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For more than a quarter century, Puget Sound Advocates for Retirement Action (PSARA) has been active in fighting for older Americans, retirees, their children and families through social justice activities. P uget S ound A dvocates for R etirement A ction Working across generations for social justice, economic security, dignity, and a healthy planet for all of us. Read & Download PSARA’s 2nd edition Primer on Leveling the Medicare Playing Fi eld Health Secretary Kennedy is Attacking Traditional Medicare in Washington State In January, the Trump administration will be rolling out a new control on Traditional Medicare in six states, including Washington State. This program is called WISeR. It will affect Medicare benefits by requiring a new prior authorization for a number of medical decisions. This means your doctor will need to receive prior authorization from the Federal government before you get some medical treatments. C lick Here for more on the WISeR Program and what you can do to stop it. PSARA December Retiree Advocate Click here to read the Advocate online In this issue we feature a letter from five state medical associations opposing the new WISeR pilot program expanding the use of prior authorization in Original Medicare. Also in this issue: Analysis of a PNHP study showing that Medicare Advantage plans disadvantage BIPOC seniors. Introduction of PSARA's plans for the 2026 legislative session. The connection between AARP, United Health, and WISeR. Reminiscence of Jane Goodall. Standing for Democracy's plans to build resistance in Washington State. The human toll of the government shutdown on federal employees. Analysis of the 2025 election. Trump's plans to restrict non-profit organizations. And more! Upcoming PSARA Events/meetings PSARA Pierce County Organizing Committee Thursday, Dec. 11, 5:30 - 7 p.m. Central Co-op, 4502 N Pearl Street, Tacoma You can attend this event In-person and through Zoom. To receive the Zoom Link contact Lynne Dodson: lynned.dodson@gmail.com Protecting our Assets Protecting our Asses In the last year PSARA’s Co-President, Jeff Johnson, wrote a series of articles for PSARA’s Retiree Advocate highlighting the need to move beyond fossil fuels and the responsibility of unions to insure that their retirement plans stop investing in fossil fuels not just because its good environmentally but also good economics. Unions can play a key role in jump starting our green future. These articles have been consolidated into a single publication: Protecting our Assets Protecting our Asses. Click here to download the pamphlet or read it online. DOWNLOAD JOIN PSARA in making a difference! Back to Top

The Retiree ADVOCATE The Monthly Publication of PSARA EDUCATION FUND Vol XL, No 12 December 2025 “Uniting Generations for a Secure Future” PSARA Education Fund End-of-Year Donations What a year it has been, and 2026 is shaping up to be even more challenging for so many of us. Read More No Real Choices – Diversity Is Not Equity Anne Watanabe Analysis of a PNHP study showing that Medicare Advantage plans disadvantage BIPOC seniors. Read More ICE Considers Raiding the Local Sandwich Shop The Barbed Wire Read More We Remember Linda Warren Read More 2026 Washington State Legislative Session Yes, It Really Is That Time Again Pam Crone Introduction of PSARA's plans for the 2026 legislative session. Read More Letter from State Medical Associations: A letter from five state medical associations opposing the new WISeR pilot program expanding the use of prior authorization in Original Medicare. Read More AARP, United Health Group, and WISeR Robby Stern The connection between AARP, United Health, and WISeR. Read More Jane Goodall Anne Watanabe Reminiscence of Jane Goodall. Read More Resistance In Washington State Grows Cindy Domingo Standing for Democracy's plans to build resistance in Washington State. Read More Federal Employees Shutdown Nightmare Steve Kofahl The human toll of the government shutdown on federal employees. Read More Election 2025: So Many Questions Mike Andrew Analysis of the 2025 election. Read More How the Trump Administration Is Changing Nonprofit Organizations: Chaos to Follow Katie Harris Trump's plans to restrict non-profit organizations. And more! Read More

