Search Results
Please enter search terms in the box below.   This search is site wide including Retiree Advocate issues from January 2025 forward for pre 2025 issues of the Advocate please go to the Advocate Archives

For more than a quarter century, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA) has been active in fighting for older Americans, retirees, their children and families through social justice activities. P uget S ound A dvocates for R etirement A ction Working across generations for social justice, economic security, dignity, and a healthy planet for all of us. From Wins to What’s Next – A Recap of the 2026 Legislative Session was presented May 27th If you missed the presentation you can watch the recording here The Trump Administration is closing Social Security Offices across the country. Click Here for More Perfect Union's report on this Tragedy Upcoming PSARA Events/meetings (Click Here for a complete list of Events and Meetings) Support our Federal Workers Friday Federal Building Rallies When: Every Friday, @ 11:00 am (2 hours) Where: Federal Building Plaza on 2nd and Madison, Seattle Click here for more details PSARA July Retiree Advocate Click here to read the Advocate online In this issue we feature an interview by Bobby Righi and Angie Bartels on the subject of accompaniments. Also in this issue: The Congressional Review Act makes WISeR repeal possible. An analysis of the 2026 Social Security/Medicare Trustees' report A report from Clallam County on Social Security Workers Visibility Day. A report on the latest US threats of was against Cuba. A personal story about WISeR. How to track the MAHA movement's funding. A short bio of National Lawyers Guild founder Mary Metlay Kaufman. And more! Health Secretary Kennedy is Attacking Traditional Medicare in Washington State In January, the Trump administration will be rolling out a new control on Traditional Medicare in six states, including Washington State. This program is called WISeR. It will affect Medicare benefits by requiring a new prior authorization for a number of medical decisions. This means your doctor will need to receive prior authorization from the Federal government before you get some medical treatments. C lick Here for more on the WISeR Program and what you can do to stop it. On December 6th PSARA Board Members Robby Stern and Anne Watanabe (hosted by Dan Grey and Evegreen State College) discuss the attacks on Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security. Please listen to the interview and share with your friends: Click here to hear the interview. Download and Read PSARA’s Primer on Leveling the Medicare Playing Field Protecting our Assets Protecting our Asses In the last year PSARA’s Co-President, Jeff Johnson, wrote a series of articles for PSARA’s Retiree Advocate highlighting the need to move beyond fossil fuels and the responsibility of unions to insure that their retirement plans stop investing in fossil fuels not just because its good environmentally but also good economics. Unions can play a key role in jump starting our green future. These articles have been consolidated into a single publication: Protecting our Assets Protecting our Asses. Click here to download the pamphlet or read it online. DOWNLOAD JOIN PSARA in making a difference! Back to Top

-5198757490226798476 IMG_0563 20230321_115056_edited -5198757490226798476 1/5 Meetings & Events IMG_0137 (1) IMG_6872 France Giddings Karen Richter, Jeff Johnson and Robby Stern IMG_0137 (1) 1/9 PSARA committee meetings and events will be virtual unless otherwise noted, to attend any of these meetings, email organizer@psara.org for the link. Non PSARA events on this calendar are identified as such and have link to the sponsoring agency in the description. Friday Jun 26, 2026 11:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Thursday Jul 2, 2026 12:30 PM PSARA Government Relations Comm. Unless otherwise specified all meetings are Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Friday Jul 3, 2026 11:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Thursday Jul 9, 2026 5:30 PM Central Co-op 4502 N. Pearl St. Tacoma, WA PSARA Pierce County Organizing Committee You can attend this meeting either in person or via Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Friday Jul 10, 2026 11:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Friday Jul 17, 2026 11:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Tuesday Jul 21, 2026 10:30 AM WA State Labor Council Office, 321 16th Ave. S, Seattle Fund Raising Comm. Unless otherwise specified all meetings are Zoom. Please contact Organizer@psara.org for Zoom link. Friday Jul 24, 2026 11:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Friday Jul 31, 2026 11:30 AM Federal Bldg. 909 1st Ave, Seattle, WA 98104 Support our Federal Workforce Support our Federal workers and No Kings Rally. Every Friday at the Seattle Federal Building PLaza. For more information or to support contact: federalbuildingfridays@gmail.com Friday Jul 31, 2026 12:00 PM zoom meeting Presentation on Nuclear Power By Washington Physicians for Social Responsibility This presentation will be on Zoom. For the link, watch for emails from PSARA or email organizer@psara.org Tuesday Sep 1, 2026 PSARA Cookout and Summer Membership Meeting Watch PSARA emails with details

