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The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents July 2025 4,000 Attend No Kings Event at People’s Park, Tacoma! John Alessio Our Vote, Our Choice, Our Power, Our Voice!” “Power to the People, We Insist-Billionaires Should Not Exist!” “Say it Once,Say it Twice, We Will Not Put Up With ICE!” These are just a few of the chants heard at People’s Park Saturday, June 14th. PSARA joined Indivisible Tacoma and many other organizations to create an informative, riveting, and festive event on “No Kings Day”. Other participating groups were: 350 Tacoma; AF- SCME Council 28; Evergreen Resistance Tacoma; Black Panther Party, The TSM Shop; Jewish Voice for Peace Tacoma; La Resistencia; Rainbow Center; The Tacoma Urban League; LD27, LD28, and LD29 Democrats; Oscar’s Enemies; Pierce County Central Labor Council, AFL-CIO; Pierce County Immigration Alliance; Tacoma Democratic Socialists of America; Tacoma Fellowship of Reconciliation; Tacoma for All; Tacoma Veterans for Peace; The Conversation 253; Washington Wildlife First; and United Food & Commercial Workers Local 367. Careful planning included meetings and continuous communication between the leaders of many of these organizations to assure a safe and meaningful protest of the Trump administration’s immoral and unconstitutional activities. Preparation included de-escalation training sessions that resulted in a roaming Safety Team during the event. A First Aid Sation was created, with drinking water, snacks, and other relevant supplies. Various groups had their own information booths, plus a booth for sign-making, and even a face painting booth. People’s Park was humming with excitement and enthusiasm. Four thousand people, peacefully demonstrating, were completely rapt for two and a half hours listening to inspiring speeches about what is being done, and what still needs to be done, to stop Trump and his minions from destroying our democracy and inflicting more grievous harm on large segments of our population. The event started and ended with lively protest music, and there were clever chants interspersed throughout. The importance of local elections was emphasized, and people were encouraged to get involved by door-knocking, providing support to progressive candidates, and especially voting in the upcoming 2025 Primary on August 5 and again in the General on November 4th! Action events were announced, such as a June 18th “Door-Knocking for Introverts” to help people become effective doorknockers. On July 9th Indivisible Tacoma endorsed candidates will participate in a Candidate Forum at 6:30PM at Tahoma Unitarian Universalist Church, 1115 So. 56th, Tacoma. La Resistencia and others will continue to strategize and call for united actions against the activities of ICE and the Northwest Detention Center - a critical court hearing is set for September. Some people may want to attend the “Breakfast With the Sheriff” meetings to remind Pierce county Sheriff Keith Swank that Washington state laws protect people from unconstitutional harassment and arrest. The next scheduled breakfast is 7-9AM Saturday, June 21st. We know he would love to see us. A Facebook message to a friend read: “I was at People’s Park with my brother who is blind and paralyzed on his left side. We had the best day. He felt part of society.” That statement captures the mood and inclusive spirit of the Tacoma “No Kings Day”. Let’s keep it going! John Alessio is a member of PSARA and Indivisible Tacoma. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents April 2026 Washington State Lawmakers Approve “Millionaires Tax” Tim Wheeler Rejecting scores of Republican poison pill amendments, the Washington State House of Representatives on March 11 approved by a 51 to 46 vote a “Millionaires Tax” of 9.9% on annual income over one million dollars. The Senate approved the measure March 10 by a vote of 27 to 21. The measure is now on Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk and he has promised to sign it into law. The Governor had expressed unhappiness with the Senate approved version arguing that it fails to earmark enough in funding for state programs that serve low-income families, children, and small businesses. But April Berg, an African American legislator from Legislative District 44 northeast of Seattle, pushed through a massive re-write of the 107-page bill, including an amendment that 5 percent of the revenues will be earmarked for the Fair Start for Kids Act. Ferguson hailed the amendment and vowed to sign the bill he called “historic.” The wealth tax is a victory for the labor movement and a grassroots movement that has sprung up in the Evergreen State. The people are outraged by billionaires like Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Microsoft’s Bill Gates who reap billions in untaxed profits each year since Washington has no state income tax. Relying solely on a regressive 8 percent plus sales tax and property taxes, Washington State struggles with multi-billion dollar deficits in covering public services like public education, health care, and transportation costs. The Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO, hailed passage of the tax, posting on its Facebook page in banner-sized letters, “Thank You!” An AFL-CIO statement declared, “Special thanks for Speaker Laurie Jinkins for navigating the (Democratic) caucus through the longest floor debate in state history---over 24 hours.” In their drive to block the measure in both houses, the Republicans offered more than 60 poison pill amendments scheming to stall passage during this “short session” of the legislature---only 60 days. But Speaker Jinkins and the Democratic lawmakers refused to yield, voting down one killer amendment after another for a full 24 hours. Speaker Jinkins said of the millionaire tax bill, “Our 90-year-old tax code simply cannot meet the needs of our state.” The Washington State tax code, she added, “asks low-income Washingtonians to pay nearly four times more in taxes than the wealthiest among us relative to income. We need to do better.” The millionaire tax applies to only about 20,000 wealthy Washingtonians and is expected to generate an estimated $3.5 billion to $4 billion in new revenues annually. It grants the wealthy exemptions for houses, investments, and personal property. It does not go into effect until Jan. 1, 2028. During Senate debate several Democratic female members argued that the wealth tax is urgent to replace funds for Medicaid and SNAP nutrition benefits stripped from the Federal budget by President Trump’s “Big Beautiful” budget bill, the trillion dollar cut given to the rich as a tax cut. A Republican Senator called these lawmakers on a “point-of-order” to terminate any references to Trump. The Republican efforts to block the wealth tax instigated a flood of vicious phone calls and email attacks from MAGA extremists targeting the House Democratic Caucus. The email and phone messages “directed at them….include hateful language, racial epithets, and slurs, threats and intimidation.” The lawmakers have “safety concerns for our family members, our staffs, ourselves” and some are taking “safety precautions…that should never be necessary for those simply carrying out the duties of their public office.” Tim Wheeler is a veteran activist and journalist and a leader of PSARA's organizing committee in Clallam County. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents May 2026 How To Transition Off Plastics John Birnel As we have been dealing with the ongoing problem of plastics in our solid waste landfill, we are also becoming more attentive to the chemical toxicity of plastics in their production, use, and disposal, especially in its breakdown into microplastic and nanoplastics that we all imbibe through the air, food, and touch. We read about whales washing ashore with so much plastic, which they have mistaken for food, clogging their gut. Of course, transitioning off these toxic materials will require legislative remedies. One bill recently passed, E2S-SB 5284, Improving Washington's Solid Waste Management Outcomes, is being implemented and may help. Another bill, Break Free from Plastics, is being pushed in Congress as well. New Jersey and New York have instituted plastic bag bans and some related measures. But people want to know, in the meantime, how we can avoid, as much as possible, the plastics that are all around us and moving inside of us. Avoiding single use water sold in plastic containers is one. Avoiding unnecessary packaging of food and deliveries, is another. Others include not heating up food in the microwave in plastic containers, and buying natural fabric clothing, rugs, and linens (many available at second hand stores). I am currently enjoying reading a paper-back Sustain: 50 Easy Tips for a Greener, Cleaner Plastic Free Home, by Christina Strutt of Cabbages and Roses. Used copies are available at a modest sum from ABE books. Want to dig deeper into the nightmare of omnipresent toxicity of plastic production, use, and disposal, and what we, as a society, can do about it? BeyondPlastics.org and Zero Waste Washington are good starting points, along with the recent book, The Problem With Plastic, by Judith Enck. John Birnel is a long-time member of PSARA and an ongoing member of the PSARA Climate and Environmental Justice Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents March 2025 Protecting our Assets and Protecting Our Asses Jeff Johnson "We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks, and dead ideas. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.” Arundhati Roy, “The pandemic is a portal,” Financial Times, April 3, 2020 Novelist Arundhati Roy likens the Covid pandemic to a portal which allows us the opportunity to make the same mistakes again and again or to envision a new world where we listen to and fight for our better angels. I believe her poignant imagery and prose brilliantly describe the choice we have facing climate change. Scientists have discovered five past catastrophic events in our history where the diversity of life has plummeted - five periods of species extinction. Given the current rate of species decline and cataclysmic climate disasters, some are arguing that we are entering the Sixth Extinction. The question is, are we just doomed? Or can we mitigate climate change? I believe that if we act thoughtfully, focus on the common good, and act with sufficient urgency, we can go through the climate portal fighting for an equitable, just, and sustainable economy and world. “Protecting Our Assets and Protecting Our Asses” is the first in a series of articles makingthe case for divesting from fossil fuel assets and investing in Green New Deal solutions. The Challenge In January 2016, fresh from being part of the US labor delegation to the Paris Climate Accords, I testified before the Washington State House Environmental Committee, saying that “climate change is an existential crisis.” Speaking as president of the Washington State Labor Council,AFL-CIO, I received raised eyebrows by a number of committee members and a few knowing nods from others. Eight years later, the horrifying devastation caused by hurricanes Helene and Milton in the Southeast and the multiple forest fires around Los Angeles should have convinced even the most skeptical among us that human-caused climate change poses an existential threat to life as we know it. Never, in our lifetimes, has the planet issued such a clear and resounding clarion call to do something. It does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that we are being told to leave fossil fuels in the ground; to make massive investments in non-fossil fuel renewable energy sources; to electrify our transportation infrastructure; to practice large scale regenerative agriculture; to invest in systemic energy retrofits to public and private buildings; and to figure out a global plan to address the accelerating climate refugee crisis. Unprecedented crises require unprecedented changes. We should invest in Green New Deal projects as if there were literally no tomorrow. Because if we don’t, our tomorrows will be pretty bleak. The Benefit Washington State Initiative 1631 was an attempt to go through the climate portal in an equitable, just, and sustainable way. Had 1631 passed, about $1.5 to $2.0 billion of clean energy projects a year would have been decided by a majority vote of environmental justice, labor, tribal, and environmental community leaders. These projects would have created tens of thousands of jobs with high labor standards – project labor agreements, prevailing wages, apprenticeship utilization standards, and local hire provisions. The initiative would also have created a “Just Transition” fund providing wage replacement, health care and pension benefits, and retraining benefits to displaced workers, keeping both workers and communities whole during the transition period. And of course, carbon emissions would have dramatically fallen, and there would have been no dubious carbon offsets to deal with. What Else