Evidence & Support
The platform names real programs, studies, and precedents in its text. This is where they live - every claim with a source you can click, organized by pillar. Follow the links and judge the evidence for yourself.
154 sources across 10 pillars plus the Georgia case study.
Core evidence library initially reviewed June 26, 2026; sources added, replaced, or re-pinned since then carry their own added dates, and those changes are recorded in the Corrections log. “Figure as of” notes the date a moving number applies to; refresh these before public use. Confidence: High = official/neutral or peer-reviewed and current; Moderate = sound but estimate-dependent, projected, or contested. Official/neutral sources (GAO, Treasury, JCT, FTC, PSC, TRAC, USCIS, CRS, KFF) are listed first where available; advocacy sources serve as explainers.
How to read the labels on each row. Confidence (High or Moderate) rates whether the figure is solid and current. Because one label cannot carry every distinction, each row also shows three dimensions: independence (independent source vs. interested party, meaning the publisher has a stake in the conclusion even when the figure is accurate), claim type (causal evidence from randomized or quasi-experimental designs vs. descriptive facts vs. projections and model estimates, which are only as good as their assumptions), and scope (national, state or local, or international, because a result proven in one city or country is a mechanism, not a guarantee at national scale). A source can be High confidence and still be an interested party's descriptive claim about one state; the chips say so. Corrections are public and logged on the Corrections page, and the full source table is downloadable as JSON (core, additions).
Find a source that doesn't hold up? Report it →Georgia AVR raised the share of eligible Georgians actively registered from 78% to 98% and cut inactive/outdated records from ~14% to 5% after 2016 adoption.
Source: Center for Election Innovation & Research High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Bipartisan: adopted administratively under a Republican secretary of state in 2016.
Georgia AVR produced roughly 94% more registrations than otherwise expected; largest such surge in the country.
Source: Brennan Center for Justice High interested partydescriptivestate or local
Supporting estimate for the AVR claim.
Ossoff's Right to Vote Act would create the first statutory federal right to vote (his signature voting-rights bill, reintroduced).
Source: Congress.gov, S. 4884 (119th Congress) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Bill and sponsorship verified against the official Congress.gov record (also auto-verified weekly by the scorecard pipeline).
Universal voter registration was first proposed to Congress by President Jimmy Carter in his March 1977 election reform message.
Source: The American Presidency Project (UC Santa Barbara) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Verifies the brief's presidential-lineage claim; Carter, a Democrat from Georgia.
Automatic voter registration increased registrations everywhere it was implemented, with gains of 9 to 94 percent across the first seven states plus DC, in states large and small and of both parties.
Source: Brennan Center for Justice, AVR Impact on State Voter Registration High interested partydescriptivenational
Source of the brief's first-eight-jurisdictions claim; the report's estimates underlie the roughly 2.2 million added registrants figure.
In Oregon's first-in-the-nation AVR rollout, 36 percent of people registered automatically went on to vote in 2016, turnout rose an estimated 2 to 3 percentage points, and the new electorate was younger and more income-diverse.
Source: Center for American Progress, Who Votes With Automatic Voter Registration? High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Supports the brief's honest turnout caveat: registration is the gate, not the guarantee; effects on turnout are real but modest.
Voter turnout in Alaska's 2022 election under its new ranked-choice voting and open-primary system fell in line with the national decline rather than being driven by the reform, suggesting RCV did not depress turnout.
Source: Sightline Institute Moderate independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Advocacy-leaning explainer of Alaska turnout data; use as context, corroborate with official Alaska turnout statistics.
Federal tax expenditures (credits, deductions, exclusions, preferential rates) total roughly $2.2 trillion in FY2025, exceeding federal spending on Social Security, Medicare, or defense.
Source: Joint Committee on Taxation (primary); Peter G. Peterson Foundation (explainer) High interested partydescriptivenational
Cite JCT first; PGPF as accessible explainer.
Tax expenditures are spending by another name (the 'spend through the code' framing).
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Primary framing source.
In FY2024, 16 federal agencies reported an estimated $162 billion in improper payments across 68 programs, with about 84% ($135 billion) due to overpayments; cumulative improper payments since FY2003 total about $2.8 trillion.
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
GAO notes the $162B covers only a subset of federal programs, so true total may be higher.
California high-speed rail was sold to voters in 2008 at $33 billion with trains by 2020; estimates now run up to $231 billion, with no high-speed track in service.
Source: Governing (journalism); California HSR Authority figures Moderate independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The Pillar 2 capacity-failure case study; cost range spans CHSRA and federal estimates.
Sandy Springs, GA incorporated in 2005 outsourcing nearly all city services except police and fire (the famous contract-city model), then in 2019 brought most services back in-house when bids stopped delivering value, projecting $13.5M in five-year savings; the city’s own reporting puts actual insourcing savings near $26M, almost double.
Source: City of Sandy Springs (public-private partnership history); Rough Draft Atlanta (2019 decision) High interested partydescriptivestate or local
The Pillar 2 counter-example: structure as tool, not creed - outsource when it delivers, insource when it does not, measured in the open.
The gross tax gap, tax legally owed but not paid, is projected at $696 billion for tax year 2022, with about $606 billion never recovered after enforcement.
Source: IRS, Tax Gap Projections for Tax Year 2022 (Publication 5869) High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
Underreporting accounts for $539 billion of the gross gap. Anchor figure for the collect-what-is-owed financing family in The Ledger.
The Montreal Protocol, ratified by every country on Earth, phased out nearly 99% of banned ozone-depleting substances; EPA's health model projects it will prevent 443 million skin cancer cases, 2.3 million skin cancer deaths, and 63 million cataract cases among Americans born 1890-2100.
Source: WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion 2022; Madronich et al., ACS Earth and Space Chemistry (EPA AHEF model) High independent sourceprojection / modelinternational
The strongest modern proof that government regulation can solve a planetary problem: science identified it, regulation fixed it, industry innovated substitutes, and the treaty achieved universal ratification.
The COVID-19 vaccination program averted an estimated 3.2 million deaths and 18.5 million hospitalizations in the U.S. from December 2020 through November 2022, saving over $1 trillion; without it the country would have seen roughly 4 times more deaths.
Source: Commonwealth Fund / Yale School of Public Health modeling analysis High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
Delivery proof across administrations: Operation Warp Speed launched under a Republican administration; the rollout ran under a Democratic one. Credited plainly, both ways.
In fiscal year 2025, 15 federal agencies reported an estimated $186 billion in improper payments across 64 programs, an increase of about $24 billion over the prior fiscal year, with cumulative improper payment estimates since FY2003 totaling roughly $3 trillion.