The Retiree ADVOCATE The Monthly Publication of PSARA EDUCATION FUND “Uniting Generations for a Secure Future” Advocate Print Version July 1, 2026 Congressional Review Act Makes WISeR Repeal Possible Robby Stern The Congressional Review Act makes WISeR repeal possible. Read More We Remember Magdaleno "Leno" Rose-Avila Read More Social Security/Medicare 2026 Annual Trustees’ Report Released Steve Kofahl An analysis of the 2026 Social Security/Medicare Trustees' report Read More Clallam Seniors: “Save Social Security Workers’ Jobs!” Tim Wheeler A report from Clallam County on Social Security Workers Visibility Day. Read More No War on Cuba! Cindy Domingo A report on the latest US threats of was against Cuba. Read More JCIJ and the Incredible Accompaniment Program An Interview with Dina Burstein and Dick Stein, Part 1 Bobby Righi and Angie Bartels An interview by Bobby Righi and Angie Bartels on the subject of accompaniments. Read More Personal Story: A Sadder and WISeR Victim Katherine Hess A personal story about WISeR. Read More MAHA Tracker Katie Harris How to track the MAHA movement's funding. Read More Mary Metlay Kaufman: Anti-Fascist Hero Tim Wheeler A short bio of National Lawyers Guild founder Mary Metlay Kaufman. Read More PSARA's Juneteenth 2026 Thank you to all who helped make our Juneteenth event a success. Read More

In the Advocate May 2025: Michael Righi Chaos Monkey Goes After the Federal Reserve Michael Righi Trump wants lower interest rates. Probably so he and his family can borrow cheap money to pump up the value of their crypto coins, then dump them and leave ordinary investors with the losses. Maybe he needs money to build a golf course in Dubai. Or wait, maybe that’s going to be a “gift.” So call me cynical. He is also worried that his tariff chaos is going to slow production and the economy. Lower interest rates might encourage more spending and support the economy he is effectively tanking. Trump the autocrat wants the same power over interest rates that he has over tariffs. So he is threatening the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell. Firing Powell would be illegal; his term is not up, but this is Trump, right? And the Federal Reserve system was created to function independently of the president and Congress, on purpose, supposedly to insulate the Fed from political pressure. The Fed was initially created in 1913 to stop the financial crises private banks kept causing. Bankers would make riskier and riskier loans to pump up profit, some loans would go bad, banks would collapse and production and jobs would disappear. The Fed, once created, then lent money to bail the banks (and depositors) out, and prevent depressions. How to Make Money That is a crucial understanding – the Federal Reserve Bank creates money, out of thin air. You write a check, you draw down your account. The Fed writes a check by changing some numbers on a computer – only based on their authority as the country’s central bank. The Fed works through the private banking system. The Fed buys financial assets, Treasury bonds, or lately even mortgage-backed securities. That money winds up in the banking system, enabling banks to make loans. That’s more money in the economy. So the Fed enables banks to create our money supply. The Humphrey-Hawkins law passed by Congress mandates that the Fed keep both inflation and unemployment low. The Fed does this by controlling short-term interest rates. Those are often conflicting goals. Low interest rates (“easy money”) encourage borrowing and spending and so more jobs. But that also allows businesses to raise prices. High interest rates (“tight money”) have the opposite effect, slowing the economy. This all sounds technical and value- neutral. That’s what the Fed and Wall Street and financial elites want us to think, that Fed policy is apolitical and technocratic. Tell that to homeowners who lost their homes in the 2008 financial crisis while the Fed bailed out big insurance and bank corporations. Or to cardholders and small businesses now as the Powell Fed allows Capital One and Dis- cover to merge and raise their charges. The Fed Is Not Independent The Fed is run by bankers and Wall Street financiers, and influenced by what the corporate elite wants. High interest rates protect the assets of the financial elite from inflation, reducing their value. High rates also keep the economy from creating jobs, because then workers’ wages and willingness to organize might interfere with corporate profit. But financial crisis might call for extended periods of low interest rates, to keep Wall Street afloat, as after 2008. As wages have stagnated or fallen for decades, low rates also encouraged families to run up debt to maintain living standards. Whatever the capitalists in power need, the Fed tries to provide. Its power is relatively easy to access for the wealthy, easier than going through the somewhat more democratic legislative process. With Trump going after him, it is tempting to defend Powell and the Fed. That just puts us back into the space of bad choices. Neither represents what the working class needs. The Fed itself is soon likely to face both inflation and unemployment, a result of Trumpian chaos and uncertainty. If leaving it to the Fed is not the answer, then what is? That also should be up for discussion. There are ideas out there. Regional and local public banks could loan money for public infrastructure, such as transit and clean energy. Postal banking would enable those shut out of banks to borrow and make transactions. Put representatives of labor and communities on the decision-making bodies of the Fed. Use the Fed’s power to support states and cities and localities, to prevent the austerity budgets we are being battered with. It is important for us all to debate, popularly, monetary policy, and not leave it to so-called experts. Money and interest rates are political; they are determined by government policies. We don’t need to be defending Powell from Trump’s attacks. That’s a choice between autocracy and the status quo. Michael Righi is a retired economics professor and a member of the Retiree Advocate Editorial Board. BACK TO THE ADVOCATE

