Beaming with delight, GRC Committee Chair Pam Crone greeted a crowd of grassroots lobbyists gathered in a conference roomof the Washing- ton State Labor Council in Olympia, on Mar. 18. The African American, Asian American, Latino, and white activists were reporting back on their meetings with Washington State legislators to press their demands for increased funding for healthcare, public schools, rent stabilization for people who live in manufactured homes, and a wealth tax.

They were all participants in PSARA Lobby Day, including activists from Seattle, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, and other cities andtowns. A delegation of five PSARA members drove down from Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend. “We had meetings with38 legislators and their staff,” Crone exclaimed. “One staffer told me, ‘You guys are everywhere!’”

Crone, PSARA’s former lobbyist, urged the crowd to keep the pressure on. She warned against Republican schemes to bury legislation with crippling amendments proposed to stall passage until the 90-day legislative session ends. She hailed Senateapproval by a landslide vote of 30 to 19 Senate Joint Measure 8002. SJM 8002, now pending in the House, urges the WashingtonCongressional delegation, President Trump, the House, and the Senate, calling on them and CMS to halt privatization ofMedicare, and to enact measures to “level the playing field” between so-called Medicare Advantage (MA) and traditional Medicare. The measure urges Congress to cap out- of-pocket costs. It would eliminate the need for supplemental insurance that traditionalMedicare recipients must purchase. SJM 8002 also calls for adding to traditional Medicare dental, vision, and hearing benefitsoffered by MA.

David Loud, a member of the PSARA Board and a leader of Health Care Is a Human Right, said SJM 8004, which urges theCongress to sup- port universal health care, was approved by the State Senate, 30 to19. Advocates of Medicare for All will rally on the steps of the Capitol in Olympia on April 2 to urge approval of universal health care in Washington State, Loud said. Rep.Pra- mila Jayapal, Democrat from Washington’s 7th Congressional District, is the author of Expanded and Improved Medicarefor All, which will be introduced in the US Congress.

Bobby Righi of Seattle, Co-Chair of PSARA’s Climate & Environmental Justice Committee, told the debriefing that lawmakers in her legislative district support PSARA’s legislative agenda. And one legislator was clearly distressed about Gov. Bob Ferguson’sstate budget with $4 billion in cuts. Coupled with the enormous cuts to health, education, and welfare programs inflicted by theTrump-Musk Administration, it adds up to disaster for the poor, the sick, children, and the elderly.

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It is going to take hard work to come up with a budget compromise,” she said. “We have to put pressure on Ferguson.”

Michael Righi warned that an atmosphere of doom is hanging over the legislature. He pointed out that there is no economicrecession, no lack of wealth that could be taxed to pay for these life and death programs. “We should have the position: NO CUTS!” he said. The crowd erupted in applause.

These warnings were on display in earlier sessions. A lawmaker from LD 24 told the delegation from the Olympic Peninsula that “Ferguson is strangely silent on the (Wealth) Tax bill,” which the LD-24 legislator promised to support. He spoke atlength about the worsening budget crisis with cutbacks in vital programs that serve children, the elderly, and the poor, and the Ferguson conundrum: He ran as a progressive yet now governs as a “fiscal conservative,” proposing budget cutbacks cheered by the MAGA Republicans.

Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer, a former legislator, told the PSARA delegation, “Our health care system is morally bankrupt.” She spoke of her being born prematurely with many life-threatening problems. She became “a proponent of universal health care where everyone has access.” Health care, sheadded, should not be a field for “making profits…This should be a country that cares about people.”

When she was a legislator, she told her constituents, “Out of 400,000 people I represent, only 400 were impacted by thecapital gains tax...I want taxes

to go to health care, education.” It will mean, she added, “A robust economy, poverty plummeting, crime in decline.”

Her aide, Bryon Welch, said a delegation from the Insurance Commission is headed to the nation’s capital to meet with theWashington State congressional delegation to urge them to take action against the “relentless, misleading ads for MedicareAdvantage. We are going to Washington D.C. to make sure that Medicare is not completely privatized.”

Robby Stern, President of the PSARA Education Fund, presented him with Give Us a Real Choice, a 63-page PSARA primer onthe urgent need to “level the playing field” between traditional Medicare and MA. Stern said the book “lays out very clearly ourmembers who have had problems with Medicare Advantage. We’re not saying eliminate Medicare Advantage, but what we are saying is that senior citizens should have a real choice.”

Later, the delegation gathered in the Capitol building to hear House Speaker Laurie Jinkins. “We prefer progressive taxes ratherthan budget cuts,” she said. “Start building on the taxes we already have, the Capital Gains Tax.” The crowd erupted in applause.“When you build support for programs that people want, they are willing to pay taxes to pay for them.”

PSARA Co-President Karen Richter urged Jinkins to push SJM 8002. It is necessary, Richter said. “We really need the backing ofthe State Legislature to exert pressure on Washington D.C. to take action to level the playing field.”