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Estimates cover only 64 programs (a subset of federal spending), so the figure understates total government-wide improper payments; supports 'government that works' program-integrity claims.
The federal government's estimated improper payments fell from $236 billion in FY2023 to $162 billion in FY2024, a decline attributed mainly to the winding down of pandemic-related programs.
Source: Peter G. Peterson Foundation Moderate interested partydescriptivenational
Nonpartisan fiscal explainer summarizing GAO data; underlying figures are GAO estimates, and PGPF notes improper payments are not a primary driver of the structural deficit.
87% of Americans favor term limits for members of Congress and 79% favor maximum age limits for federal elected officials (74% for Supreme Court justices).
Source: Pew Research Center, How Americans View Proposals to Change the Political System (2023) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Consensus data, not adoption: the platform notes the political-science evidence on term limits is mixed and says so rather than chasing the poll.
86% of Americans, including 87% of Republicans and 88% of Democrats, favor banning stock trading in individual companies by members of Congress; 87% would extend the ban to the President and Supreme Court justices.
Source: Program for Public Consultation, University of Maryland High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Adopted: a stock-trading ban is anti-extraction applied to Congress itself and fits the accountability agenda.
Enhanced ACA premium tax credits lapsed at the end of 2025; the average enrollee's out-of-pocket premium is projected to more than double, and millions more become uninsured.
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities / KFF High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
Senate extension efforts failed Dec 2025 (per Reuters).
CRS confirms the enhanced-credit lapse; CBO projects higher premiums and a higher uninsured rate.
Source: Congressional Research Service High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
Neutral primary-adjacent source.
195 rural hospitals have closed or ended inpatient care since 2005; more than 700 are at risk; the credit lapse is projected to cut rural-hospital revenue by $1.6B.
Source: Commonwealth Fund High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
Medical debt is a major driver of financial distress and a significant factor in many consumer bankruptcies.
Source: KFF (health costs research) Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
SOFTENED: bankruptcy-causation estimates vary by definition; avoid 'leading cause.'
Direct care workers earned a median wage of $17.36/hour in 2024 with median annual earnings just under $26,000; home care workers earn under $23,000 and nearly three in five rely on public assistance.
Source: PHI, Direct Care Workers in the United States: Key Facts 2025 High independent sourcedescriptivenational
37 percent of U.S. adults could not cover a $400 emergency expense with cash or its equivalent.
Source: Federal Reserve, Survey of Household Economics and Decisionmaking (SHED) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Nearly half (48%) of private-sector employees ages 18-64, about 57 million people, work for an employer offering no retirement plan.
Source: AARP Public Policy Institute High interested partydescriptivenational
BLS access measures run higher (~69-70%) on a different definition; the AARP figure counts employer-offered plans.
Child poverty (Supplemental Poverty Measure) fell to a record-low 5.2% in 2021 under the expanded Child Tax Credit, then more than doubled to 12.4% in 2022 when it lapsed, the largest single-year increase on record.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The capstone natural experiment of the Foundations pillar.
BLS projects roughly 649,300 openings a year in construction and extraction occupations, and health care and social assistance as the fastest-growing sector, adding about 2.0 million jobs from 2024 to 2034.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
Backs the education brief's multiple-paths plank; construction openings via the Occupational Outlook Handbook.
In 2024, 47.9 million people lived in food-insecure households (13.7% of households); 18.4% of households with children were food insecure at some time during the year.
Source: USDA Economic Research Service, Household Food Security in the United States in 2024 High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Final report in the current series; the annual survey's future is uncertain, which is why the brief includes a keep-the-count plank.
On the 2024 NAEP reading assessment, 40% of 4th graders scored below the NAEP Basic level, the largest share since 2002; only 30% scored proficient or above.
Source: National Assessment of Educational Progress (The Nation's Report Card), 2024 Reading Assessment High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Below Basic means students struggle to determine the meaning of words in context or identify a story's main idea.
59 million family caregivers provided 49.5 billion hours of unpaid care to adults in 2024, valued at $1.01 trillion, more than total federal, state, and local Medicaid spending that year ($932 billion).
Source: AARP Public Policy Institute, Valuing the Invaluable 2026 Update High interested partydescriptivenational
Value based on an average $20.41 per caregiving hour; equal to the work of 23.8 million full-time workers.
CBO's single-payer analysis: federal health subsidies in 2030 would rise by $1.5 to $3.0 trillion, while total national health expenditures would change between a $0.7 trillion decrease and a $0.3 trillion increase, with everyone covered.
Source: Congressional Budget Office, Working Paper 2020-08 and companion economic analysis High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
The honest two-sided accounting behind the healthcare brief: a historic shift from premiums to the federal ledger, not a comparable increase in what the country spends on care.
U.S. health spending reached $4.9 trillion in 2023, $14,570 per person and 17.6 percent of GDP, roughly double comparable wealthy countries.
Source: CMS, National Health Expenditure Accounts (2023) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
U.S. insurers and providers spent $812 billion on administration, 34.2 percent of national health spending, about $2,497 per person versus $551 in Canada.
Source: Himmelstein, Campbell & Woolhandler, Health Care Administrative Costs in the United States and Canada, Annals of Internal Medicine (2020) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The administrative-waste figure behind the brief's redirection argument; the authors are single-payer advocates, but the accounting was published in a leading peer-reviewed journal.
About 4 in 10 U.S. adults, roughly 100 million people, carry medical or dental debt, owing at least $220 billion in total.
Source: KFF Health Care Debt Survey and Peterson-KFF analysis High independent sourcedescriptivenational
About 1 in 5 debt holders do not expect to ever pay it off.
The U.S. ranks last of ten wealthy countries in overall health system performance while spending the most; top performers Australia and the Netherlands spend the least as a share of GDP.
Source: Commonwealth Fund, Mirror, Mirror 2024 High independent sourcedescriptivenational
70 measures across access, care process, administrative efficiency, equity, and outcomes.
27.1 million people (8.0 percent) had no health insurance at any point in 2024, about a million more than in 2023.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2024 (P60-288) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Traditional Medicare does not cover dental, hearing, or vision care; close to half of beneficiaries report difficulty hearing while only 8 percent used hearing services, and out-of-pocket costs for users average about $900 a year for dental or hearing care.
Source: KFF, Dental, Hearing, and Vision Costs and Coverage Among Medicare Beneficiaries High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The evidentiary basis for the comprehensive standard: even Medicare itself fails the teeth-eyes-ears test today.
