Rashida Tlaib

A typical Michigan family of 4 with one infant and one child in full-time center-based child care would save $18,040 each year. That is not an insignificant number which was determined by a recent analysis from the House Committee on Education and Labor yesterday. Rashida says that the study only validates what she and other progressives have known all along – that BOTH the bipartisan infrastructure bill AND the Build Back Better Act must be passed. The real question as Democrats are in talks right now is, will these child care provisions survive?

DTE Energy is a Detroit based power company that provides electricity to millions of households in and around Rashida’s district. But Rashida is calling them out this week on account of some alarming statistics. During the pandemic, DTE Energy received an estimated $286 million in benefits from the CARES Act—technically taxpayer dollars—and yet, they disconnected power to over 20,000 households! She goes further in claiming that CEOs and shareholders were paid out $807 million. The larger article is worth a read, as is doing a deeper dive on this subject, but at the moment it seems like these electric companies chose power to their profits over power to their people. This is why Rashida is calling for public power.

If you recall some years ago, the lead contamination in the Flint Michigan water supply was supposed to open all of our eyes to the alarmingly widespread issue facing countless communities. Thanks to her tireless fighting, Rashida has led the way to securing $30 billion dollars dedicated to replacing all service lines with lead contamination. Furthermore, she and 65 of her colleagues have secured an additional $1.2 billion to remove lead from school water as well as funding for the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program. Rashida reminded us that “For too long, countless Americans have been forced to suffer the effects of lead-poisoned drinking water, especially low-income communities and communities of color.” Folks can breathe a little easier knowing that change is on the way.

It’s no secret by now that Rashida, the only Palestinian-American in Congress, is one of Israel’s harshest critics. She’s bringing that criticism to the forefront again around the body of a woman who was killed by Israeli forces and has yet to be returned to the woman’s family. What makes this particularly complicated is that the woman was apparently killed while attacking Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint in the West Bank. Despite that, Rashida is advocating on behalf of the woman’s mother and exposing an Israeli policy of keeping bodies of killed enemies as bartering tools. Few politicians are on the forefront of Palestinian rights like Rashida so stay tuned to see if this story has any domino effect.

Rashida joined a growing number of Progressives who are calling for former Chicago mayor Rahm Emanuel to be disqualified from being considered as the ambassador to Japan. Why?
Under Rahm’s administration, Chicago lawyers fought to hide police dashboard camera video of Laquan McDonald, a black teen, who had been shot 16 times in the back by an officer as McDonald posed no clear danger. She took to Twitter to say this alone should “disqualify him from ANY public position.” Other Progressives on Political Playlist like Jamaal Bowman (NY), Cori Bush (MO), and Mondaire Jones (NY) are saying the same. Do you agree with them?