Initiative 1631 was defeated by over $30 million contributed by the fossil fuel industry to sway the vote, and by not enough people recognizing the threat that climate change poses to our jobs, income, lives, and property. What has become increasingly clear is that climate change is a job killer, a budget killer, and a species killer. Every additional dollar invested in fossil fuels contributes to arable land becoming increasingly scarce; shrinking fresh water reserves; a further loss of jobs, lives, and property; and tens of millions of climate refugees fleeing for their lives. There is a moral imperative to divest from fossil fuels, since every dollar in- vested in fossil fuels accelerates climate disaster. There is an economic and budgetary imperative to divest from fossil fuels, since every dollar spent cleaning up climate disasters is a dollar not spent on education, health care, addressing poverty and inequality, affordable housing, or public safety. This, of course, translates into thousands of lost jobs and a declining quality of life for most of us. There is a fiscal imperative to divest from fossil fuels, since fossil fuels are consistently underperforming other assets. Sometime in the future, fossil fuel assets will become stranded assets. Financial prudence should, if nothing else, dictate replacing underperforming fossil fuel assets with climate-affirming assets with a promise of higher returns. I have hope that in Washington State we are prescient and bold enough to go through the climate portal by investing in the clean energy economy as if there were no tomorrow. We should dramatically reduce our public and private consumption of fossil fuels and divest our state funds and public and private union pension funds from fossil fuels as well. There is still time left to make good choices. How about we save our assets and our asses at the same time. Jeff Johnson is a former President of the Washington State Labor Council and the Co-President of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2025 The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and Mass Deportation Anne Watanabe What comes to mind when you hear “alien enemies?” Hostile green creatures, Klingons threatening the Starship Enterprise, or – French people? Congress passed the Alien Enemies Act in 1798 during a US “quasi war” with France (naval hostilities that were never officially declared as war). Enacted during a time of fierce anti-French sentiment and fear of espionage and sabotage, the Act granted sweeping power to the president to detain and deport non-natives. This law, together with three other acts, formed the Alien and Sedition Acts. Even amidst 18th Century anti- French hysteria, the laws were controversial. Three of the four acts were quickly repealed or allowed to sunset. But the Alien Enemies Act remains in effect to this day. Why should we care? Because today anti-immigrant sentiment runs high, and incoming Presi- dent Trump campaigned on promises to use the Act to detain undocumented immigrants and carry out mass deportations. The Act states: “Whenever there is a declared war between the United States and any foreign nation or government, or any invasion or predatory incursion is perpetrated, attempted, or threatened against the territory of the United States by any foreign nation or government, and the President makes public proclamation of the event, all natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects of the hostile nation or government, being of the age of fourteen years and upward, who shall be within the United States and not actually naturalized, shall be liable to be apprehended, re- strained, secured, and removed as alien enemies.” The Alien Enemies Act has only been used three times. During the War of 1812, President Madison used it to require British nationals to report extensive information about themselves to the government. During World War I, President Wilson used the Act (newly amended to include women as well as men as “alien enemies”) to register hundreds of thousands of German nationals, and to place several thousand in internment camps – in some cases up to two years after fighting had ended. During WWII, President Roosevelt used the Act to detain and/or deport thou- sands of German, Italian, and Japanese nationals (Executive Order 9066 and military orders were used to incarcerate Japanese American US citizens). Despite lacking connection or loyalty to a former homeland (even German Jews who had fled Germany were included) noncitizens were treated as “alien enemies” based on national origin. If President Trump attempts to use the Alien Enemies Act to achieve mass deportations, he will of course face vigorous challenges. The Act refers to a “declared war” and has only been invoked during wartime. With its lack of procedural safeguards concerning detention or deportation, the 1798 Act runs counter to established principles of due process and equal protection, and it conflicts with modern immigration law. And yet… The Act also refers to an attempted or threatened “invasion or predatory incursion” by a foreign nation or government. The President has described undocumented immigration as an “invasion,” perhaps laying the ground- work to use the Act during peacetime. The state of Texas did this in its clash with the Biden Administration, arguing that unlawful immigration constitutes an “invasion” allowing the state to use extraordinary measures. Several judges declined to decide whether an “invasion” had occurred, viewing this as a “political question” for the executive branch, not the judicial branch, under the doctrine established by the US Supreme Court in Baker v. Carr (1962). The potential thus exists for the judiciary to stand down when a president creates a pretext for using the Alien Enemies Act. For a deeper dive into this issue, the Brennan Center for Justice has an excellent legal analysis on its website: The Alien Enemies Act | Bren- nan Center for Justice. The sweeping powers granted by the Act may appeal to politicians who wish to detain and remove immigrants while bypassing hearings or other legal protections. If people can be treated as foreign enemies based on national origin, then due process, habeas corpus and other protections under domestic and international laws may be denied in the name of national security. In 2023, Senator Mazie Hirano and Rep. Ilhan Omar reintroduced their “Neighbors Not Enemies” Act (SB 1747/ HR 3610) to repeal the Alien Enemies Act (as of this writing, three Washington representatives have signed