The U.S. child poverty rate (Supplemental Poverty Measure) fell to a record low of 5.2% in 2021, less than half its 2020 level, driven substantially by the expanded Child Tax Credit and other relief.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Reflects temporary pandemic-era CTC expansion; rate rose after the expansion lapsed.
A National Academies of Sciences report found that federal tax credits, chiefly the temporarily expanded Child Tax Credit, lifted more than 2 million children out of poverty in 2021.
Source: National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine High independent sourcecausal evidencenational
Consensus study committee report; estimate tied to the one-year CTC expansion.
Analysis from Columbia University's Center on Poverty and Social Policy documents that the 2021 Child Tax Credit expansion drove a substantial reduction in child poverty, with monthly payments cutting child poverty when in effect.
Source: Columbia University Center on Poverty and Social Policy High independent sourcecausal evidencenational
Academic research center; useful precedent for CTC design effects.
Systematic reviews consistently find VA health care as good as or better than non-VA care on most quality measures, and veteran homelessness has fallen by roughly half since 2010, with the HUD-VASH housing-voucher-plus-services program a key driver.
Source: Journal of General Internal Medicine systematic reviews; CBPP on HUD-VASH High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The standing federal proof that public healthcare delivery and Housing First both work.
The Turnaway Study found women denied abortions were four times more likely to live below the poverty line and three times more likely to be unemployed, with worse outcomes for existing children; receiving care produced none of the predicted harms, and restrictions are associated with higher maternal mortality.
Source: ANSIRH (UCSF), The Turnaway Study; related peer-reviewed maternal-outcomes literature High independent sourcecausal evidencenational
The evidence basis of the reproductive-healthcare plank: argued as the health and economic question the data shows it is.
Americans owe about $1.7 trillion in federal student loans across roughly 43 million borrowers; the federal portfolio has more than tripled over 15 years.
Source: Congressional Research Service / Federal Reserve data High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The scale anchor for the debt-forgiveness and debt-free-college planks.
In Stockton's SEED randomized trial, recipients of unconditional $500 monthly payments obtained full-time employment at more than twice the control group's rate in year one (28% to 40%), with reduced anxiety and depression and less income volatility.
Source: Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED), independent RCT evaluation High independent sourcecausal evidencestate or local
The guaranteed-income evidence the education brief cites as an evaluated option kept honestly open, small-scale and city-level, not a national commitment.
Section 14(c) certificates still allow roughly 700 employers to pay about 39,000 disabled workers below the minimum wage, about half at $3.50/hour or less and nearly 5% at 25 cents or less; 25 states have restricted or ended the practice, and a federal phase-out was proposed in 2024 and withdrawn in 2025.
Source: U.S. Department of Labor 14(c) data via GAO; Federal Register rulemaking record High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The disability-rights plank's anchor: finish the phase-out federally with transition support.
The four largest firms control about 82% of beef, 54% of poultry, and 66% of pork processing, up from roughly 25-35% in the late 1970s and 1980s.
Source: White House / USDA, meat-processing concentration briefing (2021) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The concentration behind the farmer-squeeze plank; the same four firms set prices on ranchers and consumers.
US farms fell about 7% between 2017 and 2022 to 1.9 million, the average producer age rose to 58.1, and farms received roughly 16 cents of each consumer food dollar.
Source: USDA 2022 Census of Agriculture; USDA ERS Food Dollar Series High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The disappearing-farmer facts: fewer farms, aging producers, a shrinking farm share of the food dollar.
The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 in Bowman v. Monsanto (2013) that patent exhaustion does not permit a farmer to save and replant patented seed, upholding contractual and patent limits on seed saving.
Source: Bowman v. Monsanto Co., 569 U.S. 278 (2013) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Corrects the popular terminator-seed story: the constraint on replanting is legal (patent and contract), not a biological kill-switch. The genetic terminator was patented but never commercialized.
About 70% of medically important antibiotics in the US are sold for use in food-producing animals, a driver of antimicrobial resistance in human medicine.
Source: FDA ADUFA antimicrobial sales reports, via CIDRAP/NRDC analysis Medium independent sourcedescriptivenational
Sales, not use, and shares vary by year; the public-health case behind curbing routine CAFO antibiotic use. Advocacy groups aggregate the FDA figures.
Average annual employer-coverage premiums in 2024: $25,572 family / $8,951 single, with workers contributing about $6,296 (family) and $1,368 (single); average single deductible $1,787. National per-capita out-of-pocket spending was about $1,632 in 2024.
Source: KFF 2024 Employer Health Benefits Survey; CMS National Health Expenditure data High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The current-cost side of the Ledger household tables v0; the illustrative rate there is a labeled placeholder, not a scored design.
The U.S. housing shortfall is real and policy-shaped; estimates range from several million to over eight million units.
Source: McKinsey (8.2M) / Goldman Sachs (3–4M) Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
SOFTENED: present as a range, not one settled number. Use only verified Goldman wording (3–4M units).
In many U.S. cities, roughly three-quarters of residential land is reserved for single-family homes only.
Source: Brookings Institution High independent sourcedescriptivenational
SOFTENED: 'in many cities,' not uniform nationwide.
Scarcity of necessities is not a natural condition (conceptual grounding for artificial scarcity).
Source: Marshall Sahlins, 'The Original Affluent Society' (1972) (book - no URL) Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
Conceptual support, not a statistic.
Goldman Sachs finds that matching the land-use rules of the least-restrictive quarter of cities would add about 2.5 million homes in a decade, erasing roughly two-thirds of the estimated 3-4 million home shortage.
Source: Goldman Sachs Research High interested partyprojection / modelnational
The median first-time homebuyer is now 40 years old and first-time buyers are just 21 percent of the market, both the most extreme readings on record.
Source: National Association of Realtors, 2025 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers High interested partydescriptivenational
First-time buyer median age was in the late 20s in the 1980s.
A record 22.6 million renter households, half of all renters, are cost-burdened, spending more than 30 percent of income on housing and utilities; 83 percent of renters earning under $30,000 are burdened.
Source: Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies, America's Rental Housing / State of the Nation's Housing High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Units renting under $1,000 in real terms fell more than 30 percent from 2013 to 2023.
Institutional investors own about 2 percent of single-family rentals nationally, but roughly 25 percent in metro Atlanta, 21 percent in Jacksonville, 18 percent in Charlotte, and 15 percent in Tampa.
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-24-106643, Institutional Investment in Single-Family Homes High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The evidentiary basis of the brief's honesty on investors: not the national cause of the shortage, but intensely concentrated where they operate, including Georgia.
