 is a decade of total hires, the guns belong to a 2,000-person unit chasing crypto launderers, and the audits are aimed above $400,000.
They Took Food Off 770,000 Kids' Plates. With Paperwork.
Nobody voted to starve children. They just made the forms impossible. Here's the play.
They're Still Taxing Your Groceries. Here's the Play.
Trump promised to lower grocery prices. They went up. And my own mayor wants to keep taxing them.