NDN Blog

Dear Friends,

After more than a year and a half at NDN, working both as Assistant to the President and an Economic Policy Analyst, I am moving onto a new role on Capitol Hill.

It has truly been a pleasure to work and learn under Simon's leadership as well as with Alex, Brandon, Dr. Shapiro, Morley, Andres and many other partners and friends. From the early days helping out on the Central American Migrant Crisis to Political Reform, economic updates, events with DHS on immigration actions and border security to working with USTR on the digital economy, my time at NDN has been filled with exposure to new policy ideas and interesting people.

I am fortunate to have met many of you through our events, and I hope to stay in touch in the years ahead. It has been great working closely with some of you and learn about your own policy passions and the stories of how you came to work in Washington.

Thanks especially to Simon for his continued guidance and support. It has been a lot of fun over the past year, and I look forward to working with you all in the future.

The best way to remain in touch is via email at cantorcb@gmail.com.

Sincerely,
Corey
 

Next week Simon will join students at his alma mater Tufts University. He will be sit down with students to discuss his career, the current political landscape and more.

The event starts at 6 pm at Tisch College. For more details, including to rsvp visit this page here. If you have any children or friends that go to Tufts, we encourage them to join Simon at this event!

Last Friday, Simon joined Eric Boiling on the O'Reilly Factor to discuss a path forward for Syria.  He argued the US must now proceed on two tracks: finding a political resolution to the civil war, and stepping up our efforts to defeat ISIS. 

NDN, like many, was impressed by the President’s speech at the 70th United Nations General Assembly. Be sure to take a look at the video below and read a transcript of it here.

On Wednesday, October 7th, NDN's President Simon Rosenberg joined an impressive panel to talk about the politics of trade following the completion of TPP.

The panel included presentations by Robert Moran, of the Brunswick Group and a particularly interesting power point by Bruce Stokes of Pew. Simon and Sean Spicer, the Communications Director of the RNC, offered their political commentary on the path forward and potential of Congress approving the trade deal. You can find more, including links to the presentations and video of the event, here.

You can find the two power point presentations shown at the event and video of the entire panel here. 

Last night the President gave a powerful riff about immigration that we thought might be welcome to our community given the tone of late. They came from a town hall in Des Moines, Iowa. Enjoy:

[Excerpt from President Obama’s Town Hall on College Access in Des Moines, Iowa, 9/14/15]

THE PRESIDENT: But this raises the broader question that I’ve been talking about now for a couple of years, and that is that for young people who came here, their parents may have brought them here and they now are Americans, kids by every other criteria except for a piece of paper -- they may be your classmates, they may be your friends, they may be your neighbors -- the notion that somehow we would not welcome their desire to be full-fledged parts of this community and this country, and to contribute and to serve makes absolutely no sense. (Applause.)

And this whole anti-immigrant sentiment that’s out there in our politics right now is contrary to who we are. (Applause.) Because unless you are a Native American, your family came from someplace else. (Applause.) And although we are a nation of laws and we want people to follow the law, and we have been working -- and I’ve been pushing Congress to make sure that we have strong borders and we are keeping everybody moving through legal processes -- don’t pretend that somehow 100 years ago the immigration process was all smooth and strict and -- that’s not how it worked.

There are a whole bunch of folks who came here from all over Europe and all throughout Asia and all throughout Central America and all -- and certainly who came from Africa, who it wasn’t some orderly process where all the rules applied and everything was strict, and I came the right way. That’s not how it worked.

So the notion that now, suddenly, that one generation or two generations, or even four or five generations removed, that suddenly we are treating new immigrants as if they’re the problem, when your grandparents were treated like the problem, or your great-grandparents were treated like the problem, or were considered somehow unworthy or uneducated or unwashed -- no. That’s not who we are. It’s not who we are.

We can have a legitimate debate about how to set up an immigration system that is fair and orderly and lawful. And I think the people who came here illegally should have the consequences of paying a fine and getting registered, and all kinds of steps that they should have to take in order to get right with the law. But when I hear folks talking as if somehow these kids are different from my kids, or less worthy in the eyes of God, that somehow they are less worthy of our respect and consideration and care -- I think that’s un-American. I do not believe that. I think it is wrong. (Applause.) And I think we should do better. Because that’s how America was made -- by us caring about all our kids. “
 

Last Sunday, Simon appeared on Howard Kurtz's MediaBuzz, along with Jim Geraghty of the National Review. The two talked about recent comments by Hillary Clinton on the GOP field. Then Simon shared some of his perspective behind the rumors of a Joe Biden presidential run, and how the media has covered it.

You can watch the full clip, via Fox News, below.

Last Sunday, Simon joined Howard Kutz on Fox News' MediaBuzz. He appeared in two segments of a panel with Amy Holmes, anchor of the Host List on Blaze.com, and Susan Ferrechio of the Washington Examiner.

They talked 2016 politics, including one on Donald Trump impact on the race and the media's response to him. Then the panel discussed the issues with the New York Times' report on Hillary Clinton's emails. You can check out both videos below, and be sure to follow Simon on Twitter for additional 2016 commentary.

Segment on Donald Trump, Immigration, and the Media

 The discussion begins here at about minute 2:00, and Simon's first comments are at about 3:30. 

Discussion on New York Times and Hillary Clinton's emails 

On Friday, July 17th, Simon appeared on the O'Reilly Factor to discuss President Obama's use of language and the impact of his policies on combating terrorism. Simon makes a strong argument about how to correctly describe who the U.S. is fighting against. Check out the full segment below:

Last week, we released a study showing how millions of Hispanics gained jobs under Presidents Clinton and Obama, and millions lost their jobs under the last two Presidents Bush. The contrast was stark, and reiterated how much the lives of Hispanics have improved under the last two Democratic Presidents.

But as we’ve seen significant improvements in the economic wellbeing of Hispanics in recent years, the story is even more dramatic when you factor in the impact of Affordable Care Act. According to Gallup, in the first eighteen months of the ACA, the Hispanic uninsured rate has dropped by a quarter, from 38% to 29%. In raw numbers, this means that close to 4 million Hispanics have gained health insurance in the very early days of the ACA. By comparison, this is more people than estimates believe will take advantage of the new DAPA/DACA programs – so it is a very large number indeed.

Taken together, it suggests the last few years have been very good ones for Hispanics in the United States - millions of Hispanics have landed a new job while millions have also gained health insurance.

Of course, Hispanics, and all Americans were told by Republicans that this would not happen – that the ACA itself would fail to provide the coverage promised by the Administration, and it would slow the economy. In fact the exact opposite has happened, something we noted in another study we produced a few months ago called, “The GOP Got It Spectacularly Wrong on the ACA.”

The implications of all this on 2016 could be significant. The message from the likely GOP ticket next year will one of rolling back these gains by adopting an economic approach that led to significant unemployment of Hispanics in each of the last two GOP Administrations, and the direct stripping of at least 4 million Hispanics of health insurance they have recently acquired (and perhaps more by the fall of 2016). As we wrote recently, this is another reason why the “hole is very deep” for the GOP with this critical part of the electorate.

For more, see some illustrative graphs below: