Off-kilter With Rebecca Vallas

One in five Americans live with disabilities, making nearly every issue — from health care to the environment to the economy, and more — a disability issue. That’s why earlier this week, in conjunction with the 28th anniversary of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), the Center for American Progress announced the launch of the Disability Justice Initiative — in recognition that it’s long past time we stopped relegating people with disabilities to a single day on the calendar — and viewing so-called “disability issues” in a silo, separate and apart from the broader progressive agenda. To take a look at how far we’ve come in the 28 years since the ADA — and how far we still have to go — this week the Disability Justice Initiative is taking over Off-Kilter, with guest co-host Rebecca Cokley, who’s leading up the project for CAP, joining Rebecca Vallas for an all-disability episode featuring some of our favorite disability leaders — a takeover we look forward to bringing back on the regular in the weeks and

Almost immediately after President Trump announced the nomination of Brett M. Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court, his administration sent out a list of talking points to business-friendly surrogates. Headlined “Judge Brett Kavanaugh On Overregulation,” it elaborated how Kavanaugh “protects American businesses from job-killing regulation.” That pleasant pablum disguises what Kavanaugh really thinks of regulations protecting all of us. So writes Helaine Olen, in a column for the Washington Post’s PostPartisan blog. She joins the show to unpack what Kavanaugh’s deregulatory ideology could mean for workers — and consumers — should he join the high court. Later in the show, amid the ongoing Farm Bill debate, which has nutrition assistance for some 2 million Americans squarely in the cross-hairs, another threat to struggling families’ nutrition is largely flying under the radar. Last week it came to light that a program that enables low-income families to purchase fresh produce at farmers markets with their SNAP benef

Families aren’t just being separated at the border. Every day, parents in communities across the U.S. have their children taken from them as punishment simply for being poor, under the guise of protecting children from neglect. Congresswoman Gwen Moore knows what this is like from personal experience—she battled to retain custody of her oldest daughter, while she was struggling to make ends meet as a young mother. Recently, she introduced legislation to stop other families from being separated for the crime of being poor. Rebecca speaks with the Congresswoman about her own experience being punished for her poverty—and about her new bill. Later in the show, wage theft is often viewed as a civil issue. But the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has taken it on as a major priority for criminal prosecutions—and with a focus on construction workers, as part of a larger initiative to protect and fight for a group of workers who don’t just risk their lives in some of the most dangerous working conditions… but can

Last week, SCOTUS wrapped up its term, and its last round of decisions was a doozy. But the horror show wasn’t limited to the final batch of cases it decided, from Janus to the Muslim Ban and more. It was capped off by the sudden announcement that Justice Anthony Kennedy is stepping down, leaving Donald Trump to name his replacement. To unpack what this means for… basically everything, Rebecca sat down with Ian Millhiser, justice editor at ThinkProgress and Off-Kilter’s SCOTUS correspondent (and Will had to bleep out roughly a third of what they said). And later on the show, since the 2016 election, when white working class voters swept Donald Trump into office in the hopes that he’d save or bring back their jobs, the president has broken essentially every campaign promise he made to the so-called forgotten man and forgotten woman, instead focusing on passing tax cuts for millionaires paid for by cuts to the programs that support working people. It’s no secret that the American people want the opposite of thi

This week on Off-Kilter, over the past 40 days, more than 2,000 people have been arrested across the country as part of nonviolent civil disobedience through the Poor People’s Campaign. Many of those activists came to DC this past Saturday to mark the completion of the campaign’s first phase as it continues the work that Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and others who founded the original Poor People’s Campaign began 50 years ago. Rebecca talks with Greg Kaufmann, editor in chief of TalkPoverty.org, about the activists fueling this growing movement and where it goes from here. Next, this week marks the 80th anniversary of the Fair Labor Standards Act, which put in place the first-ever federal minimum wage and much more. But 80 years later, key parts of the law remain unchanged—including an obscure provision that allows people with disabilities to be paid pennies on the dollar for their labor. For a look at the history of the Fair Labor Standards Act—and how 80 years on, it’s still leaving workers with disabilities