Email address, phone, and mailing address for PSARA. Complete this form for general inquiries. Get in Touch Submit Thank you for contacting us! PSARA Directory: PSARA Executive Director Mike Andrew Organizer@psara.org PSARA Co-President s Karen Richter and Jeff Johnson president@psara.org Administrative Vice Presidents Jessica Bonebright Outreach Co-Vice President s Lisa Dekker and Rick Timmins Membership Vice President Angela Bartels Treasurer Tom Lux Government Relations Committee Chair Pam Crone Environmental Committee Co-Chairs Tom Lux, Bob Barnes, Bobby Righi Diversity Committee Co-Chairs Frank Irigon and Anne Watanabe Retiree Advocate Editor Mike Andrew msand76@hotmail.com Retiree Advocate Copy Editor Amy Davis Web Administrator Paul Muldoon Facebook Administrator Ellen Menshew PSARA Education Fund Directory: President Robby Stern Vice President Karen Ric h ter president@psara.org Secretary Barb Flye Treasurer Laila Saliba Board Member Carlos de la Torre Vanetta Molson Advocate Editor Mike Andrew msand76@hotmail.com Copy Editor Amy Davis Photographer Garet Munger Printing Trade Printery Need to reach us? Phone our office in the WSLC at (206) 261-8110. If necessary, leave a message with your phone number. We will call you back.

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents March 2025 Organizing for Immigrant Human Rights Cindy Domingo Every day for the last month we have been assaulted by the Trump administration’s coup and the dismantling of our government that upholds our US democracy. However, nothing is more heart breaking than the media coverage of handcuffed and shackled immigrants, many of them children, being loaded onto planes for deportation. US citizens are being questioned and asked for birth certificates and pass- ports because they spoke Spanish in public or looked like they were Mexican or Latino. Weare again hearing about parents being deported leaving their children behind. Meanwhile, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents sit outside nonprofits that serve predominantly Latinos merely to intimidate clients, striking fear in employees that one day they won’t see particular beloved people because they were deported. On the legal front, Trump has cut legal aid funding that assists immigrants in their asylum requests. They fled countries where they faced economic hardships and violence. Funding has even been cut for lawyers of children unaccompanied by parents when they crossed the US southern border, leaving them vulnerable to human and sex trafficking. Trump ran on a platform blaming the ills of our society on undocumented immigrants of color. Unemployment, the housing crisis, lack of money for social services, gang and gun violence, and drug addiction are all a result of our southern border not being secure. According to Trump, President Biden and Vice President Harris allowing thousands of “bad” immigrants into our country. Congress followed suit in late January when they passed the Laken Riley Act, named after a Georgia nursing student who was murdered last year by a Venezuelan man. That act, passed with bipartisan support, including Washington State Congresswomen Marie Gluesencamp Perez and Kim Schrier. It is a broad sweeping law that allows for the detainment of non-citizens for almost any crime, including shoplifting. Non-citizens can include DACA students and people on special visas, like the Temporary Status Program. Trump has also canceled funding for refugee resettlement programs that are impact- ing Ukrainian, Sudanese, and other peoples fleeing war torn countries. In Washington State, this is having a devastating impact even though we have one of the best refugee resettlement programs, initiated by Republican Governor Dan Evans in the aftermath of the Vietnam War. Washington State's legal aid programs have already been cut due to Trump and Elon Musk’s cuts to federal funding, and ICE has stepped up the numbers of deportees flown out of King County International Airport. However, Trump’s mass deportation of immigrants and refugees has not gone without a response by the immigrant rights communities, labor movement, legal community, and others. But it will take a mass movement, a broad united front, to both protect immigrants and refugees and project a vision of a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Standing for Democracy (see February issue of The Retiree Advocate) aims to build that united front by calling for a conference in April/May to bring together all those who want to stop the mass deportations, and to support immigrants and refugees who are the target of Trump’s inhumane immigration policies. Building for this conference has already begun enabling groups who work in their own silos to work together. Participants for planning include Northwest Immigrant Rights Project (NWIRP), Casa Latina, Washington Immigrant Rights Network (WAISN), One America, LELO/A Legacy for Equality Leadership and Organizing, Pride At Work, PSARA, Washington State Labor Council, King County Labor Council, AFT Washington, UFCW 3000, SEIU Local 6, Unite Here Local 8, APALA Seattle, Communities for Colleges, the Offices of King County Councilmembers Teresa Mosqueda, Jorge Baron, and Rod Dembowski, the Office of Seattle City Councilmember Alexis Mercedes Rinck, Community to Community, and other community organizations. If you are interested in planning this conference and ongoing work with Standing for Democracy, please contact Cindy Domingo at cindydomingo@gmail.com or Moon Vazquez at jmoom57@earthlink.net Committee meetings have been scheduled for program, site/logistics, and outreach. Cindy Domingo is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach and a veteran activist with LELO/A Legacy for Equality Leadership and Organizing and APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance). < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents September 2025 Lawmakers Oppose WISeR Program Expanding Prior Authorization in Medicare Wendell Potter and Rachel Madley In a previous post in HEALTH CARE un-covered, the newsletter from the Center for Health & Democracy (CHD), Rachel Madley, PhD, Director of Policy and Advocacy for the CHD, laid out why the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ new Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model is bad news for patients in Traditional Medicare. She warned that it would import one of the worst aspects of Medicare Advantage -- aggressive prior authorization run by private, profit-driven contractors -- into a program that has long prided itself on letting doctors, not algorithms, decide what’s medically necessary. Madley’s piece explained why WISeR is dangerous: It hands prior authorization in Traditional Medicare to private companies that profit by denying care -- exactly as they do in MA. It uses AI and “technology-enhanced” reviews that have been shown to spike denial rates. It offers companies a cut of the “savings” they generate, creating a built-in incentive to say no. It paves the way for more and more services to be put behind prior authorization walls. And now, there’s a sign that her warning is resonating and that momentum is building against CMS’s latest experiment. Last month, Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-New York) and Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas) led 40 of their colleagues in a letter to CMS urging them not to start the model. The law makers wrote, “We are concerned that this effort could erode the quality of coverage provided by Traditional Medicare and result in the delay and denial of necessary health care." And “Giving private for-profit actors a veto over care provided to seniors and people with disabilities in Traditional Medicare, even as a pilot program, opens the door to further erosion of our Medicare system. We therefore strongly urge you to immediately halt the proposed WISeR model and instead consider steps to address the well-documented waste, fraud, and abuse in the Medicare Ad- vantage program.” And just last week, a bloc of House members sent a letter to CMS Administrator Dr. Mehmet Oz urging the agency to cancel WISeR before it starts. The letter, led by Representative Suzan DelBene (D-Washington) and signed by 19 other members, pulls no punches: WISeR, they wrote, will “likely limit beneficiaries’ access to care, increase burden on our already overburdened health care workforce, and create perverse incentives to put profit over patients." The political significance of this is hard to overstate. The members of Congress who signed these letters have, in some cases, been reliable defenders of Medicare Advantage, an industry that now takes more than half of all Medicare dollars (plus billions in overpayments each year) while using prior authorization to deny necessary care at alarming rates. For them to publicly oppose a CMS initiative that so closely mirrors MA practices suggests some- thing important: insurers may be losing some of their go-to allies on Capitol Hill. And it’s not just the Dems. The letters’ concerns echo those raised by Republicans in recent years, too. And that’s including some of Medicare Advantage’s biggest boosters. Former Representative Mark Greene, MD (R-Tennessee) led a bill with Representative Kim Schrier that would require physicians of the same specialty to review prior authorizations. And Senator Bill Cassidy (R-Louisiana), Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, stated that prior authorization is being “abused” by health insurance companies. The fact that opposition is now coming from both sides of the aisle demonstrates that this model may not be the antidote to prior authorization concerns that its proponents are touting it as. Both letters reinforce those warnings, citing data from HHS’s Office of Inspector General showing that 75% of denied prior authorization requests in MA were overturned on appeal, which is proof that many initial denials were inappropriate. They also question why CMS would contract with the very companies (often MA insurers them- selves) that have been caught breaking Medicare rules to boost profits. For years, insurers have been able to rely on a bipartisan wall of protection for Medicare Advantage. With Democrats and Republicans saying “enough," that could mean that the wall is starting to crack, and it’s not just WISeR that’s in jeopardy. It’s the whole model of using private contractors to ration care in the name of “cost control.” WISeR is scheduled to launch in January 2026 in six states: New Jersey, Ohio, Oklahoma, Texas, Arizona and Washington. If CMS doesn’t reverse course, it will mark a turning point and Traditional Medicare will begin to look and feel like private Medicare Advantage plans. But if the growing opposition is any sign, CMS may find itself pursuing other models to improve Traditional Medicare without using flawed methods from MA. Postscript : Thank you to Reps. Jayapal and Smith for signing the letter initiated by Reps. Ocasio Cortez and Doggett. Thank you to Rep. DelBene for initiating a second letter and to Reps. Randall and Strickland for signing that letter. Both letters called for cancellation of the WISeR program which tar- gets Washington Medicare beneficiaries. Wendell Potter is a former high ranking insurance executive and founder of the Center for Health & Democracy (CHD). Rachel Madley was the former health care policy staff person for Rep. Pramila Jayapal and now serves as Director of Policy and Advocacy for CHD. To subscribe to CHD’s newsletter, google search HEALTH CARE un-covered. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents May 2026 Fighting Food Insecurity in the Face of Climate Chaos Jeff Johnson As climate chaos increasingly ravages the planet, producing sufficient, high-quality, and local food is becoming more precarious. Soaring temperatures, droughts, and flooding are taking farmland out of production and causing both food shortages and food prices to rise. Food insecurity and hunger are global crises. According to the “2025 Global Report on Food Crises,” more than 295 million people suffered from acute food insecurity around the world in 2024. On April 8 the Washington State Department of Ecology announced a drought emergency due to dismal snowpack in the mountains this past winter. In seven of the past ten years, parts of, or all of, the state have suffered drought conditions. This has reduced the quantity of food produced, lowered the quality in some cases, and increased food prices. I want to share with you a couple of examples of how some have adapted to help address part of the problem. The Atlas Mountains In March, my wife Becki and I stayed with a Berber family in the Atlas Mountains in Morocco. The Imlil valley sits at about 6,000 feet and is the gateway to Mount Toubkal, the highest mountain in northern Africa. Berber settlements in the high Atlas date back to prehistoric times. Rock engravings reveal a culture that developed an agrarian society in this rugged terrain. The river valley and terraces carved into the lower third of the mountains supported an abundance of vegetables, e.g., carrots, cucumbers, potatoes, turnips, and radishes. Their dwellings were constructed with red clay, stone, and the wood from cedar, juniper, and pine trees. Over the past twenty years, climate change has dramatically reduced the amount of snow pack and water available for irrigation. Instead of growing vegetables on the terraced mountain sides, fruit trees that require less water and less frequent watering have been planted. After thousands of years, they can no longer produce all the vegetables that they need in the high Atlas Mountains. They now grow apples, cherries, plums, and quince to sell in other parts of the country and Africa, and import vegetables to supplement what they can no longer grow. A partial solution for now. San Juan Island Living on a small island creates opportunities. Four years ago, I volunteered to be on the Board of the Farmers Market. Shortly thereafter, I was drafted to be its president. A lesson learned, be careful what you volunteer for in a small community. Small scale farming on an island in the rain shadow of the Olympic Mountains and increasingly impacted by climate change, can be hard. Living on an island that is largely dependent on its food from the mainland, has a housing shortage, and not enough family wage jobs, can be hard. Over the past three years we have created various strategies to help community members in need. Small-scale organic farmers deal with the vagaries of agriculture in a climate-changing world and food insufficiency. The first strategy was to create a grant program for farmers to increase regenerative agricultural practices to improve the health of the soil, conserve water, and produce higher quality food. Through our Agricultural Guild, we give out small grants to farmers for things like cover cropping, rotational grazing, no-till soil preparation, composting, reducing artificial fertilizers, and increasing plant diversity. A second strategy was creating the Fresh Bucks program. We raise private dollars and then give individuals ($20) and families ($40) on each farmers market day (every Saturday, April-November, and two Saturdays a month, December-March), to purchase organic fruit and vegetables, meat, fish, eggs, dairy, and seeds to eat. Fresh Bucks go to individuals/families earning less than 200% of the poverty level by family size, and then are used to make purchases from local farmers. In 2024, we distributed $28,000 in four months. In 2025 we distributed $55,000 in seven months. This year we expect to distribute $75,000 for the entire year. The Fresh Bucks program helps two vulnerable island communities and helps decrease food insecurity. Finally, we have created a co-op table at the farmers market where market staff sell the produce of backyard gardeners and small farmers who don’t have either enough produce or the ability to staff a table at the market. This gets more food into the hands of community members year-round, and, through Fresh Bucks, helps reduce food insecurity and raises the income for small farmers. Jeff Johnson is a retired president of the Washington State Labor Council and Co-President of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents June 2025 Chaos Monkey Goes After the Federal Reserve Michael Righi Trump wants lower interest rates. Probably so he and his family can borrow cheap money to pump up the value of their crypto coins, then dump them and leave ordinary investors with the losses. Maybe he needs money to build a golf course in Dubai. Or wait, maybe that’s going to be a “gift.” So call me cynical. He is also worried that his tariff chaos is going to slow production and the economy. Lower interest rates might encourage more spending and support the economy he is effectively tanking. Trump the autocrat wants the same power over interest rates that he has over tariffs. So he is threatening the Federal Reserve and its chair, Jerome Powell. Firing Powell would be illegal; his term is not up, but this is Trump, right? And the Federal Reserve system was created to function independently of the president and Congress, on purpose, supposedly to insulate the Fed from political pressure. The Fed was initially created in 