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The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents April 2025 PSARA to Olympia Lawmakers: “No Cutbacks! Tax the Rich!" Tim Wheeler Beaming with delight, GRC Committee Chair Pam Crone greeted a crowd of grassroots lobbyists gathered in a conference roomof the Washing- ton State Labor Council in Olympia, on Mar. 18. The African American, Asian American, Latino, and white activists were reporting back on their meetings with Washington State legislators to press their demands for increased funding for healthcare, public schools, rent stabilization for people who live in manufactured homes, and a wealth tax. They were all participants in PSARA Lobby Day, including activists from Seattle, Tacoma, Gig Harbor, and other cities andtowns. A delegation of five PSARA members drove down from Port Angeles, Sequim, and Port Townsend. “We had meetings with38 legislators and their staff,” Crone exclaimed. “One staffer told me, ‘You guys are everywhere!’” Crone, PSARA’s former lobbyist, urged the crowd to keep the pressure on. She warned against Republican schemes to bury legislation with crippling amendments proposed to stall passage until the 90-day legislative session ends. She hailed Senateapproval by a landslide vote of 30 to 19 Senate Joint Measure 8002. SJM 8002, now pending in the House, urges the WashingtonCongressional delegation, President Trump, the House, and the Senate, calling on them and CMS to halt privatization ofMedicare, and to enact measures to “level the playing field” between so-called Medicare Advantage (MA) and traditional Medicare. The measure urges Congress to cap out- of-pocket costs. It would eliminate the need for supplemental insurance that traditionalMedicare recipients must purchase. SJM 8002 also calls for adding to traditional Medicare dental, vision, and hearing benefitsoffered by MA. David Loud, a member of the PSARA Board and a leader of Health Care Is a Human Right, said SJM 8004, which urges theCongress to sup- port universal health care, was approved by the State Senate, 30 to19. Advocates of Medicare for All will rally on the steps of the Capitol in Olympia on April 2 to urge approval of universal health care in Washington State, Loud said. Rep.Pra- mila Jayapal, Democrat from Washington’s 7th Congressional District, is the author of Expanded and Improved Medicarefor All, which will be introduced in the US Congress. Bobby Righi of Seattle, Co-Chair of PSARA’s Climate & Environmental Justice Committee, told the debriefing that lawmakers in her legislative district support PSARA’s legislative agenda. And one legislator was clearly distressed about Gov. Bob Ferguson’sstate budget with $4 billion in cuts. Coupled with the enormous cuts to health, education, and welfare programs inflicted by theTrump-Musk Administration, it adds up to disaster for the poor, the sick, children, and the elderly. “ It is going to take hard work to come up with a budget compromise,” she said. “We have to put pressure on Ferguson.” Michael Righi warned that an atmosphere of doom is hanging over the legislature. He pointed out that there is no economicrecession, no lack of wealth that could be taxed to pay for these life and death programs. “We should have the position: NO CUTS!” he said. The crowd erupted in applause. These warnings were on display in earlier sessions. A lawmaker from LD 24 told the delegation from the Olympic Peninsula that “Ferguson is strangely silent on the (Wealth) Tax bill,” which the LD-24 legislator promised to support. He spoke atlength about the worsening budget crisis with cutbacks in vital programs that serve children, the elderly, and the poor, and the Ferguson conundrum: He ran as a progressive yet now governs as a “fiscal conservative,” proposing budget cutbacks cheered by the MAGA Republicans. Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer, a former legislator, told the PSARA delegation, “Our health care system is morally bankrupt.” She spoke of her being born prematurely with many life-threatening problems. She became “a proponent of universal health care where everyone has access.” Health care, sheadded, should not be a field for “making profits…This should be a country that cares about people.” When she was a legislator, she told her constituents, “Out of 400,000 people I represent, only 400 were impacted by thecapital gains tax...I want taxes to go to health care, education.” It will mean, she added, “A robust economy, poverty plummeting, crime in decline.” Her aide, Bryon Welch, said a delegation from the Insurance Commission is headed to the nation’s capital to meet with theWashington State congressional delegation to urge them to take action against the “relentless, misleading ads for MedicareAdvantage. We are going to Washington D.C. to make sure that Medicare is not completely privatized.” Robby Stern, President of the PSARA Education Fund, presented him with Give Us a Real Choice, a 63-page PSARA primer onthe urgent need to “level the playing field” between traditional Medicare and MA. Stern said the book “lays out very clearly ourmembers who have had problems with Medicare Advantage. We’re not saying eliminate Medicare Advantage, but what we are saying is that senior citizens should have a real choice.” Later, the delegation gathered in the Capitol building to hear House Speaker Laurie Jinkins. “We prefer progressive taxes ratherthan budget cuts,” she said. “Start building on the taxes we already have, the Capital Gains Tax.” The crowd erupted in applause.“When you build support for programs that people want, they are willing to pay taxes to pay for them.” PSARA Co-President Karen Richter urged Jinkins to push SJM 8002. It is necessary, Richter said. “We really need the backing ofthe State Legislature to exert pressure on Washington D.C. to take action to level the playing field.” Tim Wheeler is a veteran activist and journalist, a member of PSARA's Executive Board, and a leader of PSARA organizing in Clallam County. < Back to Table of Contents

