Roosevelt Forward

👀 The latest with an eye toward the long game. #FiresideStacks🔥 is a weekly newsletter about progressive politics, policy, and economics. Don't miss an issue—subscribe today! rooseveltforward.substack.com/about

New for Fireside Stacks: Every policy shifts power, but policymakers rarely ask who gains it and who loses it. Our @aasthauprety.bsky.social speaks with @awhf.bsky.social about designing policy that builds power for workers and tenants and weakens those who undermine democracy.

New for Fireside Stacks: Our CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social speaks with former NEC deputy director Sameera Fazili about how communities can take back power over the future of data centers, and help shape AI policy that is democratic and accountable. Read:

Recently Sarah Huckabee Sanders did an advertisement featuring the "lazy couch potato video game player welfare receipt" trope (and stepped in it with her racist base). So it's a good time to reup my work on this harmful narrative with my colleague Noa Rosinplotz rooseveltforward.org/2025/09/04/a...

Elizabeth and I share many connections. It’s no surprise that so much of what is in the Roosevelt Institute’s Good Life Agenda under her leadership reflects our priorities in the Mamdani administration, especially recognizing that an economy isn’t just numbers. It’s people.

New for Fireside Stacks: Our CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social speaks with New York City Deputy Mayor for Economic Justice @juliesulabor.bsky.social about how the project of building a good life for New Yorkers requires “bringing people into government who have been on the sidelines.” Read ⬇️

A true highlight of my year was getting to talk to Diana about Care Blocks.

Bogotá, Colombia found a smart way to give caregivers time back: put the services they need in the same place. In our latest Fireside Stack, @suzmkahn.bsky.social speaks with Care Blocks creator Diana Rodriguez Franco about how this program works and what US cities can learn from it:

NEW: Our @toddntucker.com interviews @bearerfriend.bsky.social and @polcz.bsky.social on how their research helped inspire Bernie Sanders’s AI tax proposal. They make the case for public ownership of AI and explain what it could mean for workers, creators, and the public. ⬇️

I had a blast with all 4 of these, including the background to make sure I wasn’t lying! But the best part is saying the quiet part out loud 👇

Will a rent freeze help or hurt NYC renters? Is AI in a Gulf-fueled bubble? And what does GDP miss about working families? You asked. @mikemadowitz.bsky.social answered. 🔥 The first edition of Burning Questions is here. Read the latest Fireside Stacks:

My piece from March 2025: rooseveltforward.org/2025/03/26/o...

One year later vs. two years later (cc: @ositanwanevu.com)

Oh hey rooseveltforward.org/2025/09/11/t...

rooseveltforward.org/2025/09/11/t...

I contributed a bit to this discussion last year rooseveltforward.org/2025/06/10/t...

Darrick Hamilton is one of the designers of Baby Bonds...when he tells you Trump Accounts are basically anti-Baby Bonds you should listen.

Darrick Hamilton went further...calling Trump Accounts “upside down.” Hamilton warned that the program will enhance inequality rather than reduce it, and that $1,000 isn’t enough to make a meaningful difference for a child living in poverty. www.louisianafirstnews.com/news/trump-a...

The wealth tax will officially be on the California ballot. @rooseveltforward.org www.firesidestacks.com/p/california...

There are so many things we could deliver if we just had the courage: public options for crucial services, increased charity care, lowering the cost of borrowing, and more. Read and get inspired. And then let’s get to work.

California once led the tax revolt. Now, it may become the first state to tax billionaire wealth at scale. Noa Rosinplotz spoke with Emmanuel Saez about the proposal, the economics behind it, and what other states can learn.

Americans want a good life, fewer corporate hurdles, more income, more time. Policymakers have the power to deliver. They just need the will to use it. @danamilbank.bsky.social breaks it down for @notus.com www.notus.org/perspectives...

"The constraint isn’t fiscal capacity, but rather what we collectively decide is important and fundamentally a right for New York City’s working class." www.firesidestacks.com/p/what-zohra... @rooseveltforward.org

I talked with @socio-steve.bsky.social @rooseveltforward.org about my new book Coverage Denied: How Health Insurers Drive Inequality in the United States (www.amazon.com/Coverage-Den...). This is Part II of our chat about health ins barriers and paths to reform www.firesidestacks.com/p/fixing-sys...

I had the pleasure of working on this article with @scottlgreer.bsky.social @hjarman.bsky.social and @xrkulik.bsky.social. We assess the impact of the dramatic cuts to health spending (including wrt insurance), attacks on science, undermining of regulation, and more. www.aft.org/hc/spring202...

I recently had the opportunity to chat with @socio-steve.bsky.social about the scope & findings of my book Coverage Denied, which came out today. I had a lot to say, so it turned into a 2-part series that spans the patient and physician experiences of ins barriers. open.substack.com/pub/roosevel...