The Retiree Advocate How the Trump Administration Is Changing Nonprofit Organizations: Chaos to Follow Katie Harris Did you know that, in the Trump regime, up now means down? That’s right; Trump’s administration is issuing guidance and executive orders that turn the nonprofit sector on its head. Existing laws are being reverse- engineered to make it discriminatory to reverse discrimination. Organizations working to reverse inequities and injustice are scrambling to understand how they’re affected, and how to position themselves to avoid nuisance complaints and lawsuits. Advocacy and service organizations will have to recast how they represent their work, hiring, and programming. But first, what, exactly, are executive orders and guidance? Executive orders are directives, signed by the president, that have the force of law. They can be nullified by the courts or modified through legislation, but they remain in effect until they are rescinded by a president or expire on a specified date. Trump has issued hundreds. For handy reference, the National Council of Nonprofits has published a chart of executive orders with sizable sec- tor impacts. Organizations centering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); immigrant justice; health care; envirormental justice; LGBTQ+; and civic access are among those hardest hit. Unlike executive orders, official guidance does not have the force of law. However, guidance from Attorney General Pam Bondi has a huge impact on organizations. Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination redefines how the federal government considers DEI. Centering the interests of a specific population is now discrimination on the basis of a protected characteristic. The Guidance maintains that programs that “separate or restrict access based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics…generally violate federal law by creating unequal treatment or reinforcing stereotypes, regardless of the stated goal.” But lest we assume consistency matters, “failing to maintain sex-separated athletic competitions and intimate spaces can also violate federal law.” Therefore, “organizations should affirm sex-based boundaries rooted in biological differences.” The assaults on organizations are mind-boggling in scope and very destabilizing. Among the most impacted: • Race-based scholarships and program participation; • Preferential hiring or promotion; • Access to facilities or resources based on race, ethnicity, income level or census tract. Language to serve as proxies for “preferential treatment” is explicit in Bondi’s Guidance. Cultural competence, lived experience and diversity statements are cited as examples of proxies. Instead, organizations are supposed to be “merit-based.” In other words, the protected class is now those who benefit from the “affirmative action of generational wealth,” as Michelle Obama aptly put it. The Department of Justice, alone, canceled 373 grants, totaling $500 mil- lion, affecting 221 organizations. These grants had been approved by Congress, which sets policy through its power of the purse. Eliminating these grants puts the president’s actions at odds with Congressional intent. But, with this administration, that’s the point. The implications are huge. Government grant cycles have been canceled. Foundations have redirected their grants to maintain the operations of vital organizations under sustained assault. Legal service organizations are deluged by preparing legal challenges to fight these orders. Nonprofits must also expect nuisance complaints and lawsuits requiring defense, intended to divert re- sources away from programming. One tool will be scrutiny of IRS Form 990, the detailed nonprofit tax filing, which anyone may inspect online. (Religious congregations are exempt from public scrutiny). Ongoing foci in the 990 for right-wing trolls include: • Using contractors in lieu of staff. Expect increased scrutiny here. The IRS criteria are clearly spelled out; • Fundraising costs that appear disproportionately high, relative to the budget; • Advocacy activities that might constitute lobbying in excess of thresholds; • Lack of conflict of interest and whistleblower policies; • Absence of financial policies and procedures. Meeting minutes, annual reports and job announcements will also face scrutiny. One growing vulnerability: agencies record meeting minutes using Zoom instead of taking written minutes. It is very tempting, but don’t do it. People say all sorts of things in meetings that shouldn’t be captured for all time. Expect meeting minutes to be requested with complaints. Referring to a contractor as a deputy director in a recorded board meeting, for example, could leave an organization very vulnerable. We can expect complaints around phrasing of job postings and program eligibility. Any public-facing document is a potential avenue of exposure for an organization. • To read the Attorney General’s memo, search for Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination. • A tool kit for protecting nonprofits from scurrilous attacks is Nonprofit Toolkit: Resources for Organizations Facing Government Investigations. • A New York Times article about what’s coming is "You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time, but You Could Be Next." Katie Harris is the Retiree Advocate's Copy Editor. Back to the Advocate Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents December 2025 ICE Considers Raiding the Local Sandwich Shop The Barbed Wire < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents October 2025 Sanders and Wyden Introduce “Keep Billionaires Out of Social Security Act” Steve Kofahl Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden and Senate Subcommittee on Social Security, Pensions, and Family Policy Ranking