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 November 2025 Aaron Leonard's Menace of Our Time: The Long War Against American Communism Mike Andrew Aaron Leonard has made a career documenting the US government’s war against domestic radicals. His first two books – Heavy Radicals: The FBI’s Secret War on America’s Maoists and A Threat of the First Magnitude, FBI Counterintelligence & Infiltration – focus on the Maoist Revolutionary Communist Party (RCPUSA), of which Leonard was a member. His next two – The Folk Singers and the Bureau and Whole World in an Uproar: Music, Rebellion & Repression – tell the story of FBI surveillance of American musicians and cultural figures. Leonard’s latest book – Menace of Our Time: The Long War Against American Communism – documents US government attacks on the oldest US communist organization, CPUSA. Although no American communist organization today has anywhere near the numbers or influence that CPUSA gained in the 1940s, while the US was aligned with the Soviet Union against Nazi Germany, recent political developments suggest that we could learn some lessons about the danger of government surveillance from the past. Leonard’s books, then, should be required reading for members of any progressive organization that seeks to challenge the Trump regime. Basing his revelations on public information requests from the US government, Leonard offers an inside look at the tactics used by the government to attack – not just the CPUSA – but many anti-fascist and anti-war organizations. In his newest book, Leonard outlines the practical means used to attack communists and progressives: Federal laws – the Hatch Act, the Smith Act, the McCarran Act – that defined “anti-American” actions in very broad terms that gave the government free rein to prosecute anyone they wanted; Use of federal agents to infiltrate the CPUSA and other organizations. Entrapment of US civilians so as to force them into becoming informers; Incitement of mob violence against communists and their progressive allies. The spies and informers employed by the US government often reported only the vaguest charges against the subjects of their investigations. And without revealing their own identities so their reports could never be questioned. For example, Leonard reproduces this section from an FBI document: “Edward G. Robinson has been identified as a Communist by Informant REDACTED. Charles Chaplin, according to REDACTED, may or may not be a member of the Communist Party. However REDACTED has stated that Chaplin has financed the West Coast Communist newspaper People’s World…John Garfield, according to the informant REDACTED has been affiliated with the Actors Laboratory, the Young Communist League, the Hollywood Anti-Nazi League, the Hollywood Democratic Committee, and the Hollywood Independent Citizens Committee for the Arts, Sciences and Professions.” Sound familiar? Is Antifa a terrorist organization? Is Zohran Mamdani a communist? On the basis of allegations like these, public figures were pressured to renounce their affiliations with communist or communist-adjacent groups, and to inform on their former colleagues. Hollywood director Elia Kazan is perhaps the most notorious example, but there were many others. Leonard shows how the FBI also manipulated ordinary people into becoming informers. Take for example the case of John Lautner, a Hungarian-born American communist who was suspected by Hungarian communists of being a US spy. The FBI threatened to deport him to Hungary – where he assumed he’d be shot – unless he gave them the names of all the communists he knew. “Among those he identified were the writers Lillian Hellman, Dashiell Hammett, Mark Blitzstein, and Howard Fast,” Leonard writes. “He also named the folk singer Woody Guthrie as well as actors James Cagney, John Garfield, Will Geer, and Jose Ferrer; and the scholar W.E.B. DuBois.” Leonard also reveals that Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were fingered by Ethel’s brother, David Greenglass. Greenglass’ wife, Ruth, recruited him to steal information from his job at the Los Alamos nuclear lab, and give it to the USSR. To protect his wife from federal prosecution, Greenglass offered the FBI his sister and brother-in-law, the Rosenbergs. Leonard continues his narrative through the collapse of the USSR in 1991, carefully documenting the COINTELPRO offensive against radical and anti-war groups in the 1960s. Leonard's book stands as a timely warning of the lengths the govern- ment will go to to maintain "the social order." Anyone who organizes for social change should read it. Mike Andrew is the Editor of the Advocate and Executive Director of PSARA < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents February 2025 PSARA Members On Your Mark “Ready, Set, Go!” Pam Crone The 2025 legislative session began January 13. PSARA activists prepped for advocacy action on January 7 at our annual legislative conference. 