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rashida tlaib
House GOP Approves Economic Attack on Poor to Fund 'Big Payout' for Billionaires
"Republicans want to give away trillions of dollars to the richest people in our country," said Rep. Rashida Tlaib, "and they want to pay for it by taking food away from hungry children and letting people die from a lack of healthcare coverage."
Apr 10, 2025
In a party-line vote, House Republicans on Thursday approved a budget blueprint that sets the stage for the GOP to pass another round of tax cuts for the rich, paid for in part by slashing Medicaid, federal nutrition assistance, and other critical programs.
The final vote was 216 to 214, with two Republicans—Reps. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Victoria Spartz of Indiana—and every Democrat opposing the measure, which now must be converted into legislation.
The budget reconciliation process that Republicans are using for their sweeping bill means it can pass with a simple majority in both chambers of Congress.
"Republicans are ramming through a budget that includes $880 billion in cuts to Medicaid and at least $230 billion in cuts to food assistance to pay for tax breaks for billionaires," Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) said in a statement Thursday. "These are the largest Medicaid and food assistance cuts in American history."
“Make no mistake: Republicans want to give away trillions of dollars to the richest people in our country like Elon Musk, and they want to pay for it by taking food away from hungry children and letting people die from a lack of healthcare coverage," Tlaib continued. "We must raise our voices and defeat this dangerous Republican budget."
"In unifying behind this budget resolution, congressional Republicans are telling us they are serious about their agenda to rob everyday Americans in order to deliver a big payout to the ultra-wealthy in tax cuts."
Passage of the blueprint came hours after Republican congressional leaders and President Donald Trump managed to win the support of GOP holdouts concerned that the forthcoming legislative package won't reduce spending enough to offset the massive cost of fresh tax cuts, which would largely benefit the rich.
During a press conference Thursday following the vote, House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) and Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) signaled that they are unified behind the goal of cutting at least $1.5 trillion in federal spending over the next decade—an objective that Trump has endorsed.
"We have a lot of United States senators who believe that is a minimum," Thune said of the $1.5 trillion figure.
Sharon Parrott, president of the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, said in a statement that "in this budget framework, there is no way to cut $1.5 trillion in spending while protecting health coverage through Medicaid and food assistance through [the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program]."
"This budget architecture was terrible a couple of months ago," Parrott added. "It is a far worse plan at a moment when the president's tariffs, chaotically crafted and applied, have caused business uncertainty to soar and raised the risk of a recession, higher unemployment, and surging prices."
In a post on his social media site, Trump congratulated House Republicans for approving the measure and claimed it would deliver "the Largest Tax and Regulation Cuts ever even contemplated."
An analysis released last week by the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation estimated that renewing soon-to-expire provisions of the 2017 Trump-GOP tax law would cost $5.5 trillion over the next decade. Republican lawmakers have also called for an additional $1.5 trillion in tax cuts, which would push the overall cost of the tax package to $7 trillion.
David Kass, executive director of Americans for Tax Fairness, said in a statement Thursday that "the country is rapidly undergoing an intensifying economic crisis created by Trump and congressional Republicans, and the only legislative solution they've put forward is to double down on tax cuts for billionaires while eliminating healthcare access and food assistance for millions of Americans."
Lisa Gilbert, co-president of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen, echoed that message, saying that "in unifying behind this budget resolution, congressional Republicans are telling us they are serious about their agenda to rob everyday Americans in order to deliver a big payout to the ultra-wealthy in tax cuts."
"As they now work to actually write the bill that they intend to push through via the reconciliation process, which will deplete funding for healthcare, nutrition, and other critical human needs in order to line the pockets of CEOs and billionaires, they should know we are also serious in our efforts to fight back," Gilbert added.
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Calls for Justice After Israeli Occupation Forces Kill Palestinian-American Child in West Bank
"Our government's responsibility is to protect its citizens," said U.S. Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib. "Instead, we're arming their murderers. Arms embargo now."
Apr 07, 2025
As U.S. President Donald Trump rolled out the White House red carpet for fugitive Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday, Palestine defenders demanded justice after Israeli troops opened fire on a group of children in the illegally occupied West Bank, killing one Palestinian-American boy and wounding two others.