U.S. urban rail costs are a policy failure, not geology: New York's Second Avenue Subway cost 8-12 times the European baseline (about $2.6B per mile vs. Madrid's $320M and Paris's $160M), with soft costs at 21% of construction against a 7-8% international norm, driven by consultant reliance, procurement design, and litigation-priced review.
Source: NYU Marron Institute, Transit Costs Project (11,000 km of rail across 50+ countries) High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
The three fixes map directly onto existing platform doctrine: fast certain review for clean transit (voice not veto), international procurement practice, and in-house public capacity instead of rented consultant judgment.
Medellin's Metrocable gondola lines cost roughly $12-25 million per kilometer to build, a small fraction of urban rail costs, and the integrated cable-car network carries over 200,000 passengers a day (3,000-4,000 per hour per line) on an ordinary transit fare.
Source: World Bank (Latin America blog) and Metrocable system records High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
The capacity-per-dollar benchmark: transit for steep, underserved neighborhoods at costs low enough to actually get built. First line: $24M for 2 km, opened 2004.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that registered apprenticeships in many skilled occupations lead to high median wages, providing an earn-while-you-learn pathway with strong wage outcomes across selected occupations.
Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
Occupation-level wage figures; not a randomized program evaluation, and data are pre-2020.
Medellin's Green Corridors transformed the edges of 18 roads and 12 waterways into a connected green network, lowering average city temperatures by about 2C (up to 4C in corridor areas) while improving air quality and biodiversity; the program won the 2019 Ashden Award.
Source: UN Environment Programme (UNEP) High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
The nature-as-infrastructure anchor for the new-places brief: cooling as designed public infrastructure, not landscaping.
Census Bureau 2023 projections: U.S. population peaks around 370 million in 2080 under the middle series, then declines to 366 million by 2100; the low-immigration scenario peaks at 346 million in 2043, the high reaches 435 million.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau, 2023 National Population Projections High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
Why the new-places program is justified by redistribution and climate displacement, not national growth, and why pilots beat a predetermined wave of cities.
China developed more than 3,800 new towns over four decades that came to house over 150 million people, alongside persistent, polarized controversy over underoccupied ghost cities, speculative finance, and planning methodology.
Source: Xu, China's New Towns in Controversy: A Literature Review, Journal of Planning Literature (2022) High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
Both halves of the leapfrog lesson: governments can build at civilizational scale, and demand-blind building produces the failure the brief's stop rules exist to prevent.
U.S. controlled-environment agriculture operations more than doubled from 1,476 (2009) to 2,994 (2019), with production up 56%; energy for climate control is a major share of operating budgets, and crop range remains limited.
Source: USDA Economic Research Service, EIB-264 (2024) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Why the brief treats vertical farming as a fresh-produce layer within regional food resilience rather than food independence.
Houston cut homelessness by more than 60% since 2011 through a coordinated Housing First system, housing over 30,000 people, the best performance among America's ten largest cities.
Source: Coalition for the Homeless of Houston; CBS News reporting on the Houston system High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The Housing First anchor: house people first, attach services after. Point-in-time counts confirm continued decline through 2024.
Every $1 spent on federal hazard-mitigation grants saves about $6 in future disaster costs (building to code saves more).
Source: National Institute of Building Sciences / FEMA High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Congressionally chartered NIBS study.
Confirms the 6-to-1 mitigation return; notes much mitigation funding is unspent for lack of capacity.
Source: Congressional Research Service High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Air pollution causes on the order of 200,000 early deaths each year in the United States (MIT); estimates across studies range from about 100,000 upward depending on sources counted.
Source: MIT Laboratory for Aviation and the Environment Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
The climate brief calibrates to ~200,000 and notes the range.
EPA's 2023 report estimates the social cost of carbon at about $190 per metric ton of CO2 (2% discount rate), roughly four times the prior government-wide estimate.
Source: EPA, Report on the Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases (2023), via the Harvard Environmental & Energy Law Program tracker High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Methods follow 2017 National Academies recommendations. The original EPA page was later taken down, which is why the tracker link is used; the keep-the-count principle applies.
Global fossil fuel subsidies reached $7 trillion in 2022 (7.1% of world GDP); 82% is implicit subsidy, the unpriced damage of air pollution and warming absorbed by the public.
Source: IMF Working Paper WP/23/169, Fossil Fuel Subsidies Data: 2023 Update High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
Authors: Black, Liu, Parry, Vernon.
The ozone layer is on track to recover to 1980 levels around 2040 for most of the world, 2045 over the Arctic, and 2066 over Antarctica; the Kigali Amendment's phasedown of HFC refrigerants is projected to avoid 0.3-0.5 degrees C of warming by 2100.
Source: WMO/UNEP Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion: 2022 (NOAA Chemical Sciences Laboratory) High independent sourceprojection / modelinternational
The precedent for planetary-scale environmental repair: avoided HFC emissions total about 420 gigatonnes CO2-equivalent, more than ten years of current global CO2 emissions.
IPCC AR6: holding warming near 1.5C requires global emissions to peak before 2025 and fall about 43% by 2030 from 2019 levels, reaching net-zero CO2 in the early 2050s.
Source: IPCC Sixth Assessment Synthesis Report, Summary for Policymakers (2023) High independent sourceprojection / modelinternational
The emissions spine of the climate brief. The platform commits to IPCC assessments as its baseline climate science.
UNEP Emissions Gap Report 2025: current policies put the world on track for about 2.8C of warming; new pledges lower projections only to 2.3-2.5C, and a 1.5C path now requires emissions to fall 55% below 2019 levels by 2035.
Source: UN Environment Programme, Emissions Gap Report 2025 (Off Target) High independent sourceprojection / modelinternational
The honest overshoot scoreboard the brief refuses to soften; the health co-benefits case is built to survive it.
Of an estimated 8.3 billion metric tons of plastic ever produced, about 9% of the resulting waste had been recycled as of 2015, 12% incinerated, and 79% accumulated in landfills or the natural environment.
Source: Geyer, Jambeck & Law, Science Advances (2017) High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
The global baseline behind the waste plank: recycling as practiced captures a small fraction of plastic.
The U.S. recycled 8.7% of plastics generated in 2018 (3 of 35.7 million tons); 27 million tons of plastic went to landfills, 18.5% of all municipal waste landfilled.
Source: EPA, Facts and Figures: Plastics Material-Specific Data High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Most recent official national rate; counts exported material as recycled, so the true domestic figure is lower.
Internal plastics-industry documents and former officials show the industry promoted recycling to the public from the late 1980s while privately doubting it could ever be economically viable; a former Society of the Plastics Industry president said the public believing recycling worked meant less environmental concern.
