Bryce Covert
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brycecovert.bsky.social
Bryce Covert
@brycecovert.bsky.social
15K followers 280 following 1.2K posts
Journalist writing about the economy. Contributing writer at @thenation.com, @chjreportinghealth.bsky.social National Fellow, and member of @fspnwu.bsky.social. Send tips to brycecovert@protonmail.com or on Signal: brycecovert.25 she/her
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brycecovert.bsky.social
The shit that medicine gets away with during pregnancy that it could absolutely not get away with anywhere else
“It’s just easier to keep patients hooked up continuously,” said Dr. Jon K. Hathaway, an obstetrician at Indiana University Health. “It’s an ease-of-manpower issue over the science.”
November 6, 2025 at 2:17 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Here's what I have to say about the idea that Andrew Cuomo is a progressive
You can’t call yourself a progressive champion while cutting school funding and Medicaid. You can’t call yourself a progressive champion while fondling young women and making them feel as if they are only valued for their high heels and short skirts. You can’t call yourself a progressive champion when your quest to assert your dominance leads to needless death. But Mr. Cuomo has tried to pull it off by using his political might to divert our attention.
November 4, 2025 at 1:29 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Gutting testimonials from Walmart and Amazon workers about what the loss of SNAP benefits will mean for them
“I will become homeless trying to feed my family. Because food comes first, before paying other bills. I’ve worked 40+ hours/week for most of my life, and I still rely on food stamps. It's not my work ethic that's a problem, it's the company not paying living wages.” (Tiff B., a retail worker in Oregon) “I’d lose the ability to keep groceries in my house, since my income is not on par with the regular expenses of life. Literally ALL the necessities of life cost TOO MUCH money for the working class to keep up with. Life shouldn’t be too expensive for the general public to afford.” (Kalista C., a retail worker in Tennessee) “I have medical conditions that would prevent me from getting private health insurance. I am also a disabled single parent who has been fighting for disability for 2 years. Without Medicaid, my social security, and SNAP, I will die. I have worked and paid into the system for 34 years. I, as many others, do not deserve to be told we are nothing but parasites and made to feel like we should just die off.” (Paige C., an Amazon associate from Kentucky)
October 31, 2025 at 5:36 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Quite the auto response from the generic USDA press email account
Thank you for contacting our press office. Due to staff furloughs resulting from the Radical Left Democrat shutdown, the typical monitoring of this press inbox may be impacted. We ask for your patience as remaining staff works diligently to field your requests. As you await a response, please remember these delays could have been avoided had Senate Democrats supported the clean Continuing Resolution to fund the government. Thank you for your patience and attention to this matter.
October 28, 2025 at 1:54 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Instead what he's really doing is pulling money from school meals. Which also probably isn't legal?
Instead, the administration is providing a lifeline for the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children, known commonly as WIC, by pulling money from an account that funds things like school breakfast and lunch programs. Some of the money in that nutrition account comes from import revenue from prior years, as authorized by a 90-year-old law, along with other funding Congress provides each year.
October 20, 2025 at 1:30 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
The flooding disaster in Alaska ties directly back to the Trump administration. First, Trump's EPA rescinded a $20 million grant to fortify against such storms. www.adn.com/alaska-news/...
Last year, the village of Kipnuk secured $20 million in federal funding to mitigate erosion and fortify its infrastructure against storm surges, only for it to be rescinded. A spokesperson for the federal Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday defended the decision, saying “due to the proactive cancellation of this grant, $20 million of hardworking U.S. tax dollars are currently sitting in the U.S. treasury instead of swept into the Kuskokwim River.”
October 17, 2025 at 4:41 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Also his "affordability plan" is half tax cuts, including something borrowed straight from Trump.
Q: What are two specific policies you would enact in your first year to address the city’s affordability crisis? Cuomo's answer: First, build. With a 1 percent vacancy rate, demand is driving up costs, so the only answer is to increase supply. In my first year, I’ll add 50,000 affordable homes by cutting red tape, rezoning land and bringing 25,000 rent-stabilized apartments back online. Second, tax reform. Cap property taxes at 2 percent for struggling homeowners, eliminate income taxes for residents earning up to 200 percent of the federal poverty level, end taxes on tips and raise the real estate transfer tax threshold to $2.5 million to make it easier to purchase a home.