Fourteen-year-old Omar Mohammad Rabea and two other Palestinian-American boys, ages 14 and 15, were shot by Israeli occupation forces in Turmus Ayya, northeast of Ramallah.
"Two of them were transported by ambulance to a nearby medical center and then to the hospital," said Turmus Ayya Mayor Adeeb Lafi. "The army arrived at the scene and detained the third injured boy, who is 14 years old and holds U.S. citizenship."
Rabea's father said his son was shot six times—twice each in the face, chest, and shoulder.
The Palestinian National Authority's Foreign Ministry condemned Israeli forces' "use of live fire against three children," adding that "Israel's continued impunity as an illegal occupying power encourages it to commit further crimes."
The Israel Defense Forces claimed on social media that troops "identified three terrorists who were throwing rocks at a highway with civilian vehicles" and subsequently "fired at the terrorists who posed a danger to civilians, killing one of them and wounding the other two."
In the United States, the slain teen's relatives in New Jersey expressed anger over the killing. Rabea's father toldAgence France-Presse that the U.S. government habitually ignores or downplays Israeli crimes against Palestinians, including "assaults, killings, arson, and theft of Palestinian land."
"All of these things—the U.S. Embassy turns a blind eye to them," he said.
U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, said on the social media site X: "Our government's responsibility is to protect its citizens. Instead we're arming their murderers. Arms embargo now."
Rep. Chuy García (D-Ill.) also took to X, noting reporting that Rabea "was denied medical aid and left to die."
"This atrocity must be condemned and investigated," the congressman added. "We cannot turn a blind eye."
The Institute for Middle East Understanding said on the social media site Bluesky that "Israel must be held accountable for its killings of American citizens—from aid workers, journalists, and humanitarian observers to children and the elderly."
However, "instead of pursuing justice for its citizens, the U.S. government is backing Israel's impunity by arming its violence," IMEU continued.
"The U.S. government's refusal to demand accountability for Israel's endless killings of Palestinians‚ even when it kills U.S. citizens—has deadly consequences," the group added. "That impunity emboldens Israeli soldiers and settlers to keep brutally attacking Palestinian children and families. Enough."
Other American citizens killed by Israeli occupation forces in the West Bank include International Solidarity Movement (ISM) activist Rachel Corrie, age 23 (2003); Orwah Hamad, age 14 (2014); Mahmoud Shaalan, age 16 (2016); journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, age 51 (2022); Omar Assad, age 78 (2022); Tawfiq Hafez Tawfiq Ajaq, age 17 (2024); Mohammad Ahmed Mohammad Khdour, age 17 (2024); and Ayşenur Ezgi Eygi, a 26-year-old ISM activist (2024).
Successive U.S. administrations have provided Israel with more than $300 billion in aid since the modern Jewish state's founding, largely through terrorism and ethnic cleansing, in 1948—far more than any other nation has received.
On Monday, Trump welcomed Netanyahu at the White House. The prime minister's flight from Hungary, where he met with far-right President Viktor Orbán, reportedly went out of its way to avoid the airspace of European nations that might enforce an International Criminal Court arrest warrant for the Israeli leader for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity in Gaza. Israel is also facing a genocide case brought by South Africa before the International Court of Justice.
Israel's 539-day genocidal assault continued Monday in Gaza, where more than 180,000 Palestinians have been killed or wounded—including thousands of missing people who are presumed dead and buried beneath rubble—since October 2023, when Hamas led the deadliest-ever attack on Israel.
In the West Bank—which Israel has illegally occupied and colonized since 1967 and where more than 700,000 Jewish colonists have settled—United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk last week lamented Palestinians' "catastrophic suffering," calling the situation there "extremely alarming."
Türk noted that his office has verified that Israeli soldiers and settlers—sometimes working together—have killed at least 909 Palestinians across the West Bank including East Jerusalem since October 2023, including 191 children and five people with disabilities. Attacks by Palestinian militants have killed 51 Israelis including 15 women and 4 children over that same period.
Thousands of West Bank Palestinians have been
killed or wounded by IDF troops and Israeli settlers since October 2023. Last week, Roland Friedrich, who heads the West Bank division of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, said that the scale of forced displacement is unprecedented during the 58 years of Israeli occupation.