on). Politicians will still have other deportation tools at their disposal, but repeal of the Alien Enemies Act will protect immigrants from the abusive power of an 18th Century law -- so that we remain a nation of neighbors, not enemies. Anne Watanabe is Chair of PSARA's Race and Gender Equity (RaGE) Commit- tee and a member of PSARA's Executive Board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents September 2025 What Do People in the US think About Climate Change? Peter Harris What do people in the US think about climate change? The large majority of people in the US see global warming and want the government to act. This holds across the country, in all states, even those run by Republicans. This has been shown for years in surveys conducted by the Climate Change Communication program at George Mason University and Yale, easily found online. This holds everywhere. A globe- spanning survey by the 89% Project of international newsrooms showed that the very large majority of people in all nations want their governments to do more to fight global warming. The 74% in the US is a lower percentage than almost every other nation. How much are people aware of these opinions? Why does this matter? People who care about global warming tend to think others don’t care. This is part of what prevents climate action. People are more willing to act when they see that others care. Per the 89% Project: “We’re sitting on an enormous potential climate movement...It’s latent. It hasn’t been activated or catalyzed. But when you break through these perception gaps, you help people under- stand that they’re not alone...Making people aware of this would help a lot and bring hope. [A lot] of people are self-censoring and not fighting or voting [for climate action] because they think that their ideas are not in the zeitgeist.” The same holds for politicians. Elected officials greatly underestimate the number of constituents who care about global warming. “You might think their political antennas are finely tuned to public opinion, but they are not – sometimes wildly underestimating public views. . . If we can make politicians more aware of what the people in their country want, they mightactually act on people’s preferences.” Why does reducing climate change have a low political priority? The lack of awareness of public opinion is one reason. Another is the misinformation skillfully produced by the fossil fuel industry. A third reason may be that the environmental impacts of climate change are often confused with environmental problems we’ve addressed before. These have mainly been things we directly created and try to directly solve, often successfully. The problems can be big or small, but they are addressed case by case. In contrast, the climate change caused by humans is an indirect result of greenhouse gas emissions and is global in its impacts. The impacts are new and growing fast and have the potential to damage life on earth. There can only be a global cure. It is easy to see this as outside the scope of government action and beyond our choices in voting. The solution may be recognizing that a global cure will come from hundreds of local actions, from individuals reducing power consumption, to states and nations replacing fossil fuels with solar and wind power. State actions can be popular. The strong political support in Washington for the Climate Commitment Act is a good example. The CCA was protected by voters in soundly rejecting I-2117. It was protected again by the state legislature in a tough bud- get process. How much are people aware of these opinions? Why does this matter? First, we can share our views with friends, neighbors and colleagues. Ask them what they think about global warming. If they care, tell them you care too, and that most others agree. Second, we can share this information with all of our elected officials. This will back up the good positions many have taken, encourage more of the same, and at least stimulate some thought by those who have not supported climate action. Third, we can move from the general to here and now. When a political issue directly or indirectly affecting the climate is on the table, tell the decision makers how many of their constituents want action on global warming. Use the data. Fourth, we can repeat this in next year’s elections. Tell all state and federal candidates the majority view of their constituents and ask for their positions on any climate actions at hand. Publish their responses or non-responses. In all this, do not be discouraged by the federal government’s insane denial of climate change. Trump and the billionaires he serves care more about putting money into their already stuffed pockets than protecting a livable world for their own grandchildren. But the public is opening its eyes. Opinions are the result of the occasions for expressing them. Every day, each of us can add a little weight. Peter Harris is a member of PSARA's Climate and Environmental Justice Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents October 2025 How WISeR Will Enable Companies to Profit from Pain – A Retired Physician’s Story Jaisri Lingappa, MD PhD As a retired and otherwise healthy physician, I recently endured weeks of intense pain this summer due to a herniated disk, which developed out of the blue without an obvious cause. This pain was beyond anything I had previously experienced – I am generally quite stoic, but these episodes reduced me to tears in the middle of the night. Disk herniation is a common spine condition that causes intense back pain and sciatica. The herniated (bulging) disk impinges on a spinal nerve causing inflammation that in turn increases pressure on the nerve leading to worse pain and inflammation in a vicious cycle. Epidural steroid injections are simple outpatient procedures that are performed in a few minutes without general anesthesia but must be done by a specialist using fluoroscopy (real- time X-ray imaging) to guide the injection to the site of the herniation. By delivering anti-inflammatory steroids to the exact site of the herniation, the epidural injection reduces the inflammation, thereby breaking the vicious cycle of pain and providing short term relief, often to a dramatic extent. In the long term, the patient’s immune system can trim the bulging disc, leading to a full recovery, but it is difficult for that healing process to begin when a patient is struggling with the vicious cycle of painful inflammation worsened by daily activity or impaired sleep. Thus, epidural steroid