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debbie wasserman schultz
12 House Dems Join GOP to Approve Tax Gift to Rich Alongside Israel Aid for Gaza Slaughter
"Instead of funding more bombs with American taxpayer dollars," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, "our leaders should be calling for a ceasefire now, before this violence claims thousands more lives."
Nov 03, 2023
A dozen House Democrats on Thursday evening joined with nearly every Republican in the chamber to approve legislation that would provide $14.3 in military aid to Israel while cutting an equal amount from IRS funding that would be used to target wealthy individuals who avoid taxes—a cut to the agency that would act as a revenue destroyer, not an offset.
Despite the bill being dead-on-arrival in the U.S. Senate, it passed the House in a 226-196 vote, with 12 Democrats voting in favor along with 214 Republicans, and just two Republicans voting with the 194 Democrats who said nay. President Joe Biden has also vowed to veto the bill if it reaches his desk.
Dubbing the House Democrats who crossed the aisle as the "Tax Cheat Twelve," David Dayen of The American Prospectdetailed in his coverage how the group "received a combined $8 million in campaign support from [pro-Israel lobby group] AIPAC and its affiliates last year."
"Not only do some of my colleagues want to send more weapons to carry out war crimes and violations of international law, but they want to do it by providing tax breaks to billionaires and undermining crucial investments in our communities."
—Rep. Rashida Tlaib
The Democrats who voted with Republicans are: Reps. Josh Gottheimer (N.J.), Jared Moskowitz (Fla.), Debbie Wasserman Schultz (Fla.), Lois Frankel (Fla.), Jared Golden (Me.), Juan Vargas (Calif.), Angie Craig (Minn.), Darren Soto (Fla.), Haley Stevens (Mich.), Frederica Wilson (Fla.), Don Davis (N.C.) and Greg Landsman (Ohio).
While the bill has little or no chance of becoming law, Dayen observed that the group "stuck to their principles" by joining with the Republicans anyway.
Defenders of Palestinian rights horrified by the ongoing onslaught in Gaza criticized all those who voted in favor of the bill.
Progressive Democrats—including Reps. Tashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), Cori Bush (D-Mo.), and Summer Lee (D-Pa.)—spoke out forcefully against funding Israeli military operations at a time the IDF is bombing the besieged Gaza Strip without mercy following the Hamas attacks on Oct. 7 that claimed as many as 1,400 lives. Latest figures put the Palestinian death toll in Gaza well above 9,000 people, including nearly 4,000 children, with thousands more wounded or missing under the rubble.
"The American people do not support funding for war crimes—like the use of white phosphorus bombs—and are calling for a ceasefire," Tlaib said in a statement following Thursday night's vote.
"As the Israeli government carries out ethnic cleansing in Gaza, President Biden is cheering on Netanyahu, whose own citizens are protesting his refusal to support a ceasefire," she continued. "We must be laser focused on saving lives, no matter their faith or ethnicity. The number of children killed in Gaza in just three weeks has surpassed the annual number of children killed across the world's conflict zones since 2019—yet instead of helping end this violence, President Biden baselessly casts doubt on the Palestinian death toll."
Earlier this week, as Common Dreams reported, a CBO score of the proposal showed that the $14.3 billion cut to the IRS would actually slash federal revenues by $27 billion.
Explaining her no vote, Congresswoman Bush tweeted, "I was sent to Congress to save lives, I was not sent to Congress to have my constituent's tax dollars buy bombs to kill thousands of innocent Palestinian men, women, and children. We choose peace and love."
And Rep. Summer Lee said: "I refuse to spend more money on weapons of war and tax breaks for the ultra-wealthy at the expense of children in Pennsylvania, Gaza, and Israel when what is needed now is investment in American families, de-escalation of violence, diplomacy, and humanitarian aid."
According to Tlaib, increased U.S. military aid for the Israel while it carries out the attack on Gaza, with no humanitarian conditions, takes "us farther away from ending the violence and reaching peace" in the region.
"Achieving a just and lasting peace requires lifting the blockade, ending the occupation, and dismantling the dehumanizing system of apartheid," Tlaib said. "Not only do some of my colleagues want to send more weapons to carry out war crimes and violations of international law, but they want to do it by providing tax breaks to billionaires and undermining crucial investments in our communities. Instead of funding more bombs with American taxpayer dollars, our leaders should be calling for a ceasefire now, before this violence claims thousands more lives."
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While Nation Watched Mueller, Hearing Down the Hall Focused on 'Harmful Chaos' and Real Victims of Trump Era
"Numerous studies have demonstrated the long-term effects of adverse childhood experiences on children's developing neural networks and their physical health," one expert said of the administration's family separation policies
Jul 24, 2019
As political observers focused on a pair of congressional hearings Wednesday featuring former special counsel Robert Mueller recounting the contents of his report on Russian interference in the 2016 election, another hearing involving the victims of the Trump administration's immigration policies was going on down the hall.
The House Appropriations Committee's Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies Subcommittee hearing, which didn't earn the kind of media coverage Mueller's hearing did, painted a dire picture of conditions for migrant children separated from their families and placed under the care of the Office of Refugee Resettlement (ORR) and Health and Human Services (HHS) in facilities like Florida's Homestead Temporary Shelter for Unaccompanied Children.
"A posted bulletin board had timelines for when staff would notify ICE about kids approaching their 18th birthdays," said Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.). "These children had to be transferred out of Homestead and ORR care and we were told these young adults are arrested by ICE, handcuffed, and sent to an adult ICE prison."