2025 PSARA Legislative Conference I exaggerate only a tad to say it was SRO at the Seattle office of the Washington State Labor Council on Tuesday, January 7. What a fabulous turnout! We convened at noon, chatted and filled our plates (sometimes two times, but who’s counting) with yummy treats. GRC member Tim Burns cooked up a crockpot of his famous beans, and vegetarian to boot. Jessica Bonebright has perfected the art of making deviled eggs, a personal favorite. It was lovely to be in person, break bread together, and enjoy each other’s fellowship. Mike Andrew, our intrepid executive director, and Karen Richter, our gracious and brilliant co-president welcomed attendees. Members came from far and wide representing 14 legislative districts. Former Speaker Frank Chopp and Senator Bob Hasegawa shared heartfelt words. We honored Frank with a photograph of PSARA activists along with him at the House of Representatives dais from a past Lobby Day. Nancy Sapiro, our lobbyist, gave an overview of the session and what we might expect. Yours truly unveiled PSARA’s 2025 legislative agenda as a work in progress. Below you can find the latest iteration. At 2:15 p.m., running overtime a bit, PSARA members headed home with full heads, hearts, and bellies. Please visit our informative and engaging PSARA website for the PowerPoint created for the conference presentation by Paul Muldoon. You will also find results of our member survey that informed our legislative priorities. Eighty-nine members responded. YOUR VOICE MATTERS! Thank you so much. Next Up: LOBBY DAY March 18 Mark your calendars and make sure you register. The deadline for Retiree Advocate articles was Jan. 14, so stay tuned to your inbox for messages from Mike with additional details regarding transportation, timing, legislator meetings, and other logistics. Base Camp will be the Olympia Washington State Labor Council office. We start the day there with an overview of the day’s activities before heading off to campus for meetings with legislators. We plan to meet with both Senate and House leadership and Patty Kuderer, our new Office of Insurance Com- missioner. Participants will also have meetings with their representatives and senators. There will be hearings we can sit in on as well. Front and center, we will be building relationships with our legislators. We will do that by sharing and advocating for our legislative priorities. The GRC will prep participants with talking points on our legislative priorities and tips for how to speak with legislators. We will do a virtual training before Lobby Day so you feel confident and good to go in Olympia. March 18 will be a great day for advocacy. We will know what bills are still alive as cut-off for bills to be out of their house of origin is February 21. Our advocacy is necessary for continuing progress on our priorities so that bills pass the second house and make it to Governor Ferguson’s desk for signature. Budget and revenue talk will be heating up. Uncertainty at the Federal Level and Final Words The November election brought us a solid Democratic trifecta at the state level, but not so in the other Washing- ton. The D.C. administration will not be a friend to Washington State. We are not sure how that will play out, but our top priorities will be protecting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid and supporting vulnerable communities. PSARA is an amazing organization. We don’t have to look back far to recognize our impact. We mobilized and organized for months to defeat three of the four conservative, backward-looking initiatives in the November election. When we stand together we create ripples that become waves and change lives for the better. Thank you all. PSARA 2025 Legislative Agenda PSARA is a multi-generational grass roots organization advocating for all people, and seniors in particular, to be able to live their lives with economic security, dignity, and respect. Health Care PSARA believes that comprehensive, affordable, accessible, and culturally appropriate health care is a fundamental human right. Promote Leveling the Playing Field in Medicare SJM 8002 Protect against healthcare program cuts and advance immigrant health equity Support efforts to advance universal healthcare SJM 8004 Ensure quality affordable health care for nursing home workers (WA Essential Worker Healthcare Program) Strengthen and protect WA Cares Housing and Homelessness PSARA supports keeping people housed, building more low-income housing, and preventing homelessness in the first place. Ensure reasonable and more predictable rent increases by passing rent stabilization Invest $500 million in the Housing Trust Fund RA supports legislation that promotes healthy families and workplaces. Extend job protection in the Family & Medical Leave Program to ensure low wage earners can return to their jobs after leave to care for themselves or family members Extend unemployment benefits to striking workers and undocumented workers Build economic security for low-income families by creating the Washington Future Fund Program (Baby bonds) Climate and Environmental Justice PSARA supports the right of all people to live and work in a clean and healthy environment. Divest Washington State Investment Board (WSIB) funds from fossil fuels (No Coal Act) Add a Green Amendment to the Washington State Constitution Improve solid waste management outcomes by reducing use of plastic wrap and containers Fiscal Reform and Revenue PSARA supports a state budget that is transparent, pays a living wage to state workers, and provides services that help our people, economy, and environment thrive. Prevent devastating budget cuts by providing new progressive revenues such as a wealth tax that taxes extraordinary financial assets Pam Crone is Chair of PSARA's Government Relations Committee and a member of PSARA's Executive Board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents December 2025 Resistance In Washington State Grows Cindy Domingo Resistance is spreading across the US including the major cities whereTrump has sent