injection is a straightforward and minimally invasive procedure that can play a critical role in management of a common form of back pain. Pain specialists spend years learning when and how to use this important tool. Shockingly, “epidural steroid injection for pain management” is one of the 17 procedures that will soon require prior authorization for patients in Original (Traditional) Medicare in Washington State, thanks to a new program called WISeR(1) about to be instituted by Dr. Oz, the new Director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMMS). My herniated disk prevented me from sleeping for more than 90 minutes at a time without severe pain for much of this past summer. Because my Washington State town lacks practitioners who offer epidural injection, I tried other approaches for pain relief, including nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory medications, oral steroids, and intra- muscular steroid injections. But after seven weeks of repeated setbacks and severe sleep deprivation, I searched outside our area for the procedure. Because I am on Original Medicare, I was able to choose the best physician for this purpose regardless of location or network affiliation. A highly regarded pain specialist an hour away was able to schedule the initial visit in two weeks and the procedure, which included a diagnostic and therapeutic component, a week later. Within days after the procedure, I was sleeping pain-free for the first time in 10 weeks, and a couple days later I resumed my previous level of exercise. A month out from the procedure, I continue to be pain-free and my spine appears to be well on its way to healing. Under the new WISeR program, Washington State residents on Original Medicare will need prior authorization (PA) to obtain epidural steroid injections for pain management in the future, along with 16 other procedures - a list that could grow over time. Authorization will be decided by companies that use AI to make decisions and will gain profit through denying authorizations. This approach will be modeled on the current use of PA by Medicare Advantage (MA). MA, which is offered by for-profit insurers as an alternative to Original Medicare, has gained attention for the use of PA as a mechanism for enhancing corporate profits(2,3). “Data submitted by MA insurers show that 81.7% of prior authorization denials were overturned in 2023” upon appeal according to a recent article from Healthcare Uncovered (4). The success of most appeals shows that prior authorization denials are often medically inappropriate – in which case why is CMMS replicating MA programs already proven to be problematic (5) and imposing them on Original Medicare? I cannot begin to imagine how much worse it would have made my life to endure weeks or even months of additional excruciating pain and sleep deprivation while awaiting prior authorization and perhaps even an appeal. Is this what our country has come to? Will seniors now be forced to endure pain and illness, while knowing that relief used to be easily available if their physician deemed it necessary? Important procedures will soon be out of reach because our government allows corporations to reap huge profits by denying necessary healthcare. Citations: 1. WISeR Model RFA. Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services. P. 20. https://www.cms.gov/files/document/wiser-model-rfa.pdf 2. Medicare Advantage Plans Often Deny Needed Care, Federal Report Finds. Reed Abelson, The New York Times, April 28, 2022. https://www.nytimes.com/2022/04/28/ health/medicare-advantage-plans- report.html 3. Insurers Pledge to Ease Controversial Prior Approvals for Medical Care. Reed Abelson, The New York Times, June 20, 2025. https://www.nytimes.com/2025/06/20/ health/health-insurance-prior-authori- zation.html 4. CMS is Trying to Expand Prior Authorization in Traditional Medicare Even Though All Data Points Say That’s a Bad Idea. Rachel Madley, Healthcare Uncovered, July 7, 2025. https://healthcareuncovered.substack . com/p/cms-is-trying-to-expand-prior- authorization 5. About the Current Prior Authorization System. AMA Website FixPrior- Auth. https://fixpriorauth.org/issue Jaisri Lingappa is a retired physician and professor of global health, and a member of PSARA's Level the Playing Field task force. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents January 2026 Building Community Power Jay Stansell (Reprinted by permission of the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice) While we have all become accustomed to the workshop labels "Know Your Rights" and "KYR," what we really need to teach each other is our collective "Community Power." Though mechanics of KYR remain key, when we invoke those rights today we will likely face illegal ICE response. Knowing our rights is no longer enough. We now teach and celebrate the Community Power that gives strength to our rights. Community Power strengthens each of us and invites others into our work, so that not one, but many, allies and at-risk Community Members come out to nonviolently face, expose and slow ICE enforcement; so that not one but many activists come out to video-record ICE, send text alerts to neighborhood watch groups; so that we speak to agents in large numbers but one voice: "We don't answer questions! Don't open your doors, ICE is present! You are not welcome in this space, in this community! We want you out of here!" And Community Power expands and grows the resistance. Each one of you has someone for whom you are a role model and an example of how to respond to the darkness around us all. Each of you has many more people who look to you for advice, knowledge and information about the challenges we face. We can bring these family, friends, and colleagues into the movement, and keep building our communities of care, compassion and resistance. The propaganda from ICE and the government wants us to believe that ICE is at war with the "worst of the worst" in our communities, that their numbers are so massive and armored that resistance is futile, when we, the people who live in these communities, know that they are attacking day-care workers, health care aides, roofers, landscapers, and the families that we see, respect and value every day. We train each other in Community Power, because there is strength, beauty and poetry in Community. We are many -- and growing more each day -- and the cruel and uncaring people in power right now are far fewer in comparison, and far less powerful than they believe. Thank you all for the work that