Source: NPR / PBS Frontline investigation, "Plastic Wars" High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Named sources on the record plus internal documents; the receipts behind the producer-responsibility plank.
California's September 2024 suit alleges ExxonMobil deceived the public on plastics recyclability for decades, including marketing 'advanced recycling' in which 92% of processed plastic waste became fuel that is burned rather than recycled plastic.
Source: California Attorney General, People v. ExxonMobil complaint Medium interested partydescriptivestate or local
Allegations in active litigation, not adjudicated findings; carried with that label. The AG is a party to the case.
Ten states have container-deposit laws; the two with a 10-cent deposit lead redemption (Michigan averaging roughly 90%+ for most of its history, Oregon 87% recently), far above recycling rates in non-deposit states, though rates have slipped since the pandemic.
Source: Container Recycling Institute / Bottle Bill Resource Guide; state agency data Medium interested partydescriptivestate or local
The proven tool behind the national deposit-return plank; deposit size tracks redemption. CRI advocates for deposit laws; the underlying redemption figures come from state agencies.
The first human biomonitoring study for plastic in blood found quantifiable microplastic particles in 17 of 22 healthy adult donors (77%), most commonly PET from drink bottles.
Source: Leslie et al., Environment International (2022) High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
Small first-detection study (n=22); establishes presence in blood, not health effects. The stakes line of the waste plank, carried with that limit.
NIH funding contributed to research behind 354 of 356 drugs (99.4%) approved 2010–2019, totaling about $187B, comparable to industry's investment.
Source: JAMA Health Forum (via Bentley University) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Excellent source for the public-return standard.
Underlying peer-reviewed analysis (NIH vs. industry research spending on new approvals).
Source: National Library of Medicine (PMC) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Core technologies behind the smartphone (internet, GPS, touchscreen) originated in publicly funded research.
Source: Mariana Mazzucato, 'The Entrepreneurial State' (2013) (book - no URL) Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
Conceptual support.
NIH funding contributed to published research behind every one of the 210 new drugs approved by the FDA from 2010 to 2016, totaling over $100 billion; more than 90% funded basic science on drug targets.
Source: Cleary et al., PNAS High independent sourcedescriptivenational
PJM capacity prices rose roughly elevenfold in two years; the independent market monitor attributed 63% of the 2025/26 auction increase to data centers, about $9.3 billion recovered from customers.
Source: IEEFA analysis of PJM / Monitoring Analytics High interested partydescriptivestate or local
Grounds the cost-causation plank for large computing loads.
Operation Warp Speed obligated more than $10 billion (potential value at least $18 billion) across six vaccine candidates, using purchase guarantees and parallelized trial and manufacturing stages to compress a roughly 10-year development process into about 11 months.
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, GAO-21-319, Operation Warp Speed High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The textbook public-return case: taxpayers funded the research (the leading vaccine was co-developed with NIH), de-risked manufacturing, and bought the doses, while patents and post-emergency pricing power stayed private.
Since 1979, productivity has grown roughly 3.5x as much as pay for the typical worker (~$9/hr gap if pay had kept pace).
Source: Economic Policy Institute Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
CONTESTED: some attribute part of the gap to differing price indices; the broad divergence is widely accepted.
Roughly 30 million workers (about 1 in 5) are covered by noncompetes. The FTC's 2024 rule banning most was blocked in court (Aug 2024) and the FTC dropped its appeal (Sept 2025); reform now requires legislation, state action, and targeted enforcement.
Source: Federal Trade Commission High independent sourcedescriptivenational
CORRECTED: rule is NOT in effect. Estimate of ~30M stands.
Employer power in imperfectly competitive labor markets holds U.S. wages roughly 20 percent below the level a fully competitive market would pay.
Source: U.S. Treasury, The State of Labor Market Competition (2022) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Prepared with DOJ, DOL, and the FTC.
Average markups charged by U.S. firms rose from 21% above cost in 1980 to 61% by 2016, and average profit rates rose from 1% to 8% of sales, driven by the top of the distribution.
Source: De Loecker, Eeckhout & Unger, The Rise of Market Power and the Macroeconomic Implications, Quarterly Journal of Economics (2020) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
About 18% of U.S. workers, roughly 30 million people, are bound by noncompete clauses; the FTC estimated its ban would raise earnings $400-488 billion over a decade. The 2024 rule was blocked in court, leaving the fix to Congress and the states.
Source: Federal Trade Commission, Noncompete Rule fact sheet and final rule record High independent sourceprojection / modelnational
The evidentiary record stands regardless of the rule's litigation fate; the Workforce Mobility Act (ask m2) is the statutory vehicle.
Credit card late fees cost American families more than $14 billion a year, and overdraft fees an estimated $12.6 billion at their 2019 peak.
Source: Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, credit card late fee and overdraft rulemakings High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The late-fee rule was later vacated in court; the fee magnitudes are from the CFPB's documented record.
Several U.S. industries cause more air-pollution damage than the value they add to the economy; coal-fired electricity's damages run 0.8 to 5.6 times its value added.
Source: Muller, Mendelsohn & Nordhaus, Environmental Accounting for Pollution in the United States Economy, American Economic Review (2011) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The foundational cost-shifting result behind the make-prices-tell-the-truth plank. Nordhaus later received the Nobel for the underlying framework.
The U.S. adopted a national strategy in January 2023 to build natural capital accounts, putting land, water, air, and resources on the nation's books, with BEA pilot accounts underway and full implementation planned through 2036.
Source: White House OSTP/OMB/Commerce, National Strategy to Develop Statistics for Environmental-Economic Decisions High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Basis of the count-what-matters plank: fund it, codify it, publish a beyond-GDP dashboard alongside the quarterly numbers.
Chattanooga's public utility EPB built America's first citywide gigabit fiber network in 2010 for about $220 million; an independent university study found $2.69 billion in community benefit over the first decade and about 9,516 jobs supported (roughly 40% of Hamilton County's job growth in the period).
Source: Lobo (UT Chattanooga, Rollins College of Business) decade study, via EPB Moderate interested partydescriptivestate or local
The public-option existence proof. Study author (Lobo, UT Chattanooga) is independent, but the study was commissioned and published by the utility itself, hence Moderate rather than High. The FCC 2015 record separately documents incumbents Comcast and AT&T sharply improving speeds in EPB territory after the public network launched.
Rather than compete, incumbent ISPs lobbied for state preemption: a Tennessee law confines EPB to its electric footprint (the industry and state successfully sued in 2016 to block FCC preemption), and Missouri's 1997 HB 620, credited to Southwestern Bell's lobbying, bars municipalities from offering broadband at all. Roughly 16 states restrict municipal broadband.