Member Bernie Sanders introduced this legislation on September 10. A bill number is not yet assigned. They were joined by 28 original Senate co-sponsors, including Senator Murray, none of them Republicans. Senator Cantwell (Finance Committee) has not yet signed-on, so please give her office a call. The legislation is endorsed by Social Security Works; American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees; Alliance for Retired Americans; National Committee to Preserve Social Security and Medicare; and 7 other organizations. The 40-page bill is designed to reverse staff and service cuts at the Social Security Administration (SSA), and respond to Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) activity at the SSA, thereby making it much easier for the public to receive their earned benefits, and protecting sensitive personal information. It consists of 12 sections. Section 1 states that the bill would amend the Social Security Act to permanently appropriate funding for the administrative expenses of the SSA, and for other purposes. Section 2 exempts the SSA from the jurisdiction of DOGE and certain Trump executive orders. Section 3 prohibits access to beneficiary data systems by political appointees and special government employees, except for those appointed to or employed by the SSA. Violators can be subject to criminal and civil penalties. The Comptroller of the U.S. is tasked with reporting to the Senate Finance and House Ways & Means Committees. Section 4 requires consent of SSA employees for transfers from the competitive civil service to excepted (at-will) employment. It requires the Director of the Office of Personnel Management to consent to such transfers, and to report to Congress. Section 5 prohibits living individuals from being added to SSA’s Death Master File. Section 6 prohibits SSA from reducing the numbers of field offices and hearing offices below the January 1, 2025 numbers. SSA must maintain meaningful and efficient access to live toll-free number agents. Staff- ing reductions below 2024 levels are prohibited. Section 7 re-establishes SSA’s Office of Civil Rights and Equal Opportunity; the Office of Transformation; and the Office of Analytics, Review, and Oversight. Section 8 permanently funds SSA administration of Social Security, Supplemental Security Income (SSI), and parts of Medicare at the level of 1.2% of Social Security benefits payable per year. It excludes benefit and administrative costs from discretionary spending caps and the 1974 Congressional Budget Act. Section 9 provides for up to $2 billion in Treasury funds not otherwise appropriated to be devoted to increasing awareness of SSI eligibility for disabled children, reducing disability claims and appeals backlogs, improving SSA technology and infrastructure, and offering an online SSI application. Section 10 reduces overpayment withholding to 10% of a monthly benefit for overpayment decisions made after March 25, 2024. Section 11 provides that states may receive payments from the SSA Commissioner to protect the legal rights of disabled applicants and recipients. Section 12 establishes at least 10 annual Social Security Assistance and Representation Grants over the next 5 years to assist applicants and benefit recipients. Steve Kofahl is a retired President of AFGE 3937, representing Social Security workers, and a member of PSARA's Ecutive Board < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents December 2025 How the Trump Administration Is Changing Nonprofit Organizations: Chaos to Follow Katie Harris Did you know that, in the Trump regime, up now means down? That’s right; Trump’s administration is issuing guidance and executive orders that turn the nonprofit sector on its head. Existing laws are being reverse engineered to make it discriminatory to reverse discrimination. Organizations working to reverse inequities and injustice are scrambling to understand how they’re affected, and how to position themselves to avoid nuisance complaints and lawsuits. Advocacy and service organizations will have to recast how they represent their work, hiring, and programming. But first, what, exactly, are executive orders and guidance? Executive orders are directives, signed by the president, that have the force of law. They can be nullified by the courts or modified through legislation, but they remain in effect until they are rescinded by a president or expire on a specified date. Trump has issued hundreds. For handy reference, the National Council of Nonprofits has published a chart of executive orders with sizable sector impacts. Organizations centering diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI); immigrant justice; health care; envirormental justice; LGBTQ+; and civic access are among those hardest hit. Unlike executive orders, official guidance does not have the force of law. However, guidance from Attorney General Pam Bondi has a huge impact on organizations. Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination redefines how the federal government considers DEI. Centering the interests of a specific population is now discrimination on the basis of a protected characteristic. The Guidance maintains that programs that “separate or restrict access based on race, sex, or other protected characteristics…generally violate federal law by creating unequal treatment or reinforcing stereotypes, regardless of the stated goal.” But lest we assume consistency matters, “failing to maintain sex-separated athletic competitions and intimate spaces can also violate federal law.” Therefore, “organizations should affirm sex-based boundaries rooted in biological differences.” The assaults on organizations are mind-boggling in scope and very destabilizing. Among the most impacted: Race-based scholarships and program participation; Preferential hiring or promotion; Access to facilities or resources based on race, ethnicity, income level or census tract. Language to serve as proxies for “preferential treatment” is explicit in Bondi’s Guidance . Cultural competence, lived experience and diversity statements are cited as examples of proxies. Instead, organizations are supposed to be “merit-based.” In other words, the protected class is now those who benefit from the “affirmative action of generational wealth,” as Michelle Obama aptly put it. The Department of Justice, alone, canceled 373 grants, totaling $500 million, affecting 221 organizations. These grants had been approved by Congress, which sets policy through its power of the purse. Eliminating these grants puts the president’s actions at odds with Congressional intent. But, with this administration, that’s the point. The implications are huge. Government grant cycles have been canceled. Foundations have redirected their grants to maintain the operations of vital organizations under sustained assault. Legal service organizations are deluged by preparing legal challenges to fight these orders. Nonprofits must also expect nuisance complaints and lawsuits requiring defense, intended to divert resources away from programming. One tool will be scrutiny of IRS Form 990, the detailed nonprofit tax filing, which anyone may inspect online. (Religious congregations are exempt from public scrutiny). Ongoing foci in the 990 for right-wing trolls include: Using contractors in lieu of staff. Expect increased scrutiny here. The IRS criteria are clearly spelled out; Fundraising costs that appear disproportionately high, relative to the budget; Advocacy activities that might constitute lobbying in excess of thresholds; Lack of conflict of interest and whistleblower policies; Absence of financial policies and procedures. Meeting minutes, annual reports and job announcements will also face scrutiny. One growing vulnerability: agencies record meeting minutes using Zoom instead of taking written minutes. It is very tempting, but don’t do it. People say all sorts of things in meetings that shouldn’t be captured for all time. Expect meeting minutes to be requested with complaints. Referring to a contractor as a deputy director in a recorded board meeting, for example, could leave an organization very vulnerable. We can expect complaints around phrasing of job postings and program eligibility. Any public-facing document is a potential avenue of exposure for an organization. To read the Attorney General’s memo, search for Guidance for Recipients of Federal Funding Regarding Unlawful Discrimination. A tool kit for protecting nonprofits from scurrilous attacks is Nonprofit Toolkit: Resources for Organizations Facing Government Investigations . A New York Times article about what’s coming is "You May Not Be Trump’s Target This Time, but You Could Be Next." Katie Harris is the Retiree Advocate's Copy Editor. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents July 2025 The “Big, Ugly, Cruel Bill” Michael Righi The actual name for Trump’s domestic policy bill is One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). It is hard to imagine the sycophancy of Republicans, who named it that in order to please our Dear Leader. The bill is not finalized yet, and there are still some differences between the House and Senate versions, but Republicans have crafted it with a variety of gimmicks so that it can be passed on a majority vote with narrow Republican majorities in both houses. A War on the Public Good It is a tax cut bill for the rich, but it’s much more than that. Buried within its more than a thousand pages is the right-wing plan for the future, a war on the public good. Public institutions, collective care for the planet and each other – all of that is to be flattened. There are too many examples. What follows are just a few. Start with the militarization of immigration policy, which we are seeing in the news and on our streets daily. It started with ICE performative cruelty; the bill would add $150 billion to Stephen Miller’s mass deportation campaign. That’s 10,000 more masked and armed ICE goons and a massive increase in detention facilities. That is a police state intruding into our communities. Funding tax credits for