federal troops and/or the National Guard. Washington State organizations and coalitions are organizing to protect their communities from a potential troop deployment. PSARA is focusing our work on the Free Washington Project (FWP). The Project has called for the formation of a Coordinating Council to grow a grassroots network in Washington State to resist authoritarian and anti-democratic actions of the Trump administration, and the agenda of Project 2025. FWP will coordinate efforts with other stakeholders to stand against military escalation and criminalization of protest. Initiated by Washington State Standing for Democracy, the Free Washington Project has been inspired by Free DC, Hands Off NYC, Bay Resistance, and organizations united in Los Angeles, Portland, and Chicago. Discussions with activists and organizers from these cities have enabled the organizers at the center of FWP to glean important lessons in building a popular front. First, FWP seeks to prevent the sending of troops and second, if troops are sent, to build a coordinated response to protect vulnerable communities and to ensure our response is nonviolent. The FWP is building a Coordinating Council that is multi-racial and multi-sectoral that can grow resilience and mutual support across communities and the state. Through coordinated actions and events and sharing resources and announcements, we can broaden the base of resistance beyond those organizations that are the most active currently in the anti-fascist movement. The FWP is launching a website ( freeWAproject.org ) to act as a clearing house to amplify the efforts of those organizing around the state. It will be a resource to announce actions, events, and trainings, intended to build resistance to Project 2025, even more broadly than its attacks against immigrants. Trainings can include non-violent civil disobedience, building rapid response networks, and de-escalation tactics. The six points of unity for joining FWP are: Commitment to non-violence to ensure the success of actions; Commitment to building a coordinated response against the use of military or militarized units of federal or federalized forces in Washington State; Commitment to solidarity, based on respect for diverse tactics and plans by various groups, avoidance of public criticisms, or debates within our movements; Opposition to any state repression that seeks to surveil, infiltrate, disrupt, and cause violence to our movement; Build the broadest resistance to authoritarian actions of the administration by utilizing the website as a resource for members of FWP; Promoting community by building the broadest coalition that is multi-racial, multi-cultural, multi-sectoral, multi-generational, and internationalist in composition and viewpoint. The coalition will honor the leadership of those most impacted by the policies currently being implemented under Project 2025. While Standing for Democracy’s main emphasis will be to build a Coordinating Council of FWP, it is important to continue to build ties with other organizational efforts that have intersecting interests with FWP. One important formation, chaired by One America, is the Statewide Immigration Table: Rapid Mobilization which is focusing on a plan should federal troops be deployed to Washington State. Composed mainly of immigrant rights groups, ACLU and Indivisible representatives, the Table focuses on attacks on immigrant communities. As a leader in immigrant justice, One America is also building a communications plan with elected officials and media. WAISN (Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network) is launching a statewide membership group focused on large-scale raids by ICE. Standing for Democracy continues its ongoing committee work through People’s Assemblies for Democracy, Affirmative Resistance, as well as a general membership education session on the last Wednesday of each month. If you are interested in attending Standing for Democracy meetings and/ or finding out more information about the Coordinating Council of the Free Washington Project, please contact Cindy Domingo at 206.856.0324 or standingfordemocracy053@gmail.com . Cindy Domingo is a veteran activist with LELO (Legacy of Equality, Leadership & Organizing) and APALA (Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance), and PSARA's Co-VP for Outreach < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents December 2025 Letter from State Medical Associations: "The WISeR Model expands the burdensome prior authorization processes that physicians already experience in Medicare Advantage" October 31, 2025 Dr. Mehmet Oz Administrator Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services 7500 Security Boulevard Baltimore, MD 21244 Dear Dr. Oz, On behalf of the undersigned state medical associations, we write to raise concerns about the prior authorization (PA) pilot under the WISeR model as it relates to Medicare. While our organizations appreciate the aim of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to increase accountability, value in healthcare delivery for Medicare beneficiaries, and reduce spending on services deemed low-value or wasteful, we believe the current design of this pilot risks unintended consequences including delayed care, reduced access, and increased burdens on both patients and physicians. Moreover, we are deeply concerned by both the lack of operational details released to date and the pace at which CMS is advancing a program of this magnitude, particularly one that shifts critical decisions away from physicians and patients – without sufficient transparency, stakeholder input, or evidence it will improve patient care. Administrative