"Children often dread this date," Wasserman Schultz said. "Many become suicidal as the date nears."
Wasserman Schultz, a critic of Homestead, described her concerns over Homestead, including that the company running the facility--Comprehensive Health Services, a subsidiary of Caliburn, where, Common Dreams reported in May, former Chief of Staff to President Donald Trump John Kelly sits on the board--appeared disinterested in education programs and proper care for the children housed there. The congresswoman, who visited the facility earlier in July, also said the shelters were not prepared to stand up to major storms.
"We're in the middle of hurricane season, and many of the shelters for children are tents," said Wasserman Schultz.
The hearing also featured testimony from Amnesty International's executive director Margaret Huang and Krish O'Mara Vignarajah, the president and CEO of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service.
Huang, in her prepared remarks, railed against the Trump administration's treatment of immigrants and use of family separation as a deterrence tactic.
"Though domestic and international law require family unity to be preserved wherever possible, the government has adopted practices that do exactly the opposite," said Huang, "jeopardizing family unity and needlessly prolonging child detention by separating caregivers from children and implementing an information-sharing agreement between DHS and ORR that places potential sponsors at risk of deportation."
"These practices are not only antithetical to the principle of the best interests of the child," Huang added, "they have also proliferated the use of 'temporary emergency' facilities when the only 'emergency' is a crisis of the administration's making."
In her comments (pdf) to the subcommittee, Vignarajah said that children experience mental and emotional strain from family separation.
"The harmful chaos created during the zero-tolerance policy that led to separating thousands of children from their families without any plan for reunification is anathema to this nation's values and an abdication of modern-day child welfare protections," said Vignarajah.
The problem continues, she added, despite government assurances.
"Although the zero-tolerance policy was officially rescinded on June 20, 2018, we are deeply troubled by the fact that we continue to encounter such cases," Vignarajah said.
Watch the full hearing:
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As Wasserman Schultz Exemplifies Muddled Stance, This Reminder: Medicare for All "Ain't a Slogan. It's a 94-Page Bill"
"There's only one bill in the Senate that guarantees healthcare as a right, saves families and businesses thousands a year, and reduces total national healthcare expenditures by at least $2 trillion over 10 years."
Jan 29, 2019
As some Senate Democrats offer up half-measures that fall far short of Medicare for All and rush to distance themselves from Sen. Kamala Harris' (D-Calif.) expressed support for eliminating private insurance, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) on Wednesday made heavy use of buzzwords and verbal gymnastics--with phrases such as "the moniker of what you call the concept"--in an attempt to paper over these substantive and crucial healthcare policy differences within the Democratic Party.
"If a Democratic presidential contender offers you Medicare for All, read the fine print."
--Addy Baird, ThinkProgress
"I think we have to look past the surface-level name for it," Wasserman Schultz said during a CNN appearance when asked about Harris' remarks and what Medicare for All really means.
"The moniker of what you call the concept, which we are all fully embracing, is that healthcare is a right and should not be treated as a privilege that is only available to those who can afford it," the Florida congresswoman continued. "That is what Democrats are for, that's what you'll see every Democratic presidential candidate be for. And, as you would expect, they will take different approaches to getting there."
Wasserman Schultz went on to dismiss "the black and white choice of are you or are you not for Medicare for All" as meaningless, arguing that the more important "litmus test" for Democrats is "making sure that everyone in America can get access to quality affordable healthcare."
Watch:
\u201cDemocratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz: \u201cHealth care is a right and should not be treated as a privilege...That is what Democrats are for, that\u2019s what you\u2019ll see every Democratic presidential candidate be for\u2026they will take different approaches to getting there."\u201d— CNN Newsroom (@CNN Newsroom) 1548873471
Single-payer advocates have long warned of efforts by politicians to co-opt Medicare for All as a useful and popular campaign slogan while stripping the program of its substance. As Common Dreams reported last week, Medicare for All advocates have also denounced Democrats like Sens. Tim Kaine (D-Va.), Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), and others for advocating various incremental public option plans that would not adequately confront America's for-profit healthcare crisis.
Concisely summarizing the wariness among longtime single-payer activists, Addy Baird of ThinkProgresswrote on Wednesday, "If a Democratic presidential contender offers you Medicare for All, read the fine print."
Harris' remarks in support of eliminating the private insurance industry--which her team has since walked back--during a CNN town hall earlier this week intensified an ongoing national conversation about what Medicare for All would actually look like and how the transformative policy might be implemented.
Warren Gunnels, policy director for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), pointed to the Vermont senator's Medicare for All Act and emphasized in a tweet on Tuesday that Medicare for All "ain't a slogan. It's a 94-page bill."
\u201cThere's only 1 bill in the Senate that guarantees health care as a right, saves families & businesses thousands a year & reduces total national health care expenditures by at least $2T over 10 years. It ain't a slogan. It's a 94-page bill: #MedicareForAll https://t.co/gvw1aBOXa5\u201d— Warren Gunnels (@Warren Gunnels) 1548822741
Democratic Socialists for Medicare for All--a single-payer campaign organized by the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA)--declared that the recent "obfuscation" by Democrats on the definition of Medicare for All is why they go out of their way to "define Medicare for All according to five guiding principles":
\u201cThis kind of obfuscation is why we define Medicare for All according to five guiding principles:\n\n1) a single, public program\n2) comprehensive coverage\n3) free at the point of service\n4) universal\n5) a just transition for workers\n\n#NothingLess will do.\nhttps://t.co/YBt9ztrLXw\u201d— DSA for Medicare for All (@DSA for Medicare for All) 1548868353
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