Source: Sixth Circuit, Tennessee v. FCC (2016); BroadbandNow state preemption reports High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The documented sabotage pattern: when the public option wins on price and quality, incumbents move the fight from the market to the statehouse. Missouri Municipal League's preemption request failed at the Supreme Court in 2004 (Nixon v. Missouri Municipal League).
85% of Americans say Social Security benefits should be maintained or increased even if it requires raising taxes, with majorities across parties (about 3 in 4 Republicans, 9 in 10 Democrats); raising the payroll tax cap is among the most supported fixes.
Source: National Academy of Social Insurance / AARP survey High interested partydescriptivenational
Public-consensus backing for the cap fix the platform already carries (ask m3 and the fiscal model row).
The teacher pay penalty hit a record 26.9% in 2024: teachers earn 26.9% less in weekly wages than similarly educated professionals, are behind their peers in all 50 states, and their real wages fell 5.3% since 1996 while other college graduates' rose about 30%.
Source: Economic Policy Institute and CEPR, The Teacher Pay Penalty Reached a Record High in 2024 High interested partydescriptivenational
Adjusted for education, experience, and demographics; total-compensation gap including benefits is smaller (-17.1%) and the row says so. The anchor stat for the invest-in-people principle.
Across the postwar era the U.S. economy grew about 1.8 percentage points faster per year under Democratic than Republican presidents, with more jobs and higher investment; the authors attribute the gap substantially to oil shocks, productivity, and international conditions rather than provably to policy.
Source: Blinder & Watson, Presidents and the US Economy, American Economic Review (2016) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Carried with the authors' own causal caveat stated in the brief; a performance record, not a causal proof of any single policy.
Civilian crisis response (CAHOOTS model) diverted a large share of calls with low police backup and was associated with reduced arrests and cost savings.
Source: White Bird Clinic; NBER working paper w33761 High independent sourcedescriptivenational
UPDATED: the original Eugene program ended in April 2025 over funding/contract; it continues in Springfield and Eugene is working to restore it. The evidence it generated remains valid.
Denver STAR cut targeted low-level crime by 34%, made no arrests, and was about four times cheaper than police response.
Source: Stanford SIEPR / Science Advances (Dee & Pyne) High independent sourcecausal evidencenational
Immigration court backlog stood at about 3.24 million active pending cases at the end of May 2026 (down from a ~3.7M peak in late 2024).
Source: TRAC, Syracuse University High independent sourcedescriptivenational
CORRECTED from 3.7M to ~3.2M.
Pending cases at USCIS reached roughly 11.6 million in 2025, more than triple a decade earlier.
Source: American Immigration Council Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
Congress caps employment green cards at 140,000/yr and limits any country to ~7%, forcing decade-plus waits; ~4M people are on immigrant-visa waiting lists.
Source: U.S. State Dept Visa Bulletin; CRS Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
Structural caps set by Congress.
The 1986 IRCA legalized roughly 2.7–3 million long-settled residents, paired with enforcement; signed by Reagan with bipartisan support.
Source: Library of Congress; Migration Policy Institute High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Direct precedent for an earned path.
In a six-swing-state study with arguments briefed on both sides, bipartisan majorities favored the whole immigration package at once: path to citizenship, stronger border, employer verification, and more legal work visas.
Source: Program for Public Consultation (University of Maryland) High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The front-door package finding.
Studies of the 1986 IRCA legalization found legal status raised wages for the legalized (roughly 6% and more via occupational mobility), and a 2025 study found each legalized person accounted for about one later legal admission, mostly immediate family, through 2019.
Source: Journal of Labor Economics (Kossoudji & Cobb-Clark); 2025 chain-migration study Moderate independent sourcecausal evidencenational
Linked study covers legalization wage gains; pin the 2025 chain-migration paper URL when published citation is located.
A Campbell systematic review of ten randomized trials (1,880 offenders) found face-to-face restorative justice conferences produced significantly less repeat offending than standard prosecution, with the largest effects on violent crime, and higher victim satisfaction with fewer post-traumatic stress symptoms.
Source: Strang, Sherman et al., Campbell Systematic Reviews High independent sourcecausal evidencenational
Grounds the restorative-justice plank in the justice brief.
A citywide cluster randomized trial in Philadelphia (541 vacant lots) found cleaning and greening blighted vacant land significantly reduced nearby crime, with gun violence down about 29 percent in neighborhoods below the poverty line.
Source: Branas et al., PNAS High independent sourcecausal evidencestate or local
Grounds the safe-city plank on remediating blighted vacant land.
Temporary streetlights randomly assigned to New York City public housing developments cut nighttime outdoor index crimes by at least 36 percent, with effects persisting in follow-up.
Source: Chalfin, Hansen, Lerner & Parker, NBER High independent sourcecausal evidencestate or local
Grounds the safe-city lighting plank.
A systematic review of the lead-crime literature finds childhood lead exposure raises later delinquency and arrest; Aizer & Currie found each 1 ug/dL increase in preschool blood lead raised the risk of juvenile detention, and Reyes credits the leaded-gasoline phase-out with a large share of the 1990s violent-crime decline.
Source: Systematic review (Environment International / PMC) High independent sourcecausal evidencenational
Grounds lead abatement as crime prevention.
A randomized trial of 1,634 disadvantaged Chicago high schoolers found an eight-week summer job cut violent-crime arrests by 43 percent over 16 months, with most of the effect after the program ended; Becoming a Man CBT trials cut violent-crime arrests 45-50 percent during the program year.
Source: Heller, Science High independent sourcecausal evidencestate or local
Grounds the teenage-summer plank; BAM figures from the follow-on Heller et al. trials.
A Campbell systematic review of 24 quasi-experimental evaluations found focused deterrence produced significant, moderate crime reductions, with gun violence down about 26 percent across 13 studies; effects are smaller in the most rigorous designs.
Source: Braga, Weisburd & Turchan, Campbell Systematic Reviews Moderate independent sourcecausal evidencenational
Quasi-experimental, not randomized; the brief states the caveat.
The immigration court backlog stands at about 3.2 million pending cases, with roughly 4,500 cases per judge and multi-year waits for hearings.
Source: TRAC (Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse), Syracuse University High independent sourcedescriptivenational
TRAC compiles case-by-case records obtained from the immigration courts under FOIA; updated monthly.
In Medellin's Metrocable natural experiment, neighborhoods that received the gondola transit and accompanying public investment saw homicides decline 66% more than matched control neighborhoods (rate ratio 0.33), and resident-reported violence fell 75% more.