burden placing barriers to patient access Our organizations are concerned that the WISeR Model expands the burdensome PA processes that physicians already experience in Medicare Advantage (MA) and the commercial insurance markets into Traditional Medicare. The demonstration represents significant departures from current standards and seems to conflict with CMS’ recent, highly laudable achievement of securing a commitment from the health insurance industry to fix the broken PA process, to include reducing the overall volume of PA requirements. PA has consistently been identified by physicians as one of the most burdensome and disruptive administrative requirements they face in providing quality care to patients. In a 2024 American Medical Association survey, 93 percent of physicians reported that PA causes care delays, 82 percent indicated that the process can lead to treatment abandonment, and an alarming 29 percent said that PA had led to a serious adverse event (hospitalization, disability, or even death) for a patient in their care. Beyond the risk for patient harm, expansion of PA requirements under the WISeR model will exacerbate the administrative burdens already associated with PA. Surveyed physicians reported major burdens associated with this process, with practices completing an average of 39 PAs per physician, per week. This significant workload requires practices to hire additional personnel, with 40 percent of the surveyed physicians reporting that their practice employs staff who work exclusively on PA. Growing evidence linking practice burdens to professional burnout for physicians and other health care professionals underscores the importance of addressing administrative workloads. The introduction of such PA protocols in Traditional Medicare also risks creating unnecessary delays in patient care, increasing practice expenses, and diverting time and resources away from direct patient care. Our organizations recognize that CMS intends to use artificial intelligence and machine learning tools in the WISeR Model to help identify potentially unnecessary services more efficiently and consistently than manual reviews alone. We appreciate that technological advances can appropriately create efficiencies when applied responsibly and transparently. However, reliance on AI and other automated tools raise significant risks if not governed properly. We are also concerned that the vendor incentive structure within the WISeR Model could result in excessive denials motivated more by the potential for vendor profit than by fair and balanced clinical judgment. When third-party entities are paid based on the volume of denied services, there is a clear risk that care that is medically necessary for certain patients will be inappropriately denied in pursuit of savings. Physicians are committed to delivering high-quality, evidence-based care to Medicare beneficiaries. However, the prior authorization pilot risks creating barriers to care, undermining patient outcomes, and imposing unsustainable administrative demands on practices. We respectfully urge CMS to cease implementation and work collaboratively with stakeholders to design payment processes that protect the Medicare Trust Fund while achieving value, without jeopardizing patient access. Sincerely, James Jameson, MD President, Arizona State Medical Association John Bastulli, MD, FASA President, Ohio State Medical Association Bridget Bush, MD, FASA President, Washington State Medical Association Peter Blumenthal, MD President, Medical Society of New Jersey Sumit Nanda, MD President, Oklahoma State Medical Association < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents May 2025 It’s A Stew: Part 2 the Almost Final 2025 Legislative Report Pam Crone Long sessions are just that… long. As of this writing, 10 days remain in the 2025 legislative session. Cut-offs have come and gone, and we are now in the final stretch. So, what’s not left to do, rather than what is? The Elephant in the Room In short, Washington faces a daunting revenue deficit of $15–$16 billion over the next four years. Legislators have one constitutional duty during odd numbered years: to pass a budget for the state’s operations over the two-year cycle. Everything else is “fluff,” so to speak. That’s not to say policy doesn’t matter – it does. But without the revenue to run government operations, there will be no new programs. And in this cycle, we could see significant cuts to essential services. Revenue bills were not subject to the April 16 cut-off because they are considered NTIB – “necessary to implement the budget.” Over the next 10 days, both chambers will hear and vote on a package of bills aimed at easing the budget shortfall. The final mix of cuts and new revenue that both the House and Senate can agree on – and that Governor Ferguson will sign – is still uncertain. Governor Ferguson first ruled out a wealth tax, and with business lobbying hard against a payroll tax, House and Senate budget leaders went back to the drawing board and cobbled together a new set of taxes. As of this writing, the governor finds that plan “too risky.” He didn’t rule out all progressive revenue options, but finding enough revenue to offset the deepest cuts remains a daunting task. As of April 18, a resolution has yet to emerge, so ending on time April 27 is not a slam-dunk. The 2025 Washington State legislative session has unfolded in a bleak national context. The federal landscape is in disarray, and we are only four months into this administration. I won’t rehash the endless stream of “terribles.” We are all acutely aware of the federal government’s ongoing assaults on people, the environment, and the rule