clean energy or tax cuts for the wealthy? It’s clear what has to go. Not only will OBBBA cut clean energy programs, it would grant a tax break to oil and gas companies, essentially exempting them from a corporate minimum tax. The bill establishes as a goal to have school voucher programs in every state, despite the fact that these have been voted down several times, even in deep red states. Despite being pushed and funded by institutions like the Gates Foundation, studies of voucher schools prove they underperform public schools. Is that the point, to punish poor and working class families? There’s more, but let’s get to the tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. OBBBA mainly extends Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, plus some “lipstick on a pig” additional cuts for overtime pay and tips. The bill slashes Medicare, Medicaid, and food stamps, cuts that fall overwhelmingly on working class families. This is unprecedentedly ugly. Past Republican-sponsored tax cuts favored the wealthy and increased inequality. But they didn’t actually take from the poor. The OBBBA benefit cuts reduce the income of the poorest by about $2,000 per year while raising the income of the richest 10% by $12,000. The decline in well-being likely for the lower half of the income distribution would then be similar to a severe recession. Low-income folks are even worse off when tariffs, which are also regressive, are factored in. This is how Republicans are becoming the “party of the working class”. They will piss on you, and explain that it’s raining. And it’s your fault. The Yale School of Public Health estimates that OBBBA will lead to 51,000 additional deaths annually. Debts and Deficits Republican claims that tax cuts will unleash economic growth and so raise tax revenue are complete hogwash; no study, not one, has found any validity in trickle-down economics. That’s just more rain. Reliable analysis of OBBBA predicts it will raise the national debt by somewhere between $3 and $6 tril- lion over the next decade. That’s a wide range, but of course there is a lot of uncertainty. Let’s review some principles. Having the government spend more than it gets in revenue (run a budget deficit) was crucial in 2008, to prevent the financial crisis from becoming a depression. It was crucial in 2020 when COVID shut down the economy. It would also be great if it funded investments in clean energy, schooling, housing or infrastructure. But running deficits to fund tax cuts for the already wealthy? That is what has been happening for the last 45 years, driven by the demands of the rich unwilling to pay even modest taxes. Are deficits and debt becoming a problem? Yes. Bond investors are going to require higher interest rates to lend to the government. Interest costs are becoming a larger and larger part of the government’s budget. Higher interest rates are going to make it harder to buy a house or car, or for governments and firms to build climate investments. Usually it is Republicans who are the “debt scolds”; they use fear of debt to oppose social programs. If they were really worried about debt, they would go after tax cheats (that’s $600 billion a year) and refuse further tax cuts for the rich. But they won’t. They are hypocrites. Will the Trump clown show have serious consequences for the economy? Will ‘the bond market” get nervous about debt and restrain the orgy of tax cutting? It’s not clear yet, but it would surely be a lot better if OBBBA were trashed. That is what would happen in a democracy. Michael Righi is a retired economics professor and a member of the Retiree Advocate editorial board. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents October 2025 Some Developments in the Effort to Stop WISeR Robby Stern In the last month the effort to educate elected leaders and as many people as possible about the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model (WISeR) has intensified. Washington is one of 6 states in the WISeR program. The pilot program expands prior authorization in original Medicare and reimburses AI contractors based on how much money they save the Medicare Trust Fund, i.e. denials of care. Here are a couple of examples of how the educational work is having an impact. On September 3rd, PSARA was invited to provide a presentation at Aljoya senior living facility in the Northgate area in Seattle. Over 50 residents attended. The presentation was about the general attack on Medicare through privatization and an explanation of WISeR. The first question we asked was how many people in attendance had heard of WISEeR. Only two residents raised their hands, and they were PSARA members. After the presentation, the residents decided to send a letter signed by as many residents that they could recruit. Ninety-two residents signed the letter. The letter will go to our two US Senators, their Representative, the Office of the Insurance Com- missioner, the Governor, and their state representatives and state senator. It requests their support in the effort to