This week on Off-Kilter, as the public outcry around Trump’s policy of separating families at the border continues to mount, a group of lawmakers went down to south Texas to see the detention camps where children as young as age 5 are being kept in cages. Rebecca talks with Wisconsin Congressman Mark Pocan about the horrific conditions in the camps and how Trump’s executive order doesn’t come anywhere close to ending the horror show on the border. Later in the show, DC voters this week approved Initiative 77 to raise the minimum wage for tipped workers to $15 an hour. But now DC Council is signaling it may override the will of the voters and stop the measure from taking effect. Rebecca speaks with Thea Bryan, a DC bartender who’s been supporting the measure, about how it will help her and other tipped workers—and why more workers in support haven’t been speaking out. (Spoiler: many are afraid of retaliation, and for good reason—Thea herself lost her job after she spoke out.) And finally, with June marking LGB

This week on Off-Kilter, a new report sheds horrifying new light on the state of the nationwide affordable housing crisis. A minimum wage worker earning $7.25 an hour would need to work a staggering 122 hours per week, literally all 52 weeks of the year — the equivalent of three full time jobs — to afford a two bedroom apartment at fair market rent. Rebecca speaks with Diane Yentel, president and CEO of the National Low-Income Housing Coalition, about the new report “Out of Reach: The High Cost of Housing.” Later in the show, while Trump and Congressional Republicans actively seek to exacerbate the affordable housing crisis, some states and cities are taking matters into their own hands. Rebecca sits down with Denver Mayor Michael Hancock to hear how Denver’s tackling their affordable housing crisis and working to curb chronic homelessness. And finally, it’s no secret the Trump tax law that took effect earlier this year is already worsening inequality in the U.S. But it’s also a recipe for massively exacerbat

This week on Off-Kilter, while Trump spent much of the week crowing about how he’s to thank for the so-called “best economy ever,” the United Nations released a scathing indictment of poverty and inequality in the U.S., finding that for all but the richest, “the American Dream is rapidly becoming the American illusion.” The report’s findings are damning and specifically call out Trump and the GOP for lavishing massive tax breaks on the wealthiest while 5.3 Americans live in “third world conditions of absolute poverty.” Rebecca speaks with Philip Alston, the U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, who authored the fiery report. Later in the show, ride-hailing corporations like Uber and Lyft have adopted the dirty tactics of the gun and tobacco industries to buy political influence and override local policies intended to protect consumers and drivers. In 2016, Uber and Lyft deployed a whopping 370 lobbyists around the country—more than Amazon, Microsoft, and Walmart combined. To unpack how

This week on Off-Kilter, it’s midterm season — the time when members of Congress come home to their districts to tell their constituents just how hard they’ve been fighting for them, and why they should send them back to Washington. For a look ahead to the upcoming midterms — and a sneak peek at how Indivisible is working to bring change to Washington by supporting activists-turned-candidates taking on GOP incumbents through the “Indivisible 435” campaign launched earlier this week — Rebecca talks with Indivisible’s Chad Bolt. Next: One month after the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King’s assassination, a group of faith leaders resuscitated the civil rights icon’s final project by launching the Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival. You’re probably familiar with campaign co-chair Reverend William Barber II from his leadership of the Moral Mondays movement. But less well known is his co-chair, the Reverend Dr. Liz Theoharis, who has spent the past two decades working as an organizer

Earlier this week, Neil Gorsuch and the rest of the conservative majority on the Supreme Court dealt yet another devastating blow to workers — and a huge boon to large corporations — in a 5–4 decision that effectively strips workers of their rights to sue their employers via class action lawsuits, and even allows employers to keep workers out of the courtroom altogether. To unpack the Epic Systems v. Lewis case — and get a sneak peek at what we can expect from the upcoming decisions dropping in June — Rebecca talks with Ian Millhiser, justice editor at ThinkProgress and author of Injustices: the Supreme Court’s History of Comforting the Comfortable and Afflicting the Afflicted. Next, on last week’s show, as part of the In Case You Missed It segment up top, Rebecca and Jeremy mentioned a heartbreaking new report highlighting terrifying racial disparities in maternal and infant health. Among its findings: Black women in the U.S., regardless of wealth or educational background, are three to four times more likel