October 17, 2025 at 3:16 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
This is so insulting. What does Andrew Cuomo even want to achieve if he becomes mayor? This word salad boils down to nothing. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Q: What’s your one big idea — your most important policy proposal that you would prioritize if you could only achieve one campaign promise? Cuomo's answer: The “big idea” is what has been missing from City Hall for over a decade: competent, effective government that delivers for the people it serves. Real change comes from day-in, day-out execution: experienced leadership that can deliver change, managerial skill and knowledge that gets results. My priorities are clear: public safety, affordability and opportunity.
October 17, 2025 at 3:14 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
The article leaves out Charlotte Burrows, who was chair of the EEOC before Trump fired her (something he doesn't have legal authority to do). The acting chair he picked in her place and the new commissioner he just got confirmed are both white.
An official portrait of Charlotte Burrows An official portrait of Andrea Lucas, Trump's pick for acting EEOC chair Brittany Panuccio, who was just confirmed as an EEOC commissioner after Trump selected her
October 9, 2025 at 12:22 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Interesting that the EEOC is keeping the “radical left Democrats” thing off its website
Screenshot of eeoc.gov that says “Due to a lapse in appropriations, the EEOC’s offices are temporarily closed”
October 2, 2025 at 9:30 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Interesting stuff going on on the HUD main page
A pop up screen on hud.gov saying “The Radical Left are going to shut down the government and inflict massive pain on the American people unless they get their $1.5 trillion wish list of demands.” A bright red splash at the top of hud.gov with the same message
September 30, 2025 at 4:15 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
This is apparently HUD's landing page now
Screenshot of hud.gov that mainly shows a splash with this text: “God blessed us with this great nation, and together, we can increase self-sufficiency and empower Americans to climb the economic ladder toward a brighter future.” - Secretary Scott Turner
September 22, 2025 at 3:03 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
They can't get mad at you for making millions more Americans hungry after you enact the biggest food stamps cut in history if you don't measure hunger anymore www.wsj.com/economy/trum...
Still of Roll Safe tapping his temple
September 22, 2025 at 12:21 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Republicans just saying out loud that they don't care if more and more Americans are out of work www.politico.com/newsletters/...
House Republicans are renewing a focus on scrapping the so-called dual mandate established by Congress in the 1970s that requires the Fed to target interest rate decisions that aim for both stable prices and full employment. They say the central bank should focus solely on prices. “I believe price stability is the most important issue” for the Fed, House Financial Services Chair French Hill (R-Ark.), who reintroduced legislation Wednesday that would narrow the body’s focus to prices, said at a hearing on the issue. “No matter how many mandates, not only is it first among equals, but it’s the only one they can actually do something about.”
September 18, 2025 at 1:14 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Government efficiency www.nytimes.com/2025/09/11/h...
Internal State Department and U.S.A.I.D. documents and correspondence obtained by The New York Times show that several international organizations, including the Gates Foundation and the Children’s Investment Fund Foundation, had offered to buy or accept a donation of the contraceptives. The government would have incurred no costs or might have even been able to recoup taxpayer funds under those scenarios. Instead the administration decided to proceed with destroying the products, an operation that was estimated to cost $167,000.
September 12, 2025 at 11:45 AM
brycecovert.bsky.social
One way to undermine the Civil Rights Act: make sure no one is in the jobs that enforce it www.washingtonpost.com/business/202...
Many staffers have been moved from civil rights jobs, workers say. At the Justice Department, for example, attorneys who protected employees from workplace discrimination were moved to roles handling human resources complaints or Freedom of Information Act requests. At the Department of Housing and Urban Development, civil rights lawyers who pursued cases of housing discrimination were shifted to defend the agency from complaints. At the Transportation Department, an employee who spent a decade working in civil rights is now reviewing highway grants.
September 4, 2025 at 5:27 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Hmm what is it that the people Trump has illegally fired have in common...
Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook NLRB Member Gwynne Wilcox EEOC Chair Charlotte Burrows EEOC Commissioner Jocelyn Samuels
August 26, 2025 at 12:30 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
One of the people Trump is threatening to arrest because he can't afford a home
Among those at risk is 66-year-old Larry, who did not provide his last name. Sitting on a park bench in Dupont Circle, where he has spent most of his days since losing his housing in June, Larry explains that keeping a roof over his head had never been an issue until his wife passed away from kidney failure in 2022. Her death meant the loss of the earned income she contributed to their household, but more importantly, it deprived Larry of his will to get out of bed in the morning.