1913 to stop the financial crises private banks kept causing. Bankers would make riskier and riskier loans to pump up profit, some loans would go bad, banks would collapse and production and jobs would disappear. The Fed, once created, then lent money to bail the banks (and depositors) out, and prevent depressions. How to Make Money That is a crucial understanding – the Federal Reserve Bank creates money, out of thin air. You write a check, you draw down your account. The Fed writes a check by changing some numbers on a computer – only based on their authority as the country’s central bank. The Fed works through the private banking system. The Fed buys financial assets, Treasury bonds, or lately even mortgage-backed securities. That money winds up in the banking system, enabling banks to make loans. That’s more money in the economy. So the Fed enables banks to create our money supply. The Humphrey-Hawkins law passed by Congress mandates that the Fed keep both inflation and unemployment low. The Fed does this by controlling short-term interest rates. Those are often conflicting goals. Low interest rates (“easy money”) encourage borrowing and spending and so more jobs. But that also allows businesses to raise prices. High interest rates (“tight money”) have the opposite effect, slowing the economy. This all sounds technical and value- neutral. That’s what the Fed and Wall Street and financial elites want us to think, that Fed policy is apolitical and technocratic. Tell that to homeowners who lost their homes in the 2008 financial crisis while the Fed bailed out big insurance and bank corporations. Or to cardholders and small businesses now as the Powell Fed allows Capital One and Dis- cover to merge and raise their charges. The Fed Is Not Independent The Fed is run by bankers and Wall Street financiers, and influenced by what the corporate elite wants. High interest rates protect the assets of the financial elite from inflation, reducing their value. High rates also keep the economy from creating jobs, because then workers’ wages and willingness to organize might interfere with corporate profit. But financial crisis might call for extended periods of low interest rates, to keep Wall Street afloat, as after 2008. As wages have stagnated or fallen for decades, low rates also encouraged families to run up debt to maintain living standards. Whatever the capitalists in power need, the Fed tries to provide. Its power is relatively easy to access for the wealthy, easier than going through the somewhat more democratic legislative process. With Trump going after him, it is tempting to defend Powell and the Fed. That just puts us back into the space of bad choices. Neither represents what the working class needs. The Fed itself is soon likely to face both inflation and unemployment, a result of Trumpian chaos and uncertainty. If leaving it to the Fed is not the answer, then what is? That also should be up for discussion. There are ideas out there. Regional and local public banks could loan money for public infrastructure, such as transit and clean energy. Postal banking would enable those shut out of banks to borrow and make transactions. Michael Righi is a retired economics professor and a member of the Retiree Advocate Editorial Board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents April 2026 War Is a Racket, by Maj. Gen. Smedley Butler, USMC Mike Andrew War Is a Racket is not a new book. In fact, it’s almost 100 years old. It’s still a timely book, though; more so now than ever. Its author, Smedley Butler – US Marine Corps Major General, two-time winner of the Congressional Medal of Honor for actions in combat, law-and-order Public Safety Commissioner of Philadelphia in 1924 and 1925, Republican candidate for US Senate from Pennsylvania, anti-New Dealer – was the unlikeliest pacifist ever. That’s why War Is a Racket is still intriguing. How did this professional soldier become an anti-militarist? Butler was considered the front-runner for Commandant of the Marine Corps in 1930 but was passed over for promotion due to his reputation for contrariness. He then retired and began to write and lecture about war profiteering by big business. In 1931 he ran for US Senate as a progressive Republican, but was defeated by the incumbent Republican, James Davis, who ran on an anti-immigrant, pro-eugenics platform. As a candidate, Butler spoke in favor of immediate payment of the veterans’ bonus. World War I vets had been promised a “bonus” for their service, but that benefit came in the form of US bonds that didn’t mature until 1945. In the midst of the Great Depression, with many of them out of work, veterans began demanding immediate payment of their bonuses. In June 1932, some 43,000 “bonus marchers” descended on Washington, DC, to demand their payments, setting up encampments in Anacostia Flats. On July 19, Butler toured the camp and spoke to the marchers, telling them they’d been good soldiers and had a right to assemble and lobby Congress “as much as any corporation.” On July 28, DC police shot and killed two marchers. When the remaining marchers began to resist police, the Hoover administration ordered Gen. Douglas MacArthur to disperse the demonstration, which he did with tear gas, bayonets, and a cavalry charge. Fifty-five veterans were wounded and 135 arrested. Butler, like many ordinary Americans, was shocked by the disproportionate use of force. He declared himself a “Hoover-for-Ex-President” Republican. In the 1932 election, Franklin Roosevelt soundly defeated Hoover for the presidency, sweeping into office with huge Democratic majorities in the US House and Senate. Butler was not a fan. Even FDR, he thought, was too cozy with big money. Shortly after the election, when the country