cancel WISeR. This presentation is one of a number PSARA has done, and more are on the calendar. We met with the Deputy Commissioner and other officials with the Washington State Office of the Insurance Commissioner. We had sent them, in advance, information about WISeR. After a discussion they indicated they would brief Insurance Commissioner Kuderer. Since that meeting, Insurance Commissioner Kuderer stated her opposition to WISeR at a public presentation one of our members attended. She and her staff will be reaching out to Insurance Commissioners from other states to build opposition to WISeR and the expansion of prior authorization. On September 11, Rep. Pocan(WI) and Rep. Schakowsky(IL) introduced a Resolution in the House of Representatives condemning the expanded use of prior authorization in Medicare. The Resolution states in part that WISeR undermines beneficiary access to health care and should not be implemented. There is a national effort to get as many House members as possible to sign as co-sponsors of the Resolution. PSARA is asking our members and people attending our presentations to please call your Representative and request they sign the Pocan/Schakowsky resolution. Also, please call our Senators and ask them to publicly speak out against WISeR. Feel free to call more than once. The WISeR model is just another example of private corporations reaping profits from Medicare. PSARA opposes the privatization of Medicare. We sup- port leveling the playing field between Traditional Medicare and Medicare Advantage. It will give Medicare beneficiaries a genuine choice between Medicare Advantage and public Medicare. The creation of Medicare was a democratic victory for the people. Resistance to WISeR and the corporate takeover of Medicare is part and parcel of our fight against autocracy and for democracy. Please engage with us as we work to save and improve our Medicare. The Pocan-Schakowsky Resolution Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction Model undermines beneficiary access to healthcare and should not be implemented… Resolved, That the House of Representatives— (1) expresses disapproval of the Wasteful and Inappropriate Service Reduction (WISeR) Model (2) finds that expanding prior authorization processes used in Medicare Advantage into the publicly administered traditional Medicare Program undermines beneficiary access to timely and necessary medical care; and (3) strongly requests that the Centers for Medicare and Med- icaid Services terminate the WISeR Model. Robby Stern is President of the PSARA Education Fund and a member of PSARA's Executive Board. < Back to Table of Contents

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

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents December 2025 Jane Goodall Anne Watanabe I’ve never lived in a world that didn’t have Jane Goodall in it. But she passed away on October 1, at age 91, while on a worldwide tour to promote environmental protection and to urge all of us to fight climate change and protect the planet. So now we must carry on without her, it seems. As I write this, Trump declares he will open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, a crown jewel of US wildlife habitat, to oil and gas drilling, and Alaska native villages are being decimated by climate-fueled storms and flooding. I wish Jane were here. Jane Goodall and Friend Most of us know the early story of Jane Goodall, the young Englishwoman from a working-class family who was hired by famous anthropologist Louis Leakey to assist in his primate studies in Gombe, Tanzania. She had no college degree (the doctorate would come later). Leakey thought – rightly – that she was free of academic prejudices that could interfere with her observational studies. Jane went to Gombe in 1960, and her studies proved to be groundbreaking. National Geographic sent photographer Hugo Van Lawick to Gombe to capture the daily lives of Jane and the Gombe troop. Those photos captivated the world. Jane discovered that chimpanzees used tools, a behavior that until then was thought to be exclusive to Homo sapiens . She closely observed the chimpanzee family interactions and social structures. She realized that individual chimpanzees had different personalities. Of course, evidence that chimpanzees aren’t so different from the scientists who studied them was uncomfortable for some. Critics attempted to discredit her because she was a woman who lacked academic pedigrees, and they dismissed her observations as anthropomorphic. (In the early years of animal behavior science, this was a catch-all criticism of any study that challenged conventional wisdom about nonhuman animals.) Jane continued to study primates in the field, returning frequently to Gombe. She led a new generation of scientists whose work revealed complexities of thought and behavior in nonhuman animals, expanding our previous understanding of them. She was a scientist and more than anything she loved being in the field, studying the natural world. But Jane felt a deeper obligation