OFF-KILTER with Rebecca Vallas

This week, Off-Kilter's bringing you a conversation Rebecca moderated at The Century Foundation earlier this week, on the historic opportunity to make long overdue improvements to Supplemental Security Income as part of #BuildBackBetter—featuring Sen Sherrod Brown, Rep. Raul Grijalva, and Rep. Jamaal Bowman, as well as a panel of disability and seniors' advocates.   Guests:  Senator Sherrod Brown...

Nearly 40 million people in the U.S. live below the official poverty line—which in 2021 is just $26,000 for a family of four. But while poverty is all too often portrayed as a personal failure, it's actually the result of bad public policy choices. Public policy has purposefully erected barriers that deny access to basic needs, creating a society where people can easily become trapped in poverty—n...

The April jobs data released by the Department of Labor last week spurred an avalanche of hysteria and conservative hand-wringing about supposedly widespread labor shortages, with many on the right pointing to pandemic jobless benefits as the bogeyman. In a particularly troubling move, on Wednesday of this week, 12 Republican governors announced they'd be ending access to pandemic unemployment ben...

As leaders at all levels of government work to "build back better"—and to address the nation's legacy of racial injustice and persistent racial inequality—removing barriers to employment for workers with records is more urgently needed than ever amid the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic and downturn, to ensure not only a full but an equitable recovery that does not leave tens of millions of sys...

"The War on Drugs has disproportionately harmed communities of color. People have lost jobs, education, housing, their liberty, their families, and their lives to this War. Now they deserve equity, justice, and repair: ownership of cannabis businesses, full and automatic expungement, and community reinvestment of tax revenue and corporate philanthropy." This is the vision of a marijuana justice or...

Off-Kilter continues our Second Chance Month series with two of the directly impacted leaders driving transformational change on second chance policies and rights restoration in the states, who also happen to be a powerhouse husband-wife team: Desmond Meade, executive director of the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, best known for the visionary Amendment 4 campaign that restored the right to...

In recognition that a criminal record shouldn't be a life sentence to poverty, there's been a whirlwind of momentum in the states in recent years to expand eligibility for criminal record-clearing—with over half the states expanding laws for expungement, sealing, and other tools for enabling people to wipe their records clean so they can have a fair shot at jobs, housing, education and more. There...

Poverty researchers estimate that the income-boosting provisions in the American Rescue Plan Act, which President Biden signed into law last month, will cut child poverty in half, and that overall poverty in the U.S. will fall by one-third over the next year.  But should we expect those promised reductions in poverty to transfer from spreadsheets to real life?   A lot of the answer to this questio...

Amid a global pandemic that has killed people of color at dramatically higher rates, and forced so-called 'essential workers'--again, disproportionately people of color--to risk illness and death to keep the a struggling economy churning... the outlook for predominantly white corporate monopolists has never been brighter. According to a new report from Liberation in a Generation, from March - Nove...

Results are in from the first year of a universal basic income experiment in Stockton, California, which gave randomly selected residents $500 per month with no strings attached—and they're striking. The income boost improved recipients' employment prospects, economic stability, physical and mental health, overall well-being, and more, according to an independent study released last week. The pilo...

With President Joe Biden's signature, the American Rescue Plan Act became law on Thursday of this week. This wide-ranging package of relief measures—which despite garnering widespread bipartisan support among voters, passed both chambers of Congress without a single Republican vote—authorizes a set of landmark expansions of existing income security policies and programs—including an historic expan...

For this week's pod, we're bringing you a conversation Rebecca moderated at this week's National Academy of Social Insurance conference on "Pathways to Economic Security" about how America's social insurance and public assistance system is falling short for disabled people and care workers who provide home and community based care services; the human consequences of how hard we've made it to acces...

Earlier this week, in a hearing on the state of America's economic recovery, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell testified before the Senate Banking Committee that the employment rate for low-wage workers—those hit hardest by the pandemic—is "probably above 20 percent."   With President Biden's $1.9 trillion COVID relief package on the move in Congress, and with the first glimmers of what a $3 to...

Rebecca joined Greg Duncan and Sam Hammond for a panel discussion about the prospects for a U.S. child allowance -- and why it's needed now more than ever -- hosted by the American Constitution Society's New York Chapter. Subscribe to Off-Kilter on iTunes. show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/the-case-for-a-u-s-child-allowance-1bb04067c3d3

Rebecca talks to Brookings Fellow Lauren Bauer about the steps the Biden administration is taking to increase too-low federal food assistance benefits, starting with updating an archaic policy called the "Thrifty Food Plan" -- and the larger agenda to expand SNAP. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/how-biden-is-expanding-snap-c9c64b8013ce

Rebecca sits down with Be A Hero's Matthew Cortland for a look at the challenges with the vaccine rollout so far, and what it would take to get to the vaccination rates we need in the U.S. and globally to bring the COVID-19 pandemic to an end. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/when-will-the-pandemic-end-45d6d69250c2

Rebecca sits down with the Economic Policy Institute's David Cooper for a deep dive into Democrats' Raise the Wage Act, which would raise the federal minimum wage to $15 by 2025. show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/inside-the-raise-the-wage-act-with-epis-david-cooper-2d6ee58ab1f6

Rebecca talks to Vox's Ian Millhiser about the ongoing debate over what to do with the filibuster -- and why it isn't just standing in the way of much of the Biden-Harris agenda, but key democracy reform measures the GOP wants to stop at all costs. show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/voxs-ian-millhiser-on-why-we-need-to-nuke-the-filibuster-to-save-democracy-c6d432e5fadb

Vox's Dylan Matthews breaks down everything you need to know about "budget reconciliation" -- a tool that if used strategically in the Senate could mean Dems' fragile majority could be enough to create a pathway for powerful policy change at a critical time. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/how-president-elect-biden-could-cut-poverty-in-half-without-the-gop-f647a0452e0e

Sherrod Brown on the COVID relief workers & families urgently need Mini-pod: With poverty on the rise, Rebecca talks to Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown about the debate in Congress around COVID economic relief -- and the stakes for the tens of millions of workers and families struggling to stay afloat right now. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/sherrod-brown-on-the-covid-relief-workers-fami...

Rebecca talks to the Brennan Center's Ames Grawert & Terry Ann Craigie about their research finding that people who spend time in prison see their lifetime earnings cut in half, further entrenching poverty and the racial divide -- the annual earnings loss by Americans with criminal conviction records now totals $372 billion per year. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/how-mass-incarcerat...

Rebecca talks to Dorian Warren & Angela Hanks about the work ahead now that the Biden/Harris transition team has been formed; some of the most exciting new members of Congress to watch; why Jan 5 matters so much; how Democrats can avoid falling into another austerity trap, and more. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/transition-talk-with-dorian-warren-angela-hanks-e986b94f43f7

Rebecca talks to Daniel Nichanian, founder of The Appeal's Political Report, for a deep dive into some of the most important down-ballot stories from the 2020 election -- from ballot measures to state and local races that will shape policymaking in 2021 and beyond. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/down-ballot-deep-dive-with-daniel-nichanian-c000fcf09b04

Rebecca talks to disability lawyer Matthew Cortland about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the disability community so far, the ageism and ableism underpinning claims that "we need to learn to live with it," and more. Show notes: https://offkiltershow.medium.com/the-purge-2020-edition-32c38a059666