you each do. It is a privilege to be among you in the effort to rebuild a better world. I'll close with some words from long-time activist Cleve Jones who spoke at San Franciso's No Kings rally on October 18, which perfectly capture how I view community: The pronouns I use the most are the ones probably understood the least by those in the White House today. They are WE, US and OURS. We are in this together. And it is up to us to be the leaders we need to save our country and our democracy. [...] What will you do to imagine and launch and sustain the massive campaign of nonviolent civil disobedience and non-cooperation that history informs us is now required? Look to your hearts and find the abiding strength that dwells there. Look to the sky and all the magnificent beauty that surrounds us still. Look to those who stand proudly at your shoulders. Look to your ancestors and claim your future. We are the people. Now is the time. This is the moment. Jay Stansell is a retired immigration attorney who has led Know Your Rights trainings with the Jewish Coalition for Immigrant Justice. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents June 2025 North Olympic Peninsula 2025: Rural Resistance! Lisa Dekker Like the rest of Washington State, Clallam County and the Peninsula are reeling from the harms happening now – and those yet to come – from this corrupt regime and their flagrant refusal to follow the law. But we are not taking this lying down. Our residents and our leaders are determined to resist. Olympic National Park, just outside Port Angeles, gets thousands of visitors each year and is an economic engine for the region. It was already unable to meet basic maintenance needs, and reduced staffing will make it worse. In addition, although $80 million was al- ready allocated by Congress to replace the Hurricane Ridge Day Lodge that burned down in 2023, delivery of those dollars is now uncertain. For many years Port Angeles has been a gateway for Canadian visitors via the Coho/BlackBall Ferry that connects us to Victoria, B.C., just 12 miles away. But now, the absurd tariffs and territorial threats coming from #47 have resulted in an understandable backlash of Canadians deciding not to spend their tourist dollars here. This will have grave economic consequences for our restaurants, hotels, and small businesses this summer unless the tariffs are undone. Likely the most unconscionable harms to individuals here would be the drastic cuts to Medicaid in the current Republican budget. With 20 percent of our adults and more than 37 percent of our children dependent on Medicaid in Clallam County alone, the devastation would be felt by thousands here on the Peninsula. So how are we fighting back? There have been sizeable rallies in Port Ange- les, Sequim, and Port Townsend (Jefferson County) that have many new faces and an enthusiastic response from the community. Indivisible Sequim, first begun in 2016, has had a surge of new members and has backed several rallies. One of the largest gatherings in Port Angeles, and the one with the most young people, was a raucous and upbeat march supporting the Olympic National Park and Park staffers who had been abruptly laid off. Clallam Democrats have become re-energized. With the leadership of their Chair, PSARA member Ellen Menshew, they have hosted timely forums and promoted many rallies. With a new online newsletter, Clallam Democrats Rising, plus a blog, a presence on Substack and Blue Sky, and an events calendar, the Dems are keeping members informed and involved. Our three County Commissioners even did their bit with a letter to Senators Murray and Cantwell and Congresswoman Emily Randall, reminding them of the impacts being felt here and asking that they “do all that they can to support our community.” We don’t know what’s next, but here in the northwest corner, we saw that despair became righteous anger, then hope, and now resistance. We are determined to fight back. Lisa Dekker is PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach and a leader of PSARA's Clallam County organizing committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents January 2026 Inside CMS’s Troubling WISeR Vendor List and the Power It Hands to Private Contractors By Seth Glickman, MD, and Rachel Madley, PhD CMS’s chosen WISeR vendors include firms tied to insurer-backed venture funds, former Big Insurance executives and private equity. (Reprinted from HEALTH CARE un-covered) Earlier this year, the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation (CMMI) announced plans to begin the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model in 2026. The model will retain private companies currently using AI to process prior authorizations in the private Medicare Advantage (MA) program to use those processes in the traditional Medicare (TM) program on services that will newly require prior authorization or pre-payment review. As we previously published in HEALTH CARE un-covered , the WISeR model is more than just some small administrative update. The new model dramatically shifts how traditional Medicare patients will access care. Under this demonstration program, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will let private, for-profit contractors and their AI tools decide whether seniors get treatments their doctors recommend – and those contractors will be paid based on how much care they deny. After months of speculation and anticipation, CMS this week announced the private companies selected to participate in the model beginning January 1, 2026. The six companies selected are Cohere Health, Inc., Genzeon Corporation, Humata Health, Inc., Innovaccer Inc., Virtix Health LLC, and Zyter Inc.. Those six companies now have the ability to decide if seniors or people with disabilities in traditional Medicare get the care recommended by their doctors for 17 medical procedures that previously did not require prior authorization. This is a lot of trust to put in private companies, so we dug more into the ones chosen by CMMI to participate in the model. We previously described how insurers and affiliated venture capital firms use their influence and leverage to “self- deal," in effect creating opportunities to boost their profits. The WISeR program and the participants selected appear to follow the same playbook. Most of the companies CMS selected are backed by insurer-linked venture funds or staffed by former insurance industry executives, including from Elevance, Optum, Kaiser, Highmark, and HCSC. For example, Humata Health lists