of law. Our state leaders don’t have a crystal ball. Whatever budget they finalize in these closing days won’t fully capture the effects of the broader federal economic and social turmoil – on-again, off-again tariffs; mass layoffs; and more. And then there are the looming Medicaid cuts. In Washington State, 1.8 million residents rely on Medicaid for health care– ourselves, our families, our neighbors. In fiscal year 2023, the state received $12.5 billion in federal Medicaid funding. If that funding disappears, the state cannot close the gap. The suffering will be immense. This is not a rosy picture. We are organizing now to advocate with our federal congressional delegation to stop these cuts. If they go through, the state legislature may have to reconvene in a special session to address the budget crisis. Some Wins Despite the tough climate, we’ve made good progress on our legislative priorities. Our April midway report outlined the bills still alive – and a few that didn’t make it. A high priority was SJM 8002, Protecting Medicare by Leveling the Playing Field. It did not make It out of the second house by cut-off April 16, but will be reintroduced, hopefully, in 2026. It goes back to the Senate where it must be passed again. The following PSARA priority bills passed both houses and are big wins: SJM 8004 – Supporting efforts to advance Universal Healthcare SB 5291 – Strengthening and protecting WA Cares HB 1491 – Creating affordable housing near transit HB 1213 – Extending job protection in the Family & Medical Leave program SB 5041 – Extending unemployment benefits to striking workers SB 5284 – Reducing plastic waste through better solid waste management SJM 8004 bypasses the Governor’s Office and is transmitted directly to Congress, the President, and the Secre- taries of Labor and Health and Human Services. The other bills are headed to Governor Ferguson. He can sign them, veto them, or let them pass into law without a signature. Depending on when the bills land on his desk, he has either 5 or 20 days to act. Note: He has section veto power on these bills, un- like the line-item veto he holds for the budget. HB 1217, the rent stabilization bill, is still in limbo as of this writing. Originally a House bill, it was significantly weakened in the Senate. The House is expected to reject those amendments, sending the bill to a conference committee. The conference committee, made up of Senators and Representatives, will hash out a compromise for an up or down vote by the two chambers. We are hoping for a strong bill that keeps renters housed by stabilizing rent increases. 2026 Revival Bills that didn’t make it this year can be reintroduced during the 2026 short session (60 days). They’ll retain the same bill numbers and hopefully see better results. As always, stay tuned. Pam Crone is a retired lobbyist and Chair of PSARA's Government Relations Committee (GRC). < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents August 2025 Social Security: A detailed behind-the-curtain look at what's going on, posted by a Social Security Administration worker Anonymous I have not posted about my federal agency in a while. Here is why: we lost 94% of the staff in my regional office in the last two and half months. An office of 550 is now less than 2 dozen. One group of folks retired or quit. Another group were given directed reassignments to headquarters components (but did not have to physically move). A third (largest) group was bullied and pressured into “volunteering” to take front-line, public-facing jobs. Many of these folks had never worked in direct service before, and others took significant downgrades to positions from which they were promoted years or even decades before. So basically we’ve been in an inadvertent devolution exercise for the past 3 months. It’s exhausting and traumatic. I’m simultaneously enraged and grieving all of the time. All of my energy is spent on – I don’t even know what. Survival? Putting out fires? Offloading work? Responding to emails that 550 staff used to respond to? Here is a long catch-up post. The Trump administration continues to assert that Social Security is not being touched and that there have been no field office closures. While it is true that there have not been field office closures recently, there are closures and these are completely destroying the infrastructure of the agency. In order to be invisible to the public, the cuts are happening at regional and national offices that provide support to our front line staff. The destruction at SSA is designed to be off the public radar. What is happening at SSA is happening to other agencies as well – like NPS, HUD, EPA, etc. Here is some granular info: SSA used to have 10 regional offices. We are now down to 4. The 4 remaining are in hospice care. We no longer have enough staff to even triage. In my newly consolidated region, we had 550 employees in March. We now have less than 24. The remaining two dozen staff are trying to support the operations of 10,000 employees in 20 states. The other three remaining regional offices are similarly gutted. What do employees in regional offices do? These mission critical employees support the front lines; we provide computer hardware and software support, provide policy advice and guidance, train new employees, train journey level employees on new or changing policies and regulations, work with landlords and GSA, contract with guards, hire new staff, oversee labor and employee relations, allocate budget, overtime, and staffing, monitor spending, monitor for fraud, etc. We will not properly function without regional offices. We are being dismantled, physically and organizationally. Employees