This week Off-Kilter broadcast from the Center for American Progress’s Ideas Conference (aka the CPAC of the left). So we bring you a couple of the conversations Rebecca and Jeremy had with progressive leaders who spoke there: including New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, who has championed the right to counsel for low-income tenants facing eviction—and who made some news this week on marijuana enforcement reform—and Congressman Ted Lieu on how to walk and chew gum at the same time as we fight to address widespread economic challenges even as we fight to save our democracy. Later in the show, switching with House Republicans’ draconian Farm Bill poised to hit the House floor for a vote later this week, Rebecca talks with Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, one of the Democrats in Congress fighting to kill the bill, which would take food assistance away from 2 million Americans. But first, Rebecca and Jeremy walk through the poverty news of the week in another edition of In Case You Missed It.

Victorian diseases eradicated long ago with the advent of antibiotics are making an unlikely comeback across the pond. You heard that right - scurvy and other illnesses related to malnutrition are now having devastating effects on thousands of families as hunger and hardship have spiked, following eight years of austerity cuts in the U.K. To discuss the state of the U.K.'s austerity cuts - which lawmakers in Washington would be wise to consider a cautionary tale as they debate a Farm Bill that would strip 2 million Americans of meager yet vital food assistance - Rebecca talks with Mary O'Hara, a columnist with The Guardian and the author ofAusterity Bites: A Journey to the Sharp Edge of Cuts in the UK. Later in the show, some 1 in 4 Americans report difficulty affording necessary prescription drugs, as prices have skyrocketed in recent years. In response to this growing crisis, a range of lawmakers in Congress have called for legislation to curb rising drug costs, and states have begun to take action as well,

Last week, Ben Carson, President Trump’s Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, unveiled a proposal to triple rents for the poorest families and take housing assistance away from unemployed and underemployed workers. This announcement comes amid a nationwide affordable housing crisis: In no state in the U.S. can a minimum wage worker earning $7.25 afford even a one-bedroom apartment at market rent. Meanwhile, just 1 in 5 eligible low-income families receive help from the nation’s already massively underfunded housing assistance programs, leaving others paying 50, 60, 70 percent of their incomes on rent — while they languish on years, sometimes decades-long waitlists. Many end up facing eviction. A new dataset produced by sociologist and Evicted author Matthew Desmond and his team at the Eviction Lab shines staggering new light on the scale and scope of the eviction epidemic. Cities such as Richmond, Virginia, face annual eviction rates as high as 1 in 9 households. Meanwhile, an exhibit at the National B

This week on Off-Kilter, the Republican war on Medicaid has now made its way to Michigan, in the form of what may be the most heartless “work requirements” proposal yet — which passed Michigan’s Republican-controlled Senate on a party line vote last week. Rebecca talks with two experts at the University of Michigan: Luke Shaefer, the director of poverty solutions and a professor of public policy, and one of the authors of $2 a Day: Living on Almost Nothing in America, and Marianne Udow-Phillips, a former head of human services for the state of Michigan and currently the director of the Center for Health Care Research and Transformation. Next, Rebecca speaks with Michigan State Senator Curtis Hertel Jr., a Democrat who made waves by introducing an amendment that would make his colleagues in the State Senate jump through the same hoops they want to make struggling Michiganders jump through to keep their healthcare. Later in the show, with the debate around so-called “work requirements” and other proposals to s

This week on Off-Kilter, the House Agriculture Committee passed its version of the so-called farm bill — a massive piece of legislation that among many other things includes the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps. House Republicans claim the bill is about “lifting Americans out of poverty” — but the draconian nutrition assistance cuts it proposes would be a recipe for massively increasing hunger and hardship, as Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, explains. Next, in Florida, climate change issues aren’t just the stuff of Planet Earthepisodes — they’re a day to day reality. The effects of rising seas and intensifying storms are being felt right now, and especially so in low income communities and communities of color. Meanwhile, President Trump and his EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt are doing nothing except making it worse — but there are people fighting back. As we mark Earth Day, Rebecca talks with Caroline Lewis, a south Florida principal turned climate change activi