four venture capital firms backed by insurance companies as key investors: Blue Venture Fund (backed by Blue Cross Blue Shield), Optum Ventures (backed by UnitedHealth Group), LRV Health (backed by over 30 health systems and insurers), and Highmark Ventures (backed by Blue Cross Blue Shield insurer Highmark Health). These concerning ties are replicated in other model participants including Cohere Health, which is funded through venture capital and contract ties to Humana, and Innovaccer, which is funded by Kaiser Permanente and Banner. Several already operate in Medicare Advantage, in which private insurers routinely use prior authorization to delay or deny coverage for needed care. Between the lines: WISeR effectively imports the same harmful machinery into traditional Medicare for the first time in the program’s history. Amplifying this concern is that several are pure technology companies without any medical oversight or leadership. This raises serious questions about how they will comply with state and federal regulations requiring licensed clinical personnel to oversee utilization decisions (for good reason). Precious little is known about other participants. The website of one of the participants, Virtix Health, doesn’t disclose any executives or board members. It doesn’t even list a physical address or phone number, and the last time the company uploaded a news story was in 2021. These are hardly things that inspire the public’s confidence about its legitimacy, let alone entrusting it to oversee the care of Medicare beneficiaries. What is known about Virtix Health is that it offers risk adjustment coding services, such as chart reviews, to MA plans. These chart reviews are used by MA insurers to add medical codes to an enrollee’s chart, making them appear sicker than they are in order to receive a higher payment from the government. Overpayments, driven largely by coding intensity, means MA plans will be paid $84 billion more than traditional Medicare in 2025; cumulative overpayments between 2025-2034 could reach $1.2 trillion. CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz pledged in his confirmation hearing to go after excessive coding by insurers, which is at odds with his agency giving a contract for the WISeR model to a company that enables this practice as its main line of business. All this begs the question: How were these companies chosen? It’s an important one, especially given the strong ties between current and past leadership at CMMI and the health insurance and venture capital industries that will profit from this program. We have previously called for the disclosure of financial conflicts of interest in the selection of vendors by health insurers (and in this case CMS, which controls billions of our tax dollars), including any underlying financial relationships with the vendor and/or related investors. CMMI has not disclosed whether or how they managed these potential conflicts of interest in the selection process. The American public deserves to know. A coalition of lawmakers have introduced the Seniors Deserve SMARTER Care Act to stop WISeR before it launches. The lawmakers warn that the model “creates a dangerous incentive to put profits ahead of patients’ health” — and they’re right. At the same time, public confidence in insurers’ use of AI has cratered amid lawsuits and reports of algorithms overriding physicians’ judgment. Even President Trump has blasted insurers as “BIG,”“BAD,” and “money-sucking.” Yet WISeR hands many of these same corporate players a new federal revenue stream — and unprecedented authority over seniors’ care in traditional Medicare, which has historically been a safe haven from Big Insurance meddling in coverage. But now, with CMS barreling toward a January 2026 launch, we know, for the first time, exactly which companies will have that power. Editor's Note: Virtix Health is the company selected by CMS to determine prior authorization In Washington State. Rachel Madley, PhD, is Director of Policy and Advocacy at the Center for Health & Democracy. She previously worked for Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal. She received her PhD from Columbia University and has written for publications including The New York Times. Seth Glickman, MD, is a former insurance and health system senior executive. He now is a researcher and advocate for reform in the health care finance space. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents August 2025 The One Big Beautiful Billionaire Act: Tax Breaks for the Wealthy Paid for by the Rest of Us Rick Timmins The recently passed Republican budget plan is touted as a reduction in government spending and in taxes, and indeed it succeeds. It drastically reduces spending on social programs like Medicaid, Medicare, and Education and sets the stage for major cuts in Social Security. The tax reductions significantly benefit wealthy individuals and corporations. The bill is said to be the largest transfer of wealth from the poor to the wealthy in American history. So how exactly are we paying to increase the wealth of the American kakistocracy? The bill has hundreds of provisions, stretching over approximately 900 pages, but this article will focus on the most malevolent aspects that will have the greatest impact on healthcare, the environment, and the economy. Healthcare takes a big hit. Sixteen million people will lose their health insurance through the Affordable Care Act or Medicaid, according to the Congressional Budget Office. There will be an increase of 51,000 preventable deaths due to loss of insurance and other aspects of the legislation. Those with the lowest incomes and the greatest needs will suffer the most. Medicaid spending will be reduced by $793 billion over 10 years, and there will be 10.3 million fewer enrollees. A total of 2.3 million Medicaid enrollees, including 1.3 million dual-eligible individuals (those with limited resources who qualify for both Medicaid and Medicare), will lose benefits due to delayed implementation of two Biden-era rules designed to reduce administrative barriers. The loss of coverage cascades into the loss of access to the Medical Savings Program and the Low Income Subsidy, which help pay for copays and drugs. Preventable deaths occur when healthcare and medication are inaccessible. Five and a half million people will suffer increased food insecurity by losing SNAP benefits due to reduction in spending for food aid by $300 billion, more stringent rules regarding work requirements, citizenship, and shifting program