This week on fireside stacks ( @rooseveltforward.org ) I sat down with @mirandayaver.bsky.social to discuss her new book, "Coverage Denied," which deals with one of the lesser understood aspects of our health insurance maze. You can find part I below. 1/2 www.firesidestacks.com/p/when-healt...

And keep your eyes peeled for part I of my interview with Prof. Yaver on Fireside Stacks later this week. CC: @rooseveltforward.org

We wrote earlier this year about how killing free public filing has shifted costs onto working people. With Tax Day tomorrow, a reminder that our broken and expensive tax filing system is actually working as this administration intended—to generate profit for the companies cashing in on it.

www.firesidestacks.com/p/what-if-oa...

Amazing insights in this convo between @shahrzadshams.bsky.social and @giantwhispers.bsky.social "Polarization often gets a bad rap...We need to offer our audience sharp moral choices about the issues of our times by polarizing against unjust policies." www.firesidestacks.com/p/narrative-...

I had the pleasure of interviewing @giantwhispers.bsky.social for @rooseveltforward.org's Fireside Stacks. We discussed the importance of narrative power, why the Left needs to prioritize it, & some of the important aspects of an effective narrative strategy ⤵️ www.firesidestacks.com/p/narrative-...

Policy wins aren't enough if we don't control the narrative. In an interview with @shahrzadshams.bsky.social, @giantwhispers.bsky.social breaks down how movements can build the power to shift what’s politically possible and win lasting change Read the full interview: bit.ly/4dAl4tt

For anyone curious about my approach to building #narrative power for our movements, check out my interview with the lovely folks at @rooseveltforward.org for their Fireside stacks newsletter. They asked some great questions and I did my best to answer them. #ChangeTheStory #PeoplePower

Real corporate accountability means changing the structure: how power is distributed, how decisions get made, and who benefits. More from Julie Menter of Transform Finance in this week's #FiresideStacks🔥: www.firesidestacks.com/p/beyond-sta...

New evidence confirms what many suspected: the Supreme Court increasingly rules for the rich. What’s driving the shift and what it means for democracy. The latest #FiresideStacks 🔥 from @andreaprat.bsky.social, @proffionasm.bsky.social and Jacob Spitz: https://bit.ly/4cFUY7U

This. www.firesidestacks.com/p/billionair...

Who profits from a supersized ICE? @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social, @bedoyausa.bsky.social and @ksabeelrahman.bsky.social break down how corporations benefit from a massively expanded detention and deportation apparatus. 🎥 Watch the video: www.firesidestacks.com/p/how-compan... #FiresideStacks🔥

"This notion of a zero-sum fight is a construction by people who want to profit by hoarding more and more of that wealth and opportunity. It is not about immigration at all, actually." @ksabeelrahman.bsky.social www.firesidestacks.com/p/how-compan...

Bezos’ layoffs at the Washington Post are a warning: the extremely wealthy buy essential institutions and reshape them to extract more from all of us. Taxing billionaires is about breaking that power. Read more from @igorvolsky.bsky.social in this week's #FiresideStacks🔥 : https://bit.ly/4rCLlLE

At tonight’s SOTU, Trump will toss out cherry-picked numbers. But they miss the point. The real question is simple: are working people better off than a year ago? On what shapes daily life—prices, paychecks, and job security—the answer is no. 🧵

President and CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social talks with @bedoyausa.bsky.social and @ksabeelrahman.bsky.social about Trump 2.0’s deportation regime, protests from Minnesota and beyond, and how ICE ballooned into an $85B agency. Who profits from the detention boom? #FiresideStacks🔥 Listen here:

You know how annoying tax season is? There’s a reason for that. A new breakdown shows how tax filing was made harder on purpose—and who benefited when the free IRS Direct File was eliminated. #TaxSeason #FreeFile https://bit.ly/3MioHsJ

Filing your taxes shouldn't be this hard. The IRS built a free filing tool that worked. This administration killed it. Tax prep companies are cashing in. This is how complexity become a profit strategy, Noa Rosinplotz in this week's #FiresideStacks🔥 : https://bit.ly/3NNVCFZ

New from our President and CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social: @mayor.nyc.gov is reshaping the city's affordability approach, from multibillion-dollar childcare to rent freezes, wage floors, and people-led policy engagement. Read more in our latest #FiresideStacks🔥 https://bit.ly/4rfYtWD

Affordability is at the center of people’s needs and today's politics. Our President & CEO @elizabethwwilkins.bsky.social highlights @mayor.nyc.gov as an exemplar for tackling care, housing, and wages by listening and using a people-first approach to policymaking. https://bit.ly/4t2IZXO

You deserve food, shelter and medical care. You don't deserve an economic/political system that shames you for not being able to afford any of those www.firesidestacks.com/p/billionair...