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'Free Mahmoud Khalil': Progressives Demand Release of 'Disappeared' Columbia Grad
"If the feds can snatch up an American green card holder for speech they don't like and get away with it, they won't stop here. They'll be able to erase the right to speech they don't agree with and kidnap anyone who dares resist."
Mar 10, 2025
Condemning the Trump administration and immigration officials for detaining and imprisoning Mahmoud Khalil over his involvement in pro-Palestinian demonstrations at Columbia University last year, U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez issued a warning for those who believe the arrest is an isolated incident rather than an indication of the president's approach to dissenters.
"If the federal government can disappear a legal U.S. permanent resident without reason or warrant, then they can disappear U.S. citizens too," said the New York Democrat. "Anyone—left, right, or center—who has highlighted the importance of constitutional rights and free speech should be sounding the alarm now."
Khalil, a graduate of Columbia who was a student at the school until December, was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) on Saturday evening as he was returning home to his university-owned apartment with his wife, who is eight months pregnant. He is reportedly being held in Central Louisiana ICE Processing Center, over a thousand miles away from home, while the Trump administration works to revoke his green card under the State Department's "catch and revoke" initiative launched last week with the goal of deporting students who are deemed to be "pro-Hamas."
Khalil, who is an Algerian citizen of Palestinian descent, was an organizer of the solidarity encampment that was erected on Columbia's New York City campus last spring to demand the school divest from companies that have supported Israel's bombardment of Gaza.
Jewish-led rights groups including Jewish Voice for Peace and IfNotNow were among those demanding his release on Monday, and a group of Columbia faculty members were preparing to give a press conference alongside Jewish leaders and immigrant rights defenders to speak out against "the unprecedented and unconstitutional arrest of a permanent resident and Columbia graduate student in retaliation for his political activity."
IfNotNow said that ICE had "abducted and disappeared" Khalil and that the attack on his constitutional rights "enables [President Donald] Trump's authoritarian consolidation of power against his political opponents.
The group condemned the Trump administration for "carrying out this authoritarian lurch under the guise of fighting for Jewish safety."
In New York, hundreds of people gathered Monday afternoon in front of the city's ICE office to demand Khalil's release.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian-American member of Congress, said the arrest and efforts to deport Khalil are "an assault on our First Amendment and freedom of speech."
The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee also spoke out against Khalil's arrest, noting that after he was taken away, his pregnant wife had "no idea where" he was. She attempted to visit him at a facility in Elizabeth, New Jersey, where she was told he was being held, but he was not there.
"This should terrify everyone," said the Democratic lawmakers. "So pro-'freedom of speech' that Republicans will DETAIN you if you disagree with them."
While Columbia University officials released statements in recent days about "reports of ICE around campus" and said the Ivy League school "has and will continue to follow the law," administrators have not spoken out about Khalil's detention or demanded his release.
Columbia administrators faced condemnation last year for their crackdown on student protests against the United States' support for Israel's assault on Gaza, which had killed tens of thousands of Palestinians when the demonstrations started, with ample evidence that Israel was targeting civilian infrastructure and not just Hamas targets.
Zeteoreported that Khalil reached out to the administration the day before his arrest, asking officials to "provide the necessary protections" and expressing fear over the Trump administration's threats.
Khalil told officials he had been "subjected to a vicious, coordinated, and dehumanizing doxxing campaign led by Columbia affiliates Shai Davidai and David Lederer who, among others, have labeled me a security threat and called for my deportation."
"I haven't been able to sleep, fearing that ICE or a dangerous individual might come to my home. I urgently need legal support, and I urge you to intervene and provide the necessary protections to prevent further harm," Khalil wrote.
New York City Council member Chi Ossé said that "every Democratic politician and American with a conscience" should speak out against Khalil's detention.
"They're not doing this despite his rights," said Ossé. "They're doing this because of his rights—they're violating the Constitution on purpose, testing the fragile system to see what they can get away with... If the feds can snatch up an American green card holder for speech they don't like and get away with it, they won't stop here. They'll be able to erase the right to speech they don't agree with and kidnap anyone who dares resist."
Ossé called on all those who support civil and constitutional rights to "flood the phones" of members of Congress and demand they push for Khalil's release.
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