costs to states. Medicaid cuts of $465 million in 2026 will result in average yearly losses of 56 percent of hospitals’ net income which, in addition to the loss of Medicaid coverage by rural residents, will put 300-500 rural hospitals at risk of closure. The American Hospital Association (AHA) and state-level hospital groups have warned that the act could destabilize access to care in dozens of states, especially in regions already struggling with physician shortages. Medicare does not escape the Republican wrath. Legislative rules mandate that if a bill increases the budget deficit, it must be made up through automatic “sequestration” cuts. The budget increases the deficit by over $3.3 trillion. There is a limitation on Medicare cuts of four percent, amounting to $45 billion in 2026. The CBO estimates the total 10-year cuts would equal $490 billion, which will shorten the viability of the Trust Fund. Our health, of course, is interconnected with the environment, and this bill is dedicated to making it unhealthy. It repeals or phases out most clean energy tax credits introduced under the Inflation Reduction Act, including those for electric vehicles (EVs), solar panels, wind farms, and battery storage. It also introduces new taxes on renewable energy infrastructure, while expanding fossil fuel incentives, including credits for domestic coal and oil production. This undermines grid reliability and will increase electricity prices by 19% by 2030 and more than 60% by 2035. This disproportionately affects lower- income Americans. The Billionaire Bill will also result in more forest fires by eliminating $50 million for the management and protection of old-growth forests on National Forest System land. The intent is to cut the funding protecting the forests, open the areas for logging and development, and eliminate the environmental reviews. It is well-established that uncontrolled logging increases fire risk. This bill will reverse recent environmental progress, increase US carbon emissions by up to 574 million metric tons by 2035, potentially lead to the extensive destruction of carbon-sequestering forests, increase pollution from smoke and gas-powered vehicles, and contribute to atmospheric warming, all of which are devastating to health. The Billionaire Bill will also bring us an unhealthy economy. These provisions deliver substantial tax savings for high-income earners and corporations. Analyses show that 70% of the tax benefits flow to the top 20% of earners, with the top 1% alone receiving nearly 20% of the overall relief. Meanwhile, middle-class families see modest gains, and many lower-income households actually lose net benefits due to cuts to programs like Medicaid and SNAP. Increasing medical expenses due to loss of insurance or access to medicalcare will further decrease the economic resilience of the majority of Americans. The financial inequity in the country will expand. Because Trump’s budget will add between $3.3 trillion and $4.5 trillion to the national debt over the next decade, debt-to-GDP is now projected to reach 126% by 2034, raising concerns among fiscal conservatives and global investors. Job losses are expected in both the healthcare and clean energy sectors, with estimates suggesting up to one million jobs lost by 2030 due to program cuts and reduced investment. Only the greediest of the top 20% of earners (and the Trump cultists) will consider this bill “Beautiful.” Keep in mind that the crumbs tossed to the rest of us, like eliminating tax on tips or overtime pay, car loan interest deduction, “Trump accounts for kids,” the “bonus deduction” of $6,000 for those over 65 years, are all restricted and phase out in 2028. In conclusion, the Big Billionaire Bill increases the wealth of the richest Americans, takes away healthcare and other essential services from the rest of us, destroys the environment, increases pollution and global warming, and raises the national debt, thereby putting the national economy at risk of inflation and/or recession. Rick Timmins is a member of PSARA's Level the Playing Field Task Force. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents June 2026 Join Us for Juneteenth! Saturday, June 20, 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. New Hope Missionary Baptist Church 124 21st Avenue, Seattle With Special Guest Mr. Delbert Richardson We invite you and your neighbors, family, friends, and fellow workers to a very special Juneteenth celebration. This year, PSARA is honored to feature Mr. Delbert Richardson. Mr. Richardson is a Community Scholar, Ethnomuseumologist, and Second-Generation Storyteller, of the “Unspoken Truths”: National Award-Winning American History Traveling Museum. With the use of authentic artifacts, storyboards, and the ancient art of "storytelling," Richardson teaches "American History" through an Afrocentric lens. His work is broken into four sections: Mother Africa, which focuses on the many contributions by Africans in the area of science, technology engineering, art, and mathematics (S.T.E.A.M.); American Chattel Slavery, the brutal treatment and psychological impacts on African Americans of the Diaspora; The Jim Crow Era, the racial caste system that focused on the creation and enforcement of legalized segregation; Still We Rise, which focuses on the many contributions in the Americas, Black inventors/inventions. Richardson's work is primarily geared towards K-12th grade students as well as professional development training. For his work, Richardson has received a truly astonishing series of awards: 2013 National Campus Compact Newman Fellows Award 2017 National Education Assoc. (NEA) Human and Civil Rights Award 2019 Seattle Mayor Arts Award 2019 Seattle Crosscut Courage in Culture Award 2020 Assoc. of King County Org. (AKCHO) Heritage Education Award 2020 National Marquis Who's Who Award 2021 Governor's Arts & Heritage "spotlight" Award 2021 Kwanzaa "Imani" Award 2021 Museum of History and Industry (MOHAI) Educator of The Year 2022 Seattle Public Schools Dept. of Racial Equity Advancement (DREA) Outstanding Educator Award 2023 Sri Chinmoy Oneness-home Peace Run Award 2023 Certificate of Achievement/Cultural Space Agency 2024 WASA (Wash. Assoc. of School Administrators) Certificate Of Merit 2024 PSESD (Puget Sound Ed. Service Dept.) Transformational Partner Leadership Award PSARA thanks Mr. Delbert Richardson; our host, Pastor Robert Jeffrey, Sr., and New Hope Missionary Baptist Church; Faith Action Network; and the Abe Keller Peace Foundation. < Back to Table of Contents