"Mr. Peterson's research is just one more case study into our continued criminalization of poverty and the weaponization of the legal system against those who are already living on the margins."
"Make no mistake about it: Housing is health."
"This is child abuse. This is elder abuse. This is abuse, period--par for the course of this administration, where the cruelty is the point."
"What we are seeing is really intergenerational trauma, poverty, and poor health outcomes."
"Poverty is not a character flaw; it is a result of failed and often cruel policymaking."
"In times of struggle, the options shouldn't be a debt trap interest rate or nothing at all."
"I think we eliminated debtors' prisons in something like 1833."
"40 percent of American households don't have $400 to meet an emergency need."
"I still hear from folks in my district, Massachusetts 7th, and across the State, about the continued availability and marketing of these predatory loans."
"To be clear, unless you believe that poverty is a character flaw, there is absolutely no justification for triple-digit interest rate installment loans."
"Exempt income is income that you need for basic necessities--food, medicine, rent--and income that, like Social Security, other forms of pension, public benefits, and certain amounts of wages, are exe..."