Roosevelt Forward

@rooseveltforward.org

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Advocacy affiliate of @rooseveltinstitute.org. We believe that new politics and policymaking—that can equalize power in our society—are possible. www.rooseveltforward.org || Subscribe to our Substack #FiresideStacks 🔥 firesidestacks.com

An image featuring a quote from Elizabeth Wilkins about Zohran Mamdani's approach to people-centered policymaking, presented by Roosevelt Forward: "What truly distinguishes this approach is that Mamdani treats people-centered policymaking as a source of governing power, not just popular appeal. He has invested in building a sense of belonging that is now translating into sustained civic engagement."

Senator Elizabeth Warren speaking at The National Press Club on January 12th, 2026.

“Julie Su is the rare public servant who not only cares deeply about working people, but will fight for them with the creativity and relentlessness required to make government deliver at the scale of the need. Mayor-elect Mamdani’s decision to put her in this role shows he’s serious about making sure New York City works for all New Yorkers.” — Elizabeth Wilkins, President and CEO, Roosevelt Forward

"So it was that, while they were in the Oval Office, Mamdani steered the discussion to Roosevelt’s New Deal presidency—the legacy of which Trump has been attacking on so many fronts. 'I actually asked the president that we take a photo in front of the portrait [of FDR] and I spoke about how transformative the New Deal had been for our country and how that is the legacy of politics that I seek to draw upon in the work that I’m doing in New York City.'"

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads: A 50-year mortgage is a death pledge that follows a family to the grave instead of building something they can pass on. With a 50-year mortgage, someone buying a first home at 40 would most likely die still owing at least a decade of payments without passing down the generational wealth the American Dream promises to homeowners.

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads: A 50-year mortgage is a death pledge that follows a family to the grave instead of building something they can pass on. With a 50-year mortgage, someone buying a first home at 40 would most likely die still owing at least a decade of payments without passing down the generational wealth the American Dream promises to homeowners.

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "Consumer sentiment in October was only exceeded by lows from the worst of the early 1980s recession, the peak of the 2022 inflation, and the months following the “Liberation Day” tariff announcement this year. Since January, consumer sentiment has plunged, giving up essentially all gains from a steady rise after the inflation peak of 2022.”

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "First, the vibes are bad (just ask anyone coming out of a grocery store). Second, the real economy—prices, jobs, and consumer and business spending, among other factors—is worse than it was a year ago, but holding up OK (4.4 percent unemployment, GDP growth over 2 percent, and inflation around 3 percent is hardly the stuff of recession). Third, a small number of people and companies are doing extremely well.”

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "Overall, the data are on a more even keel than either the awful vibes most Americans are feeling from an affordability crisis or the anxiously warm vibes of investors. We’re not living through the economic boom tech investors see everywhere, nor the near-term dystopia consumers are feeling. The economy is weaker than last year and likely to continue to soften a bit more over the first part of next year, but the good news is at least for now things are not as bad in the data as in the headlines. The bad news is…that’s the good news."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "Americans know that it’s not that we lack the resources to deliver economic security. It’s that lawmakers appear to lack the will to collect those resources."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "Time and again, the American people have told almost anyone who will listen that they are deeply concerned about the fact that households in the top 10 percent hold over two-thirds of the country’s wealth, while many families can’t afford childcare or eldercare, children go hungry, and so many live in tenuous precarity because we lack a true social safety net."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "People have made clear that they don’t want to live in a country where children go to bed hungry or parents can’t make ends meet because they lack childcare, while the richest among us keep getting richer."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "The myth of millionaire mobility has done its job: It’s made policymakers nervous and kept billionaires comfortable. The evidence tells a simpler story—most of them stay put."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "As in generations past, the student left remains “the most reliably correct constituency in America.” Over and over—often at great personal sacrifice—they’ve held the line on what is moral, only to see institutions and leaders catch up. Columbia University is one example: It once worked to crush its 1968 student uprising, and now it markets that same protest as a symbol of its “activist Ivy” legacy."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "This time, instead of treating students’ moral conviction as a challenge to pragmatic politics, what if we saw it as the foundation of any civic movement capable of meeting this moment?"

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads “[Employee Retirement Income Security Act] not only discourages patients from suing—shielding insurers from consequences for wrongful denials—but also disproportionately harms lower-income and marginalized workers.”

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads “With few lawsuits and no real penalty for wrongful denials, insurers face little incentive to change, especially as AI promises faster, cheaper claim reviews at the patients’ expense.”

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads “AI-assisted claims are error-prone: In some cases, up to 90 percent of AI-related denials are reversed on appeal to the insurer— if patients can manage the onerous process to appeal, which many do not.”

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads “Insurers are hardly alone in using AI as a cheap substitute for labor-intensive procedures, but when these tools wrongly deny coverage, patients have little legal recourse. Without the ability to recover damages for pain and suffering, insurers face almost no serious penalty for error—errors that are likely to only increase given such tools’ imperfect track record. And because [Employee Retirement Income Security Act] preempts state law, even the most ambitious state reforms can’t protect most workers.”

