As promised, today @rooseveltinstitute.org releases a blog post previewing our topline findings from @jacklandry.bsky.social and my upcoming paper analyzing the impacts and costs of the SSI Restoration act of 2024! rooseveltinstitute.org/blog/how-to-...

For decades, nativists have sold America this narrative that immigrant welfare is behind our deficits and debt. This figure shows how absurd that is. This is all government expenditures, federal, state, and local, for the last 3 decades. Immigrants are not to blame:

Today @cato.org published our report providing the first look at the fiscal effects of the wave of legal & illegal immigration over the last 3 decades. It shows immigrants created surpluses every year, by a combined $14.5 trillion, even as deficits grew www.cato.org/white-paper/...

The Washington Post gutted the health team which I helped to lead despite our stories being among the most widely read, impactful and adept at reaching new audiences.

This is awful. Families of autistic kids are often desperate for help & are vulnerable to scammers peddling things that will actually hurt their precious children.

I love the 51st! And I'd love for them to hire some of the fantastic Post reporters and editors who are now out of a job. Consider subscribing!

Riffing off Brendan's method of juxtaposition in this awesome report, I'd like to offer another comparison: Food assistance cuts versus new funding for DHS in the "Big Beautiful Bill" Republicans cut food assistance by $187 billion while providing $191 billion in funding for DHS

This is absolutely insane: DHS claims the right to subpoena your emails and to send investigators to your house. In this case, because a retiree sent the mildest possible criticism to a prosecutor. No judges involved. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

While tech can certainly help deliver services, this is cuckoo--and yet Trump officials keep saying things like it. When she's sick, your mom wants to see a doctor, not an AI avatar--just like when your grandma has a problem with her Social Security, she wants to talk to a person, not an AI bot.

As a former Mitchell Scholar, I fully support the decision of the US-Ireland Alliance to remove the name of Senator George Mitchell from the scholarship program, following the revelations in the latest batch of the Epstein files. us-irelandalliance.org/mitchellscho...

1. So, an interesting thing about Minneapolis' response to DHS is that it showcases how pushback to Trump's mass deportation efforts developed and expanded over time — and how it involved religious leaders throughout. Let me explain…

This is so poignant. I often say I don't agree that "it goes by so fast." Instead it's exactly this--I still see my kids so vividly as babies and little kids, at the same time that I see them as who they are in this moment and the men they will become. It's all precious and fleeting.

Last week in Minnesota, I watched ordinary people risk their lives to protect their neighbors. In the process, they not only won a significant—though not final—victory against authoritarianism, they proved virtually every MAGA social theory wrong. (gift link) www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...

The reality is that the DHS bill doesn’t have support and for good reason. Congress should finish the bills that do have support and take the opportunity to quickly fix some of what is clearly broken that is undermining public safety with tragic consequences.

As @sharonparrott.bsky.social explained, the DHS funding bill is one place to address them. bsky.app/profile/shar...

Figuring out a bipartisan approach on holding DHS accountable may take time— no reason the Social Security Admin, housing funding, & troop pay should wait. Stalling those bills while agreement on DHS is hammered out doesn’t make sense. Even the House voted for DHS separately.

It’s understandable & appropriate to separate the DHS bill to establish prohibitions, guardrails, & safeguards for the funds. Protections are urgently needed for the people & communities federal immigration agents are targeting w/ violence & terror.

Calls to split the DHS funding from the current 6-bill minibus aren’t calls for a shutdown. The other 5 bills+ the already enacted bills provide 95%+ of total discretionary $. The other 5 bills have solid bipartisan support in both houses & should move on their own.

One reason states like MN haven't shared SSNs & other highly sensitive voter info with the Trump Administration is “These data can be manipulated to support false claims about ineligible voting and justify efforts to thwart free and fair elections,” as @wendyweiser.bsky.social explains here...

One of the best things I’ve read in a while:

Senators have the responsibility to uphold and defend the Constitution. Using the annual budget process when necessary to protect the constitutional rights and safety of all people and communities should be a requirement of the job.

Our democracy depends on Congress exercising its authority & the executive branch following the law, and both branches working in service and protection of the people.

This use of the budget process is central to Congress’s constitutional power of the purse, its responsibility to provide oversight of the federal government, & the system of checks and balances that is a foundation of our democracy.

Funding bills are about more than setting funding levels - Congress uses the bills to establish prohibitions, guardrails, & requirements for the funds. They’re one of the ways that Congress exercises its constitutional power over what gov’t can & can’t do with the funds provided.

In the wake of another horrific shooting death in MN by federal immigration officers -on top of wrongful detentions, violence, & fear there & across the country- it is appropriate for the Senate to use the budget process to push for critical protections for people & communities.