August 14, 2025 at 2:57 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
The Pigeon Lady from Home Alone
August 7, 2025 at 8:53 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Uber's quest to misclassify its drivers as independent contractors stopped it from implementing a tool it knew internally would be effective at reducing sexual assaults www.nytimes.com/2025/08/06/b...
Soon after starting as chief executive the next year, Mr. Khosrowshahi outlined a vision for a system of inexpensive, easily installed cameras in Uber cars that would record trips by default. Employees found that his plan would be feasible, cost effective, reduce the likelihood of misconduct and help drivers, according to a 2017 presentation. But the company decided not to require cameras in cars, largely because it conflicted with its business model, according to internal communications. By design, drivers are classified as independent contractors, not employees. That allows Uber and similar gig economy companies to avoid paying significant costs associated with traditional employment, including minimum wage, overtime, employee benefits and time for rest breaks. As a result, Uber goes to great lengths not to treat drivers like employees. That means limiting trainings or not requiring that certain equipment — like cameras — be installed in cars to avoid running afoul of employment law.
August 6, 2025 at 12:31 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Firing the head of the BLS over a bad jobs report is very, very bad. Putting "his people" in BLS is very, very, very bad. www.wsj.com/economy/jobs...
Kevin Hassett, Trump’s National Economic Council director, said on NBC that the firing of BLS commissioner Erika McEntarfer is part of Trump’s plan to make further changes to the agency. “The president wants his own people there, so that when we see the jobs numbers, they are more transparent and more reliable,” Hassett said.
August 4, 2025 at 12:36 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Great story about the wide ripples of one of the many workplace ICE raids ordered by the Trump administration www.nytimes.com/2025/07/27/u...
Screenshot that says: This was how they survived these calls: each side reassuring the other even as they continued to unravel. Omar was working the graveyard shift at a local call center to help pay for groceries. His two younger sisters, 17 and 13, were trying to cook for the family from her mother’s recipes. Omar’s younger brother, 7, was waking up at night short of breath, wheezing and choking, until Omar took him to the emergency room. Doctors said he was suffering from panic attacks. He had never spent a night away from Elizabeth, and he didn’t know what it meant to be undocumented, or detained, or deported. The family had decided it was best to tell him that his mother was still at work. Screenshot that says: The factory was empty. The machines sat silent. Back orders continued to pile up as a skeleton crew arrived at 7 a.m. to restart the manufacturing lines. Hartmann walked through the lobby, handing out coffees and greeting eight new employees who were reporting for their first day. They had already been interviewed and hired, but they couldn’t start until they were authorized to work through E-Verify, so a manager named Daisy Hernandez took their IDs and I-9 forms into her office and started punching in the numbers. None of the eight new hires were U.S. citizens. They had submitted paperwork based on green cards, alien registration numbers, temporary visas and work authorizations. Hernandez tried to log into E-Verify, but her password didn’t work. She tried again, and the account was locked.
July 28, 2025 at 7:57 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
I'm shocked, just shocked that a big promise of investment made to please Trump has fizzled www.wsj.com/tech/ai/soft...
Screenshot: While the companies pledged at the January announcement to invest $100 billion “immediately,” the project is now setting the more modest goal of building a small data center by the end of this year, likely in Ohio, the people said.
July 22, 2025 at 11:47 AM
brycecovert.bsky.social
Trump's economy is a man's economy (via @nwlc.org)
Screenshot of an email that says: Today's report revealed that all labor force gains in June were among men: 163,000 men aged 20 and over joined the labor force last month while 103,000 women aged 20 and over left the labor force last month. This means since January, a net 338,000 women have left the labor force. Meanwhile, since January, 183,000 men have joined the labor force.
July 3, 2025 at 2:18 PM
brycecovert.bsky.social
A meatpacking plant proving that the work doesn't have to be so pitifully paid and physically destroying www.wsj.com/business/mea...
Screenshot that says: Sustainable Beef has tried to lure local workers, including Americans such as Jones, with starting pay of $22 an hour—about $46,000 a year—on par with average wages locally. The facility’s single daytime shift lets employees attend their children’s sports games after work. The company touts ergonomic work stands and individual lockers—even the plentiful toilets are an upgrade from typical meat plants.
June 23, 2025 at 1:07 PM