to protect that world and its inhabitants. Starting in 1986, she traveled worldwide to raise awareness about human created harms and to urge that we act to protect the planet. She founded Roots and Shoots in 1991, a global humanitarian and environmental program that engages young people throughout the world to bring about positive changes. With her deep commitment to nonhuman rights, Jane was an early board member of the Nonhuman Rights Project, and provided important supporting material for NhRP’s litigation, including a recent hearing in September on behalf of captive chimpanzees. She was a UN Humanitarian Messenger, and right up until her death, she was on the road 300 days a year, raising awareness – and hope. So here we are today. In The Book of Hope , she wrote that “Hope is often misunderstood. People tend to think that it is simply passive wishful thinking…This is indeed the opposite of real hope, which requires action and engagement. Many people understand the dire state of the planet – but do nothing about it because they feel helpless and hopeless.” In September, during her last tour, she offered this: “Every single day we live, we make some sort of impact on the world…I tell people, find something you can do in your community. Do it. Get your friends to support you. See that you can make a difference. Know that all around the world, other people like you are making a difference.” Thank you, Jane. As we confront so many threats to our planet and all life on earth, she is still here, giving me hope. Anne Watanabe is Chair of PSARA's Race and Gender Equity (RaGE) Committee. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents October 2025 View From the Screen: A Review of Sorry, Baby Randy Joseph Spoilers… always spoilers. This is not a cozy film but a story wishing for comfort and protection, dreaming of cozy and safe in a world where bad things happen. Where warm knitted sweaters and blankets might really protect us. Sorry, Baby - a film written and directed by the extraordinary Eva Victor, takes place over 3 years, portraying a deep friendship between two PhD students…Agnes (played by Eva Victor) and Lydie (played by Naomi Ackie) – and how Agnes survives if not heals from this bad thing that happens to her. The story is an intense, nuanced, layered character study of Agnes during a terrible time of her life and yet it manages to mix it up with lovely and funny moments. Please don’t be afraid of the sad subject matter. Eva Victor would want us to watch it and not be afraid. It’s life – stick with her. Watch out as well for lots of interesting, relevant literary references and books being read on screen (e.g., the character Milkman from Toni Morrison’s Song of Solomon; Giovonni’s Room by James Baldwin; Lolita and more! Even a clip of the movie 12 Angry Men…). Our protagonist Agnes is a star PhD candidate in the Literature Department of a small New England University who lives with her best friend in an old white clapboard house isolated in the woods. They are like 4th grade best friends – they study together, eat together, take baths together - jump up and down with joy for each other – hurt for each other – sacrifice for each other. Agnes comes home late one night not herself…clearly wrecked. Their beloved and admired mentor – novelist and Professor Preston Decker -– has sexually assaulted her. She tells Lydie the story blow by blow. Lydie listens carefully and deeply and puts her in a hot bath and listens more. The rest of the film is about sadness and survival, about healing and not ever healing – loneliness and anger and loss. About the power of love and friendship no matter what. The day after the assault Decker resigns his position and leaves town. She reports the rape to the University. They refuse to investigate because he doesn’t work there anymore. Agnes doesn’t want to call the police. She says she wants him to be a person that wouldn’t do that. If she has him arrested, he would just be a person in prison who does that. The loss of the relationship they had developed over years is profound. In one minute, she loses the person she thought was a protector, mentor, cheerleader and in his place gains a rapist. A few years later she tells a colleague that Decker must have hated her. Because if you like a person, if you respect a person then there is a certain way you treat them. Like a person. The assault from a trusted professor who encouraged her - praised her to the University always - calls her whole academic career into question. Was she really the “extraordinary” writer he said she was? Did she really deserve her PhD? After she is granted her degree, the University offers Agnes Decker’s teaching position and his very office. Although she is thrilled, she also questions whether she earned this or not. Was his recommendation just to keep her quiet? Did the school offer her the job for the same reason? Should she enjoy and prosper in the light-filled office that was formerly his or should she burn it down? Life goes on as it does. She teaches and we