Bar graph titled "Support for Raising Taxes on Billionaires," showing levels of support across Congressional Districts +49, +54, and +44. Strong support is represented in dark blue, somewhat support in blue, strongly oppose in dark red, and somewhat oppose in red. The bars are labeled with percentages for each category.

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "This data blackout, however, should be a wake-up call. Even under stress, federal economic data remain a crucial piece of our economic foundation and one of the last objective truths in America. Building on the legacy of statistics introduced to monitor the Great Depression and war mobilization, the US has the institutional knowledge and professionalism to expand and improve its open access federal statistics."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic reads "It’s not just that private data depends on federal data; it’s that no one—no matter how smart— can match the work of a capable state."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphics that reads "With this much volatility, it’s precisely the wrong time to turn off the data tap. And it really is shut off, making the economy harder to read in addition to gumming up the work of straightforward governing."

Roosevelt Forward quote graphic which reads "While local conditions can explain some of the wins, a consistent theme is that YIMBY groups have a knack for hosting fun social gatherings where they can, and often do, persuade skeptics and convert sympathizers into activists."

Roosevelt Forward quote image stating: 'Each new standoff reinforces a sense that the government is unstable, which serves the agenda of those eager to discredit public power.' - Reynaldo Fuentes, from 'Shutdown by Design: How State-Capacity Sabotage Stalls Industrial Renewal, Shreds Public Trust, and Hurts Families.'

Quote “For the people waiting—a disabled worker, a small business owner, a family navigating Social Security—these aren’t abstractions. They are weeks of anxiety, bills delayed, or opportunities foregone.” highlighted in an orange box, attributed to Reynaldo Fuentes from Roosevelt Forward.

U.S. President Donald Trump standing in the Oval Office, with a bold caption about corporations and government overlaid on the photo.

Image of a group of individuals in a meeting room. Overlay text reads: 'Cruelty Is the Point: Work Requirements Don't Lift People Up—They Drag Us All Down. www.firesidestacks.com'.

Two individuals, one appearing elderly, look at a laptop in a kitchen, with text overlay emphasizing that ABAWDs are workers, caregivers, and neighbors, not political punching bags.

Graphic on the 4 pillars for a democratic economy

No matter where one comes from, whether or not one has kids, whether or not one is particularly comfortable with the idea of young children being cared for outside the home, there is a way into this idea that childcare undergirds everything we care about as Americans. And unless we start explaining that, and making that case on that emotional, values-laden level, I think we’re going to be stuck on a very slow, choppy path toward the system that we need.

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An informational graphic from Roosevelt Forward, featuring a quote "My grandfather spoke of Social Security as a moral compact that binds generations together through mutual obligation. He knew then what we must remember now—that economic security is a prerequisite for democracy," by Jim Roosevelt, discussing its importance to democracy and its role as a moral compact, titled "Social Security at 90: Protect the Promise."

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Infographic titled 'A New Blueprint for Politics' with four key points

“Politicizing economic statistics is a self-defeating act,” said Michael Madowitz, the principal economist at the Roosevelt Institute’s Roosevelt Forward, who added that “credibility is far easier to lose than rebuild, and the credibility of America’s economic data is the foundation on which we’ve built the strongest economy in the world”.

Infographic titled "A New Blueprint for Politics" by Roosevelt Forward, listing four strategies

Text image promoting "Crypto Week," with the word "Corrupt" featured prominently in the center surrounded by other descriptive words in varying sizes and orientations.

Promotional image for fireside stacks with the title: “Other Countries Have Social Safety Nets. The US Has Women.”: A Conversation with Jessica Calarco

Elections aren’t just about the future of two political parties—they’re a referendum on what kind of country we want to be. Will we continue down a path where market forces justify and perpetuate inhumanity and cruelty, all while enriching corporations and the ultra-wealthy? Or will we choose a different direction—one rooted in fairness and decency? True democracy, as Franklin D. Roosevelt understood, requires more than political freedom; it requires economic security and a real sense of dignity. When people cannot afford life’s essentials—and when government codifies exclusion with regressive laws—freedom and democracy become hollow promises.

Map of the United States showing travel times to abortion clinics as of April 2025, color-coded from light green (up to 50 minutes) to dark red (more than 7 hours), provided by abortionaccessdashboard.org.

Two individuals looking stressed while working at a desk with laptops and papers, with a text overlay discussing political strategies. The text mentions "The Right Has Childcare Plans. The Left Needs a Bold Vision to Rally Around" and cites "www.firesidestacks.com.

The Antidiscrimination Discrimination Club: Ames v. Ohio Department of Youth Services and the steady inversion of civil rights law

promotional image for fireside stacks with the title: Trump Accounts Are Not Baby Bonuses. They’re Another Giveaway to the Wealthy.

Bar chart titled "Billionaire Spending in Presidential Elections," showing a significant increase in spending from $18 million in 2000 to $2.6 billion in 2024. Data sourced from Americans for Tax Reforms, with bars marking expenditures for each election year.