are psychologically gutted. Deep grief, anger, distrust. Russel Vought's plan to traumatize the workforce is working. Everyday there is an employee on the other end of the phone or video call that is crying, or telling me about their sky-rocketing blood pressure, about new anti-depressants and anti-anxiety prescriptions or increasing dosages, about their family begging them to quit or retire because it is not worth their health. It is frustrating that both the media and congressional staff keep asking only about how cuts are impacting the public. They are missing the bigger picture. It’s hard to explain what Social Security regional offices do as a lot of it is behind the scenes. We don’t interview the public or process claims, but here are some things we (used to) do that directly impacted payments and prevented fraud. As a result they are not getting done at all. Troubleshoot W2s and FICA tax issues with employers – these are both mom & pop small businesses as well as large employers like Boeing and Amazon. Interface with the state governments on Food Stamps, SNAP, WASHCAP, etc. Coordinate with state child support enforcement on garnishments. Field inquiries from state L&I on worker’s comp issues. Manage Section 218 agreements that state and local entities use to with- hold Social Security taxes from wages. Work with fisheries, farmers, and advocate groups on special Social Security number applications and non-work number cases. Liaison with state vocational rehabilitation. Work with states on Medicaid pass- along agreements. Interface with CMS and state healthcare entities on Medicare. Work with jails to support pre-release agreements as well as to obtain info when individuals are incarcerated and not entitled to benefits. Negotiate with state and local governments to obtain safe and protected data exchange agreements. Resolve attorney fee issues with disability attorneys. Ensure that Social Security over- payments are not discharged and are recouped in bankruptcy cases. Respond to FOIA requests. Headquarters components are also being hollowed out. Not only have they also lost employees to DRP, VSIP, and reassignments, they have been massively reorganized to the extent that there is no longer structural integrity. Staff have been scattered. Workloads are likewise scattered but have not always followed the staff that were scattered. We no longer know who “owns” what. Workload X used to be Department A’s responsibility but Department A is now Department Omega and the group who used to run it in Department A are no longer there. The work may still be in Department Omega or it could have moved to Department B except Department B is now gone too and maybe it’s in Department Beta? The regional offices are trying to move work to headquarters since there is no one left in regional offices but we don’t know who is left and where anything remains in headquarters either. All of this is invisible to the public because field offices continue to function at the moment. It is insidious. We are still in a freefall and haven’t hit bottom yet. There is no talk of rebuilding. We are not there. Elon may have left, but DOGE has not. < 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 December 2025 Election 2025: So Many Questions Mike Andrew There's something happening here But what it is ain't exactly clear Buffalo Springfield, For What It’s Worth When Stephen Stills wrote those words in 1966, he was thinking of teenagers re- belling on Sunset Strip. But we could say the same thing about the 2025 elections. Sure, let’s celebrate – the election was a stunning repudiation of Trumpism. In some places it also seems to be an embrace of progressive people-centered politics. But, in my opinion, the results are deeply contradictory. In the headline news of the night, Zohran Mamdani was elected mayor of New York. In Seattle, Katie Wilson – called a “white, female Mamdani” by the Daily Mail – was also elected. In Tacoma too, Anders Ibsen beat a pro-business incumbent on promises of more people-oriented government. Democratic Party leaders are claiming the election as a huge victory and a harbinger of even greater success in the mid-term elections next year. Their lips to the voters’ ears. But the Democratic Party is still…well, the Democratic Party. As Bernie Sanders told The Nation (November 2025 issue): “[T]he Democratic Party (at its top) is mostly made up of folks who have money and consultants, and politicians who work with folks who have money and consultants…They spend an enormous amount of time raising money…They’re not about to take on the people who provide them with the money.” At the same time that Mamdani and Wilson were elected, two mainstream Democrats – one of them a former CIA agent – were elected governors of Virginia and New Jersey. Even in New York City, some Democratic Party regulars – having refused to endorse Mamdani when he won the party’s primary – distanced themselves even further from him after his electoral victory. In fact, The Staten Island and Queens Democratic Committees explicitly unendorsed him after the November 5 final election. “We have a lot of Democrats in Queens who do not support Mamdani,” the local Democratic Party Chair told MSN. “There is a reckoning occurring in the Democratic Party. There is a growing concern that socialism is hijacking the Democratic Party.” Bernie Sanders – who still draws huge, enthusiastic crowds at his rallies – tried twice and failed twice to turn the Democratic Party into a vehicle for progressive politics. Was he merely ahead of his time? Or are the institutional barriers that prevented Bernie from taking leadership of the Democratic Party still in place? Mamdani