Next, with April as Second Chance Month, Rebecca talks with Kristen Arant, a single mom from Kentucky and Ohio who was able to turn her life around after spending time behind bars due to struggles with substance abuse—thanks to Medicaid. As Kristen writes in TalkPoverty.org, adding work requirements to Medicaid, as both of the states she hails from are seeking to do, could be nothing short of a death sentence for people like her. But first, with the news of Paul Ryan’s retirement and another nasty executive order released by the Trump administration targeting low-income families, Rebecca brings back The Slevinator for another edition of In Case You Missed It—and a surprise sneak peak at his band’s new single (yes, really!)

A video produced by Deadspin’s Timothy Burke, showing dozens of local news anchors saying the exact same words, brought national attention to a series of promotional segments airing on 193 local TV affiliates owned by the Sinclair Broadcast Group, all warning viewers about a torrent of “fake news” promoted by “members of the media [who] use their platforms to push their own personal bias and agenda to control ‘exactly what people think.’” If that message sounds familiar, it’s because it’s echoes Donald Trump’s anti-media talking points to a terrifying tee. Rebecca speaks with Judd Legum, editor in chief of ThinkProgress, about the rise of Sinclair—and its role in driving a rightward tilt of local news across the U.S. Next, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. gave his life fighting for economic and racial justice – yet 50 years later, his call for a living wage remains a dream still to be achieved, with a staggering 40 percent of American workers earning less than $15 an hour. Racial equity remains perhaps an even mor

Earlier this week, the Trump administration announced that the 2020 Census would include a question about U.S. citizenship. The news generated immediate and widespread blowback, including the filing of lawsuits by at least 2 states’ attorneys general who argue the change violates the law. Rebecca sits down with Corrine Yu, managing policy director at the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, to unpack what’s at stake. Next, when the TV sitcom Roseanne premiered in 1988, it was heralded for its honest portrayal of a working-class family struggling to make ends meet in the Midwest. The show returned to the airwaves this week, drawing tens of millions of viewers – and generating not insignificant controversy due to the eponymous character’s proud support of Donald Trump. Rebecca talks with Mara Pellittierri, managing editor of TalkPoverty.org, about the good, the bad, and the ugly in the controversial reboot. But first, Jeremy Slevin returns with the news of the week, including Tennessee Republicans’

This week on Off-Kilter, a new study out of Stanford and Harvard sheds harrowing new light on what’s driving persistent racial inequality in America. It found that even when children grow up next to each other—with parents earning similar incomes—black boys fare worse than white boys in 99 percent of the country. Rebecca talks with Raj Chetty, the lead author of the study, and Tracey Ross, former co-host of this show (back when it was TalkPoverty Radio) who now leads the All-In Cities Initiative at PolicyLink. Next, with this week marking the 8th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act’s passage, Rebecca sits down with two moms turned healthcare activists whose daughters are alive today thanks to the ACA and Medicaid – Elena Hung and Marta Conner. But first, earlier this week Sen. Bernie Sanders joined forces with Sen. Elizabeth Warren and documentarian Michael Moore to host a town hall on inequality in America. Rebecca talks with Darrick Hamilton, a professor of economics and urban policy at the New School wh

After last Sunday’s episode of 60 Minutes, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos made the rounds on the internet in a truly cringe-inducing clip. If you’re somehow not among the millions who’ve already watched it, the conservative billionaire mega-donor has been behind a decades-long charter school experiment in Michigan. But when pushed to answer for its apparent failure, DeVos was unable to come up with anything even approaching an explanation. So Rebecca talks to someone who can: Allie Gross, a reporter at the Detroit Free Press and a former charter school teacher in the city. Later in the show: “Opioids fill the news with a steady stream of stories of lives lost from overdose and abuse. What we rarely hear is the other side — opioids are also the most powerful pain medication we have. For me, they were life-restoring.” So writes Kate Nicholson in an op-ed in The Hill titled “The Other Side of the Opioid Epidemic.” Rebecca talks with Kate about her experience with chronic pain—and how we address opioid misuse wi