If you’re wondering what voter rolls have to do with ICE operations in Minnesota, it’s more connected than it may seem on the surface:

This week, a bombshell update in our case revealed DOGE accessed and may have shared Americans’ Social Security data—including with an election denial group—despite a court order not to. We’re demanding the DOJ prove it hasn't destroyed evidence of these illegal actions. By tonight. Your move, DOJ.

The actions the Trump Administration has taken to freeze $10 billion in funding for child care and other essential needs in five "blue" states are illegal, unsupported by evidence, and extremely harmful to families with low and moderate incomes: bit.ly/3LKzE6a

Must-read context on this week's revelations about DOGE bros at SSA secretly entering a data sharing deal with a group seeking to overturn election results. DOGE & Trump Admin officials have made all kinds of wild and false claims about Social Security and elections. popular.info/p/doge-staff...

Important context for the story of DOGE secretly entering a data sharing agreement between the Social Security Administration and an election denier group seeking to overturn elections.

The dramatic drop in the murder rate is such a big deal, but people take it for granted (or falsely claim we are in a crime wave). I don't--growing up in what was the "murder capital" in many of the highest-homicide years, I know how corrosive violence can be. www.axios.com/2026/01/22/m...

In June 2025, Justices Jackson and Sotomayor warned that it created "grave privacy risks for millions of Americans" to allow DOGE access to sensitive personal information while its right to do so was being litigated. Sadly, they were right. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24p...

As we mark one year of the second Trump Administration, this deeply reported story on the chaos they wrought at the Social Security Administration is well worth your time. 🧵 wapo.st/4qVjA04

While DOGE was under a TRO at SSA, they entered a "voter data agreement" with an org aiming to "overturn election results"--without review or approval. SSA also concedes they "have not been able to determine what data [DOGE] shared" & have no way to know. storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

Update: It appears that DOGE staff at the Social Security Administration entered a data sharing agreement with True the Vote, which played a key role in spreading the Big Lie about the 2020 election, including in the propaganda film "2,000 Mules." www.democracydocket.com/news-alerts/...

As we mark one year since President Trump’s inauguration, it’s important to take stock of the harm the Administration – and congressional Republicans – have inflicted in such a short time. www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

Reupping this thread as news breaks that DOGE officials at the Social Security Administration signed a "voter data agreement" with an advocacy group whose aim is to "find evidence of voter fraud and to overturn election results in certain states," according to court filings by SSA today.

In a remarkable court filing, DOJ also revealed that DOGE employees traded Social Security data on an unapproved third party server — Cloudflare — and may have sent private SSA info to a top DOGE adviser. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

NEWS: The Social Security Administration has referred two DOGE employees for Hatch Act violations after discovering contacts with a political group seeking SSA data to overturn election results. www.politico.com/news/2026/01...

This whole paper is a must-read, but in this thread I'll pull out the parts that pertain to Social Security. Last year, the Trump Administration did the largest-ever staff cut at the Social Security Administration, pushing out about 7K public servants. 🧵 www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

New, from me: A year in, did DOGE deliver on its promises? Not the promises it made to us (cut spending, modernize government, improve services). It worsened state capacity. But it was part of a successful broligarchy exercise in state capture. 🧵 donmoynihan.substack.com/p/a-year-on-...

Almost a year since the Trump Administration began rapidly and radically cutting the federal workforce without congressional approval, new OPM data show the resulting massive declines in personnel and public services: www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

You may have heard that "social security is going to go bankrupt." Many younger people assume social security will not be there for them when they retire. In my latest paper I correct the record. SS is not going bankrupt but we'll need to revisit it soon 🧵 rooseveltinstitute.org/publications...

The breadth of actions harming low- and moderate-income people over the last year is staggering. Here's a look at the Trump Administration's harmful agenda in the first year of its second term: www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

Trump's first year left 10s of Ms less able to meet basic needs — whether affording groceries, seeing a doctor, keeping the power on, or paying the rent — even as the wealthiest get yet more tax breaks. It also undermined & corrupted many basic functions of government. www.cbpp.org/research/fed...

Last night with no warning, RFK Jr. cancelled up to $2 billion in funding for mental health and substance abuse research and programs administered through SAMHSA. He and his minions did so because “they no longer believe the defunded programs align with the Trump administration's priorities”.

Provide a strong family-oriented safety net whether or not each policy isolation will very slightly reduce or very slightly increase the birth supply because reducing suffering/helping folks flourish is a good per se.

Bring in more immigrants! Slightly increasing the birth rate at great expense so we can have a tiny number of additional workers 20 years down the line is not a serious strategy.

I have some really amazing colleagues at Ford at Michigan, who want to do not just great research but actually fix real world problems. Luke is a great example.

For administration that cries about fraud constantly they've gotten rid of the people that help find the fraud