was getting its first taste of the New Deal, Prescott Bush – yes, the father of George H. W. Bush – approached Butler with a proposal. Bush asked Butler to meet a bond salesman, Gerald P. MacGuire. According to Butler, he met MacGuire twice in secret. At the meetings, he said, MacGuire told him that a group of businessmen, backed by $3 million, a private army of 500,000 veterans, and J. P. Morgan's bank, planned to over-throw Roosevelt and establish a fascist dictatorship. Butler was asked to lead the coup. Gen. Hugh S. Johnson would then be installed as head of state. Butler spilled the beans to the New York Times . When the story broke, the US House established a special committee to investigate. Butler testified in a private session and the committee reported that “[t]here was no question that these attempts were discussed, were planned, and might have been placed in execution..." and that the "committee was able to verify all the pertinent statements made by General Butler, with the exception of the direct statement about the creation of the organization. This, however, was corroborated in the correspondence of MacGuire with his principal, Robert Sterling Clark….” However, there were never any follow-up investigations and never any criminal indictments as a result of Butler’s testimony. In 1935, Butler published War Is a Racket. It’s still in print. Order it through your favorite bookstore or a library near you. While you wait for it to be delivered, enjoy this quote: "War is a racket. It always has been. It is possibly the oldest, easily the most profitable, surely the most vicious. It is the only one international in scope. It is the only one in which the profits are reckoned in dollars and the losses in lives. A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of the people. Only a small 'inside' group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few, at the expense of the very many. Out of war a few people make huge fortunes." Mike Andrew is the Executive Director of PSARA and Editor of the Advocate < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents June 2026 Louisiana v. Callais: The Supreme Court, Jim Crow, and Voting Rights Anne Watanabe On April 29, the US Supreme Court issued a 6-3 decision in Louisiana v. Callais , eviscerating the Voting Rights Act (VRA). The VRA was enacted in 1965 to protect voters from racially discriminatory election practices. After the ruling, Louisiana Governor Landry ordered immediate suspension of an ongoing primary election for a House seat; the state senate plans to eliminate one of the Black-majority districts. At the time of writing, Alabama, Florida, Tennessee, Mississippi, and Georgia were redrawing or planning to redraw voting district maps, no longer constrained by the VRA. The Callais decision will have major impacts on the midterm elections and beyond. To fully comprehend this decision, it’s helpful to review the VRA’s history and purpose. In 1870, the 15th Amendment was ratified, prohibiting federal and state governments from denying or abridging a citizen’s right to vote “on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.” But a Jim Crow nation quickly resurrected barriers for Black voters, ranging from poll taxes to violent mobs. After the horrific attack on civil rights marchers on Bloody Sunday in Selma in 1964, President Johnson signed the VRA into law on August 6, 1965. The federal government immediately began enforcing the VRA. States, particularly in the south where nonwhite voters were in the majority, created new maps that reflected racial populations. The VRA includes two sections, Sections 2 and 5, that were once powerful weapons protecting voting rights. Section 5 included a “preclearance” provision requiring states with a history of racially discriminatory voting restrictions to submit changes to election laws or electoral district maps to the federal government for review. These “covered” states were required to show the changes were not discriminatory. In its 2013 decision in Shelby County v. Holder , the Court nullified Section 5. It concluded that gaps in turnout between Black and white voters had narrowed, rendering invalid the formula used to determine which states were covered. The justices pointed to high Black voter turnouts in 2008 and 2012, conveniently ignoring the possibility that the candidacy of President Barack Obama had driven Black voter turnout rates to high levels. A Brennan Center study found that the turnout gap greatly increased in the 10 years following the Shelby decision in the formerly covered states. Section 2 prohibits race-based vote dilution, meaning states may not create district maps depriving a group of nonwhite voters of an equal opportunity to elect a candidate of their choice. In 2022, the state was successfully sued by voters who argued that Louisiana was “packing” Black voters into a single voting district and diluting their votes - the 2020 census showed that Black Louisianans comprised one-third of the state’s population. The state redrew its map in 2024 to create a second Black-majority voting district. A group of white voters challenged that map, leading to the Callais decision. The Court concluded that the 2024 map violated the Constitution by taking race into account, and that the VRA did not authorize this consideration. Justice Alito, writing for the majority, proclaimed that Section 2 required a showing that the state “intentionally drew its districts to afford minority voters less opportunity because of their race.” Regardless of a map’s impacts on nonwhite voters, a challenge which “cannot disentangle race from the state’s race-neutral considerations, including politics" will fail. In other words, unless state officials confess that their intent