Source: Cerda et al., Reducing Violence by Transforming Neighborhoods, American Journal of Epidemiology (2012) High independent sourcecausal evidenceinternational
Built-environment evidence for the safe-city planks: connecting isolated neighborhoods to the city's opportunity structure is violence prevention, the same protective-factors logic as greening, lighting, and summer jobs.
Of roughly 33,000 people arrested in Bogota in 2025, fewer than 10 percent ended up in jail, per the city police chief, with repeat offenders arrested as many as 20 times; nationally, fewer than 1 in 6 arrested Colombians is imprisoned.
Source: Bogota Metropolitan Police (via The Bogota Post); InSight Crime Moderate independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
The certainty counterexample behind the impunity plank: mass arrests with no follow-through deter no one. Figures are the police chief's own; Moderate because they reach us through press coverage rather than a published dataset.
In Bogota's 2025 Perception and Victimization Survey (20,038 respondents), 14.9 percent reported being victimized by crime while 66 percent believed insecurity was rising, down from a peak of 87.7 percent in 2021.
Source: Bogota Chamber of Commerce, Encuesta de Percepcion y Victimizacion (27th edition) High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
The perception-reality gap quantified: perceived safety is a political fact that diverges from victimization, so the platform tracks and answers both.
Connecticut's permit-to-purchase handgun law (background check plus safety training) was associated with a 40% reduction in firearm homicides; Missouri's repeal of its similar law was associated with a 25% increase, with later analyses finding larger effects and increased firearm suicides.
Source: Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research (Webster et al.) High independent sourcecausal evidencestate or local
A both-directions policy experiment, the platform's strongest evidence shape; basis of the license-the-purchase plank.
72% of Americans support nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people (2025), including 56% of Republicans, 76% of independents, and 90% of Democrats; support has exceeded 70% for a decade.
Source: PRRI American Values Atlas High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The consensus base under the Equality Act plank; one of the least divided civil-rights questions in the country.
In the largest annual survey of LGBTQ+ youth mental health (18,000+ respondents ages 13-24), 39% seriously considered suicide in the past year, and young people in very accepting communities attempted suicide at less than half the rate of those in very unaccepting communities.
Source: The Trevor Project, 2024 National Survey Medium interested partydescriptivenational
Run by a suicide-prevention advocacy nonprofit and read with that provenance in mind; the acceptance-as-protection association is consistent with the peer-reviewed family-acceptance literature. Cross-sectional, association not causation.
After Portugal decriminalized personal drug possession in 2001 and invested in treatment, new HIV diagnoses among people who inject drugs fell from over 1,000/year (2001) to under 20 by the late 2010s, and its drug-induced death rate is among the lowest in the EU.
Source: EMCDDA country data via Transform Drug Policy Foundation case study Medium interested partydescriptiveinternational
Decriminalization plus health investment, not decriminalization alone; the case study is by a reform-advocacy group but rests on official EU monitoring data.
In the peer-reviewed evaluation of Seattle's Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion (LEAD) program, participants had 58% lower odds of arrest and 39% lower odds of felony charges versus controls over the longer term (n=318).
Source: Collins, Lonczak & Clifasefi, Evaluation and Program Planning (2017) High independent sourcecausal evidencestate or local
Nonrandomized comparison, stated plainly; the strongest US evidence for pre-booking diversion, now replicated in dozens of jurisdictions.
In the Dunedin birth cohort followed to age 38 (n=1,037), persistent cannabis use begun in adolescence was associated with an average 8-point IQ decline from childhood to adulthood that did not fully recover after cessation; adult-onset users showed no comparable decline.
Source: Meier et al., PNAS (2012) Medium independent sourcecausal evidenceinternational
Carried on the platform side of the ledger AGAINST our own cannabis plank, per the honesty rule. A published critique argues socioeconomic confounding may explain part of the effect; the adolescent-risk signal is why the plank includes age limits, potency rules, and a named tripwire on adolescent use.
Support for legalizing marijuana was 68-70% of US adults in 2020-2024 Gallup polling and 64% in October 2025, with majorities across all age groups; 24 states have legalized recreational use.
Source: Gallup High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The consensus base under the cannabis plank, carried with the 2025 dip included rather than cherry-picking the peak.
The Civilian Conservation Corps employed about 3 million young people (1933–1942), planted some 3 billion trees, and built 800+ parks; one of the most popular New Deal programs.
Source: National Park Service High independent sourcedescriptivenational
SOFTENED: dropped the exact '82% Gallup' figure pending an original citation.
AI could affect about 40% of jobs globally and 60% in advanced economies.
Source: International Monetary Fund Moderate independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
Exposure estimate.
An estimated 92 million jobs displaced and 170 million created by 2030.
Source: World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs 2025 Moderate independent sourceprojection / modelinternational
Projection; treat as directional.
Military service is already an earned, expedited path to citizenship.
Source: USCIS High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Basis for service-to-citizenship.
Social isolation raises the risk of premature death by 29 percent, an effect comparable to smoking 15 cigarettes a day, and about half of U.S. adults report experiencing loneliness.
Source: U.S. Surgeon General's Advisory, Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation (2023) High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Also documents elevated risks of heart disease, stroke, dementia, depression, and anxiety. The health case behind treating connection as infrastructure.
An independent benefit-cost analysis found every $1 of federal taxes invested in AmeriCorps and Senior Corps returns $17.30 to society, members, and government.
Source: ICF for Voices for National Service, AmeriCorps and Senior Corps: Quantifying the Impact Medium interested partydescriptivenational
Commissioned by a service-advocacy coalition, so treated as supporting rather than load-bearing; AmeriCorps' own program-level ROI studies (disaster response about 12 to 1) point the same direction.
In a 10-site randomized trial of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe program for disconnected youth, participants three years later had earnings 20 percent ($2,266) higher and GED or diploma attainment 22 points higher than the control group.
Source: MDRC, Staying on Course: Three-Year Results of the National Guard Youth ChalleNGe Evaluation High independent sourcecausal evidencenational
The strongest causal evidence that structured, paid service programs change trajectories for young people, the population a universal term of service would reach.
The share of Americans who say most people can be trusted fell from 46 percent in 1972 to 34 percent today, and trust in the federal government to do the right thing has fallen from 77 percent six decades ago to 22 percent.
Source: Pew Research Center, Americans' Trust in One Another (2025); General Social Survey trend High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The social-trust baseline behind the pillar's claim that connection and shared institutions have frayed.
The Responsibility to Protect, adopted at the 2005 UN World Summit, holds the international community must be prepared to act against four mass-atrocity crimes.
Source: United Nations High independent sourcedescriptiveinternational
Doctrinal grounding for narrow intervention.
Conditions on the use of force draw on the just-war tradition (Walzer, 1977) and the War Powers Resolution (1973) for democratic authorization.
Source: Michael Walzer; 50 U.S.C. ch. 33 (book + statute - no single URL) Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
Conceptual + legal grounding.
The Leahy Law bars U.S. assistance to foreign security-force units credibly implicated in gross human-rights violations.
Source: U.S. Department of State High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Already binding law.
The Leahy Law has been applied unevenly, with favored partners effectively exempted.
Source: Human Rights First Moderate independent sourcedescriptivenational
Supports 'one standard for every ally.'
CISA, NSA, and FBI jointly assess that PRC state-sponsored Volt Typhoon actors have compromised and maintained persistent access inside U.S. critical infrastructure (communications, energy, transportation, water) to pre-position for disruption.
Source: CISA Cybersecurity Advisory AA24-038A High independent sourcedescriptivenational
The centerpiece intrusion evidence for Security Is Resilience.
Active U.S. drug shortages peaked at a record 323 in early 2024 and remained above 200 through 2025.
Source: ASHP Drug Shortages Statistics High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Invitation Homes paid a $48 million federal settlement over junk fees and deceptive practices against renters.
Source: Federal Trade Commission High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Metro-Atlanta relevance; corporate-landlord extraction.
Georgia Pathways spent $54.2M on administration vs $26.1M on care (2021–mid-2025), ~88% federally funded, with about 9,175 enrolled of ~250,000 eligible.
Source: U.S. GAO (report GAO-25-108160); ProPublica High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Strongest Georgia example. Ossoff & Warnock requested the audit.
Georgia's data-center sales-tax exemption costs roughly $474M (FY2025); a state-commissioned UGA evaluation found only ~30% of data centers are attributable to it (about 70% would have located in Georgia anyway).
Source: Georgia DOAA tax-incentive evaluation (Carl Vinson Institute) High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Strong for the public-return argument.
Ossoff's bipartisan bill to ban congressional stock trading passed the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, the first time a Senate committee has advanced such a ban.
Source: Senate Homeland Security & Governmental Affairs Committee High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Campaign-adjacent: source each claim carefully.
Ossoff's bipartisan Federal Prison Oversight Act (S.1401) passed both chambers and was signed into law in July 2024.
Source: Congress.gov bill record High independent sourcedescriptivenational
Campaign-adjacent: source each claim carefully.
Ossoff and Warnock requested the GAO audit of Georgia Pathways; the resulting report documented $54.2M spent on administration versus $26.1M on care.
Source: U.S. GAO (report GAO-25-108160) High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Campaign-adjacent: source each claim carefully.
Georgia Pathways to Coverage enrolled about 6,500 people in 18 months, roughly 75% below the state's first-year projection, while costing taxpayers more than $86.9 million, about three-quarters of it to consultants.
Source: KFF Health News High independent sourceprojection / modelstate or local
The clearest documented case of a work requirement functioning as a paperwork barrier.
GAO found Georgia's Medicaid work-requirement program spent twice as much on administration ($54.2 million) as on actual health care ($26.1 million).
Source: U.S. Government Accountability Office, via ProPublica High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
About 240,000 Georgians are stuck in the coverage gap, earning too much for Medicaid and too little for subsidized marketplace insurance; nine rural Georgia hospitals have closed since 2010 and a 2024 Chartis analysis put 18 more at risk.
Source: Georgia Budget and Policy Institute; Chartis Center for Rural Health High interested partydescriptivestate or local
Full Medicaid expansion is the strongest single intervention available for rural hospital finances.
Hurricane Helene caused an estimated $6.46 billion in damage to Georgia's agriculture and forestry industries, more than three times Hurricane Michael's 2018 toll.
Source: University of Georgia / Georgia Department of Agriculture / Georgia Forestry Commission preliminary assessment High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
Includes 500,000-600,000 lost cotton bales and over 100 poultry houses damaged or destroyed.
Georgia is the nation's second-largest user of the H-2A agricultural visa program, with 43,436 positions certified in FY2024 (11.3% of the national total); on the order of 60% of the state's agricultural jobs depend on the program.
Source: USDA Economic Research Service; UGA CAES Field Report High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
No state has a bigger stake in a working legal-channel system for agricultural labor.
Georgia leads the nation in broiler-chicken production, a roughly $6.6 billion sector; poultry is the state's largest agricultural industry.
Source: USDA NASS, Georgia Agricultural Facts Medium independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The sector-scale half of the farmer-dignity plank, pinned to the official state agricultural statistics.
Most growers raise birds under contract for a few integrators, financing chicken houses (about $1 million-plus for a standard four-house operation) while the company owns the birds, feed, and terms, with pay run through a tournament ranking system.
Source: Farm Aid poultry grower fact sheet Medium interested partydescriptivestate or local
The contract-structure half, from a farmer-advocacy organization and read with that provenance.
Georgia's accountability courts, expanded statewide in 2012 under Gov. Nathan Deal, divert people with substance-use and mental-health needs into supervised treatment; a 2015 state audit found graduates reoffend at roughly 40 percent, less than half the rate of comparable conventionally-sentenced people (graduate-vs-nonparticipant comparison, not randomized).
Source: Georgia Department of Audits and Accounts, adult-felony drug courts review Medium independent sourcecausal evidencestate or local
The recidivism half; selection-prone comparison stated in the claim itself.
A Carl Vinson Institute economic-impact study estimated Georgia's accountability-court program saves the state about $38 million a year against conventional sentencing.
Source: Carl Vinson Institute of Government (2017), via UGA Research Medium independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The savings half, pinned to the university describing its own study.
Georgia has among the worst maternal mortality in the US, with Black women dying of pregnancy-related causes at roughly 2-3x the rate of white women. After Georgia's six-week abortion ban took effect, the state's maternal mortality review committee found the death of Amber Thurman (sepsis after a ~20-hour hospital delay in performing a D&C) had a 'good chance' of being preventable; she and Candi Miller were among the first US deaths publicly tied to a post-Dobbs ban (ProPublica, 2024). Georgia then dismissed all 32 committee members after the findings leaked.
Source: ProPublica; Georgia Maternal Mortality Review Committee (internal findings) High independent sourcedescriptivestate or local
The reproductive-health plank, Georgia edition, and a keep-the-count case: dismissing the review committee is the measurement-killing pattern the platform names elsewhere.
That’s the whole invitation. Read the briefs, follow the sources, and decide whether this is what change could look like.
