We tell people to pick themselves up by their bootstraps when we haven't even given them boots

  If you want to know what matters most to your elected leaders, the answer is found not in their rhetoric, but in their choices during the budget making process. When the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities was founded in 1981, the mission was to understand how federal spending, or the lack of it, impacted low income Americans, particularly their ability to access healthcare and housing. It also provided policymakers with alternative strategies for meeting human needs with fiscal integrity. As Peggy Bailey, Executive Vice President of Programs and Policy shares on this episode of Power Station, the Center not only brings rigor to federal budget analysis it focuses on and is a resource to state budget making as well. And its internal process has evolved too. All Center departments operate from a justice framework, with staff holding themselves and each other accountable to shared values, from centering racial equity to including those with lived experience in their policy development. Peggy brings her all, including what she has experienced first-hand, to ensuring that public policies and their implementation in the real world uplift those who are too often left behind. She is a true changemaker. Hear her!