is to disenfranchise nonwhite voters (rather than other political groups), no relief is available. Callais now makes it nearly impossible to enforce Section 2. Southern states are redrawing their voting maps, but the gutting of the VRA runs deeper than federal seats in southern states. State and local offices, school boards, etc., are all affected. In Washington State, GOP lawmakers seek to undo a map redrawn pursuant to a court ruling that an older map diluted Latino votes. Washington enacted a state voting rights act in 2018, and last session, the Washington Legislature passed a preclearance law. But it is at least arguable that under Callais , such laws could be challenged as being racially discriminatory. What can we do? There are no easy answers, but the threat to our democracy is immediate. Increasing voter turnout, especially in states redrawing their maps to weaken nonwhite votes, is essential. Civil rights groups, including the NAACP, ACLU, and others, are filing lawsuits to overturn “Jim Crow” redistricting. Please stay informed and engaged in state and national efforts to protect the right to vote. PSARA will alert members to these efforts, and we welcome your ideas and participation. And for now, our board members, civil rights leaders Larry and Rhonda Gossett, advise us all to “Keep hope alive!” Anne Watanabe is Chair of PSARA's Race and Gender Equity (RaGE) Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents August 2025 Vote Yes on Prop 1 to Keep Seattle’s Elections in the Hands of the People Alice Woldt For more than a quarter-century, PSARA has fought to protect the security and dignity of older Americans and the generations that follow. That mission is deeply tied to the health of our democracy. If billionaires and corporate interests drown out our voices, we all pay the price – whether it’s in lost retirement security, unaffordable healthcare, or neglect of our most vulnerable neighbors. That’s why I’m urging PSARA members to vote Yes on Proposition 1 this August to renew funding for Seattle’s groundbreaking Democracy Voucher Program. Since voters first approved it nearly a decade ago, this program has transformed how our city elections work by putting real power back in the hands of everyday people. Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program gives every resident four $25 vouchers to contribute to local candidates of their choice. It’s a simple idea that has had extraordinary results. Instead of local campaigns relying on a handful of wealthy donors and corporate PACs, they’re fueled by small contributions from people like us – retirees, renters, working families. And the proof is overwhelming: Since the program began, small donor participation has increased fivefold, with more than 105,000 Seattle residents using Democracy Vouchers. The vast majority were first-time donors, many from lower-income house- holds and communities of color who previously had little voice in our local politics. The candidate pool is more diverse than ever. There’s been an 86% jump in the number of candidates per race, opening the door for more women, younger candidates, and people of color to run competitive campaigns. And it’s made our elections more fair. Contributions under $100 have surged by 156%, while large contributions over $250 have dropped by 93%. Big out-of-city money has plummeted by up to 84%, making local campaigns truly local again. This is precisely the kind of change many of us dreamed of when we first took up the fight to reduce the influence of big money in politics. And it’s working. A study even found that Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program boosted voter turnout by nearly 5 percentage points – an enormous shift in local elections that typically struggle to bring people to the polls. Right now, we have a chance to protect all of this progress. Prop 1 would renew the small property tax levy that funds the Democracy Voucher Program for another 10 years. For the average Seattle homeowner, it’s a modest investment – about $13 a year – to keep our democracy strong, fair, and accountable. Without renewal, the program’s dedicated funding will disappear. Seattle would either have to drastically cut back or eliminate the program, or raid the city’s general fund – already under strain from other vital needs. Worse, letting it lapse would send a terrible message: that we’re willing to let billionaires and special interests reclaim their grip on our elections, right when so much is at stake. Our country is at a crossroads. Across the nation, we’re seeing voting rights rolled back, dark money unleashed, and attempts to silence the voices of working people. Here in Seattle, we can show there’s another way. We can stand up for a democracy that works for retirees on fixed incomes, young families starting out, and everyone in between – not just the wealthy few. So here’s what you can do: Mark your calendar and return your ballot by August 5th. Talk to your friends, family, and neighbors – especially younger voters – about why voting Yes on Prop 1 matters for the future of our city and our democracy. And if you have questions or want more resources, visit www.YesOn Prop1Seattle.org. As a long-time advocate for democracy reforms, I’ve seen countless efforts come and go. Seattle’s Democracy Voucher Program is different. It’s a proven success, built by voters, supported by voters, and now ready to be protected by voters once again. Let’s make sure we keep our elections of, by, and for the people. Vote Yes on Prop 1 this August. PSARA has endorsed a Yes vote on Prop 1. Alice Woldt is the former Executive Director of Fix Democracy First and Washington Public Campaigns and a member of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents