Rebecca Vallas
Rebecca Vallas is the Associate Director of the Poverty to Prosperity Program at the Center for American Progress.
Articles by this author
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Views Sunday, April 15, 2018 Trump's Executive Order on 'Welfare' Is Designed to Pit Workers Against One Another On Tuesday night, President Donald Trump signed an executive order that sums up how little he understands about poverty in America. The order, titled “Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility,” carries little weight by itself. It directs a broad range of federal... Read more |
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Views Wednesday, March 28, 2018 Tennessee Wants to Use Funding Meant for Poor Families to Kick People Off Medicaid Nashville Public Radio reported over the weekend that the Tennessee legislature is finalizing legislation that would add work requirements to the state’s Medicaid program, kicking at least 3,700 Tennessee workers off their health care. The state’s Republican leaders appear to have no qualms about... Read more |
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Views Saturday, March 03, 2018 The Leaked Rule That Could Ban Immigrants Based on Income, Explained by Experts Earlier this month, leaked documents revealed that the Trump administration is preparing new rules that would effectively end the United States’ family-based immigration system. If implemented, the regulation would prevent low-income and working-class immigrants from entering the country by denying... Read more |
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Views Monday, January 15, 2018 Why We Need to Stop Calling Trump ‘Crazy’ When We Really Mean ‘Dangerous’ Questions about President Donald Trump hit a fever pitch this week following his tweets about the size and potency of his nuclear button. Of course, such questions are nothing new. Throughout the campaign and Trump’s first year in office, news articles, op-eds, and tweets critical of him have... Read more |
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Views Tuesday, September 29, 2015 Instead of Shaming the Poor, Let’s Raise the Minimum Wage Yesterday I joined Fox and Friends for what they billed, in typical Fox News fashion, as a “fair and balanced debate.” The topic was a Maine mayor’s call to publish the names and addresses of all recipients of public assistance online as a sort of “poverty-offender registry.” Mayor Robert MacDonald... Read more |
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Views Monday, June 22, 2015 Orange is the New Black is Dead Wrong About Disability SPOILER ALERT: This article discusses events within the first episode of Season 3. Et tu, Orange is the New Black ? The Netflix drama is back with a third season, and if you’re like me, it monopolized the better part of the last two weekends. The show deserves credit for sparking dialogue and... Read more |
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Views Thursday, March 12, 2015 Why Congress Should Pass the REDEEM Act At a time of historic polarization in Washington, one issue has garnered strong bipartisan support: criminal justice reform. Exhibit A is the list of strange bedfellows who have recently joined forces through the “transpartisan” Coalition for Public Safety . This new effort has brought together... Read more |
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Views Thursday, January 15, 2015 Social Security Disability Insurance: A Primer for Rand Paul (and Everyone Else) Well, that was fast. Congress hasn’t been back even two weeks, and the conservative attacks on Social Security are already in full swing. As ThinkProgress reported last week, House conservatives kicked off the 114 th Congress—literally on Day One—with a midnight rule change that prohibits a routine... Read more |
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Views Monday, October 13, 2014 How We Punish People for Being Poor This past weekend, I was part of a panel discussion on MSNBC’s Melissa Harris Perry with New York Times reporter Michael Corkery, whose reporting on the rise in subprime auto loans is as horrifying as it is important. In what seems a reprisal of the predatory practices that led up to the subprime... Read more |
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Views Saturday, September 20, 2014 Disability is a Cause and Consequence of Poverty Disability is both a cause and consequence of poverty. It is a cause because it can lead to job loss and reduced earnings, barriers to education and skills development, significant additional expenses, and many other challenges that can lead to economic hardship. It is also a consequence because... Read more |