won election running against particularly loathsome opponents – an incumbent mayor who was saved from federal indictment only by cozying up to Donald Trump; a former governor forced to resign after multiple sexual harassment allegations; and the founder of a racist vigilante organization. Can that victory be replicated in other places under other circumstances and against respectable opponents? Katie Wilson’s victory in Seattle against mainstream Democrat Bruce Harrell suggests it can. But two examples don’t prove the case. Young people speaking their minds Getting so much resistance from behind In some ways, the split between pro and anti-Mamdani forces reflects a generational divide in the Democratic Party and among the party’s varied constituencies. Remember the four-and-a-half-month tenure of 25-year-old David Hogg as Vice Chair of the DNC? Hogg was driven out of his seat by old guard Democratic Party operatives, who objected to his plans to primary do-nothing Democratic incumbents with younger, bolder, and more aggressive candidates. The Mamdani and Wilson campaigns raise the same issues. What’s the value of Democratic incumbents if they can’t or won’t deliver on their party’s promises? After the election, “affordability” became the new buzz word for Democrats. Nice slogan, but what does it mean? For Mamdani it means publicly-owned grocery stores, a rent freeze, and $30 an hour minimum wage. For Wilson it means spending $1 billion on social housing and preventing private equity firms from buying up vacant homes. For young workers who find it less and less possible to live in New York or Seattle, these are practical measures that will help them sustain themselves and their families. What does “affordability” mean to Chuck Schumer? And if it doesn’t mean something concrete to him and his brand of Democrats, if it’s just the slogan du jour, maybe it’s time for all of them to step aside in favor of younger, bolder, and more aggressive candidates. We can and we should celebrate the election of 2025. But we should also be prepared for even more political struggles ahead. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents November 2025 An Encounter with Prior Authorization Mike Andrew The story you’re about to read is true. Only the names have been changed to protect the innocent. Tess Durberville is 83 years old. She’s been a resident in a Seattle senior living community for five and a half years. Tess is a cancer survivor and is living with diabetes and heart disease. Like many seniors on Original Medicare, Tess purchased Medicare Part D coverage to pay for her prescription drugs. More than 67 million Medicare beneficiaries have Part D plans. Tess is an AARP member, and selected a Part D plan from United Healthcare, the company that AARP promotes. It was a prudent buy, something that would give Tess some peace of mind and help her avoid huge out-of-pocket expenses for her prescriptions. Or so she thought. Tess had been prescribed Victoza to control her diabetes. Unlike some brandname drugs, Victoza is not available in any generic form, and therefore is very expensive for patients who lack Part D coverage. Tess took the Victoza shots once a day, and was satisfied with the results. Then, one day, she got a letter from United Healthcare informing her that Victoza was no longer on their approved list of medications. Tess was advised to look at a list of five medications that United Healthcare would pay for and choose one from there. “I was scheduled to have cancer surgery,” Tess told me, “and my doctor thought it would be best for me to continue on the Victoza till I’d gotten through that crisis. But United Healthcare said no. They wouldn’t budge on that. “It made me angry they were so hard-headed about changing from Victoza,” she added, but nevertheless Tess and her doctor decided that Ozempic would be a good fit for her. An added advantage was that Ozempic only requires one shot per week instead of a daily injection. “I was on Ozempic for eight – almost nine – months,” Tess said, “and then I got a letter telling me I need prior authorization for the Ozempic.” Even though it was on the list of approved meds that United Healthcare furnished? Yes, indeed! “They wouldn’t budge on that either.” “It took almost three months to get them to authorize the Ozempic,” Tess sighed. “And I had to pay out of my own pocket.” Was it expensive? “It was expensive. My pharmacy was very cooperative. They tried Good RX and all the coupons they could find to make it as cheap as possible. But it was still expensive. “And the thing that really makes me mad,” Tess added, “is that it’s only a one-year authorization. Now I have to go through it all again. It’s bad enough they make you jump through the hoops once, they want you to keep jumping!” Tess told me she didn’t feel so bad for herself, but for her doctor who had to navigate the prior authorization system. “All that expense,” she said. “All that time and effort!” Because Tess has pre-existing conditions – her diabetes and heart disease – it’s almost impossible for her to switch to another Part D plan. “I don’t think it’s going to matter anyway,” she told me. “They all do the same thing. And I take a lot of medicines. That’s a lot of prior authorizations.” Fortunately, Tess’ day-to-day health is good in spite of her chronic diseases. Unfortunately, her story is not unusual. It's the story of a health care system that centers private insurance companies' profits rather than patients' health. If you also have a story you want to share, email organizer@psara.org . Mike Andrew is the Editor of the Advocate and Executive Director 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