get a glimpse of her competency and joy in literature and the teaching of it. We see her tentative relationship with a sweet neighbor. And we see her struggle to connect and be able to picture a future with “what everyone wants.” She can’t see past the sadness. Lydie falls in love – marries and moves to another city. A serious loss. Agnes stays home. Same home. Same school. Lydie worries about Agnes. “Do you ever leave the house?” Their slightly tongue-in-cheek play continues… “Please don’t die,” she says. Agnes responds, "You please don't die." Translation: I love you so much. And in reply I love YOU so much. That never changes. One day 3 years later Agnes falls apart after a jealous colleague Natasha confronts Agnes and spews that Agnes was Decker’s favorite. That even though she, Natasha, had 5-minute sex with Decker … even so - he never read her own dissertation. Agnes drives a long way out of town, sobbing and unable to think or even breathe. She stops at a roadside sandwich shop with her windows up crying. The owner comes out – a middle-aged man with sadnesses of his own – says he knows someone with anxiety attacks and would she open the window and breathe with him please. They sit outside his shop on a curb and talk together about bad things. (One of the best scenes in the movie.) He reassures her that 3 years from a bad thing isn’t very long at all. Time does not heal all. Lydie, wife and baby come to visit Agnes. Agnes gets alone time with the baby. Her face is full of love for this baby. She tells her all the things she wished people would have said to her. She holds the baby up to her face and tells her how sorry she is that bad things will happen to her. Sorry, Baby. She hopes they won’t, but they probably will. She will be there for her, she says. She will listen and not be scared. “You can tell me any bad thought, and I will say yes, I have had that thought 10 times worse. You can tell me you want to kill yourself and I will say, yes, I know that feeling. I will be there for you baby no matter what.” Randy Joseph is a member of PSARA. < Back to Table of Contents

The Retire Advocate < Back to Table of Contents November 2025 Update on the Fight Against WISeR Anne Watanabe Retiree Advocate readers know that PSARA has been actively pushing back on the upcoming changes to Original Medicare the WISeR pilot program. As reported in previous RA issues, the WISeR model is slated to begin on January 1 in Washington State. As a result, prior authorization (prior approval by Medicare) will then be required for 17 procedures that previously were left up to you and your doctors to decide (although described by CMS as “voluntary,” absent prior authorization, your healthcare provider risks not being reimbursed by Medicare for your treatment). Original Medicare, unlike private Medicare Advantage plans, has in the past rarely required prior authorization. But under WISeR, contractors utilizing artificial intelligence will review doctors’ requests for approval of these procedures. And these contractors will be rewarded with a share of the costs that they “save” for Medicare (i.e., savings from denying or discouraging treatments). CMS introduced WISeR in July with little fanfare or consultation with the public or the medical community. So, few seniors realize this change is coming. This is why the PSARA outreach team has made many presentations during the last few months throughout the Puget Sound area to raise awareness and to push back against WISeR. Many of you have responded with calls and letters to your representatives. Your advocacy is working! PSARA has met with staff of our Congressional leaders, including Rep. DelBene, Senator Patty Murray, and Senator Maria Cantwell. You’ll find an inspiring video about WISeR by Senator Patty Murray on our webpage. We’ve met with staff of the state Office of Insurance Commissioner, Patty Kuderer, and she has now issued a statement critical of WISeR. At press time, Representatives Smith, DelBene, Jayapal, Randall, and Strickland had signed onto the Pocan/Schakowsky House Resolution calling for WISeR to be stopped (see the September issue of the RA for more info on this Resolution). PSARA continues our work to protect Medicare from becoming a privatized system that reaps profits by denying care to seniors and the disabled. Regardless of whether you are in Original Medicare or a Medicare Advantage plan, it benefits all of us to maintain a strong, solvent, publicly-funded Medicare system as a safety net for all seniors and the disabled. Finally, dear Retiree Advocate readers, if you have a personal story you are willing to share about prior authorization and how it affected you or your family’s care, please send it to orga nizer@psara.org . We know that personal stories show us how real lives are affected, and these can in turn affect public opinion and elected officials. Thank you for joining us in this fight. Anne Watanabe is a member of PSARA's Executive Board and Chair of our Race and Gender Equity (RaGE) Committee < Back to Table of Contents