News & Stories

Congressional hearings have begun on both the FIRST Act (Family Income to Respond to Significant Transitions) and the Healthy Families Act. You can see testimony on both bills from: Rajiv Bhatia, Director at the Occupational and Environmental Health Department of Public Health Sandra Poole, Deputy Director of the California Employment Development Department Disability Insurance Branch […]

American consumers may finally have a reason to smile soon, when President Obama proposes the creation of the Consumer Financial Protection Agency tomorrow. The new watchdog agency will be responsible for protecting consumers from what Jennifer Liberto, CNNMoney, describes as “deceptive or dangerous mortgages, credit cards and other financial products.” In the last year, you’ve […]

When you turn 55, you start to think about bending more than you did at 35 or 45 – as in: “if I bend over to pick up those yard clippings, will I throw out my back?” But there are other “bends” in life; and after a dozen election cycles, many more marches and protests, […]

Publication of the Social Security Trustees’ Report always seems to bring out political axe-grinders anxious to pronounce the program as doomed, despite all evidence to the contrary. Social Security is one of the most successful and stable social programs in the country. For those who retire, those who lose income due to becoming disabled, or […]

Reprinted from the Everett Herald: Last Sunday my wife and three friends and I decided to bicycle up to Snohomish from Seattle. We had a great ride north, finishing with a swooping downhill on the Springhetti Road, past Harvey Airfield, and stopping at the Snohomish Pie Company for a few delicious slices of pie. That […]

The national discussion about health care is undergoing the lobbyists’ metamorphism.  All during the Presidential campaign, the run-up to the inauguration, and the first months of President Obama’s administration, the focus was on universal health coverage.  But in the past two months, it has switched to making sure that private insurance is not undercut by […]

The Family Leave Insurance Act of 2009 would provide 12 weeks of paid benefits to workers who need time off to care for a new child, ill family member, service member returning from combat, or their own illness. The program covers all employees who have paid into the fund and worked for their current employer […]

The FIRST Act (Family Income to Respond to Significant Transitions) authorizes $1.5 billion in grant funding to states to seed new programs or to bolster existing paid leave programs. States without an existing program would receive a start-up grant to develop and implement a program for up to a three-year period, along with a grant […]

From Forbes.com:

Maybe swine flu tipped the balance when people’s kids had to come to work due to closed schools. Or the cratering economy made more people fear job loss for taking a sick day. Or employers noticed the very real costs of presenteeism. Regardless, it’s never been more apparent that every worker needs access to paid […]

Some of you may remember the trickle down economic theory popularized during the Reagan presidency, when the top income tax bracket dropped precipitously from 70% in 1981 to an all time low of 28% between 1988 and 1990. (For the record, during the Clinton administration the rate was raised to 39.6%; under George W. Bush […]

Observations in political leadership from guest blogger Matt Loschen: There I sat, listening to a speech that some would argue only gets delivered by radicals or rubes. He said that in some ways we followed Rahm Emanuel’s advice and “didn’t let the crisis go to waste” this session (when it came to transportation). But he […]

Guest blogger Matt Loschen explains why his blogging career is doomed to failure: an altogether unhealthy admiration for public office holders — in this instance Larry Springer, his State Representative. Last week Larry was speaking to a big group of feisty and pretty well informed activists, many of whom work for his reelection cycle after […]

Whenever the idea of a state income tax is brought up in Washington, you’ll often hear some variation on this theme: “Watch out, the rich will leave if you raise taxes!” The latest iteration is Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore’s column in today’s Wall Street Journal. The authors cite New Jersey, among other states, as […]

According to the Oregonian, Oregon House Democrats are proposing to fix part of the state’s budget crisis by increasing taxes on corporations and adding a new, higher tax bracket on households making more than $250,000 a year. Comments on the Oregonian story mostly offer more of the usual scare tactics about business and wealthy individuals […]

Reprinted from the Everett Herald: Our state legislators spent most of their time bemoaning the economy and the deficit, and undermining public services this year. But even amid the wreckage, they managed to strengthen the representative democracy that we claim to be. One new law will eventually guarantee that the elected president of the United […]

Hype might make for scary headlines – but Social Security, an economic bedrock for millions of Americans for decades now, is actually in fine shape until at least 2085, which is as far out as the Social Security Trustees try to predict such things. You just have to read the fine print instead of glossing […]

Health care “stakeholders” are meeting in Olympia to discuss how to take 40,000 people off the state’s health care plan, even while the numbers of uninsured grow. Drive half a day south and it’s a different story. San Francisco is enrolling 600 people a week in Healthy San Francisco, the city’s universal health-care program. According […]

Source: Economic Policy Institute Meteor Blades puts this chart in context: The current recession has now begun its 17th month. It’s already longer than any recession since the 1930s. If it were to end this month and the unemployment rate started dropping in line with the average timing of the two most recent recoveries, it […]

Newspapers across the country are carrying articles, op-eds, and editorials about the need for minimum paid sick days for every American worker: Washington: Sick with swine flu but no paid sick leave: Last week, The Seattle Times editorialized to “take care of yourself — wash your hands and cover your cough. If you’re ill with […]

The financial meltdown shows just how risky it is to rely on the whims of the stock market for a retirement fund. But by expanding Social Security benefits, we can offer today’s workers and retirees the dignified and secure retirement they deserve for a lifetime of hard work. The annual Social Security Trustees Report report […]

Reprinted from the Seattle Times: Swine flu has arrived in Washington state with 16 suspected cases and probably more, prompting justified concern by public-health officials and caution among people. Several Puget Sound area schools have closed and a pediatrician who worked in a Mill Creek office is suspected of having the disease. The threat of […]

As fears of a swine flu pandemic spread, President Obama and public health officials are urging Americans to stay home from work and keep their children home from school if they have flu symptoms. That is sound advice — but nearly 4 in 10 private sector workers lack even one paid sick day, and many […]

Concern over swine flu has the White House urging: “If you’re sick, stay home, get treatment, go see a doctor.” But that’s not really an option for the two-fifths of private sector employees who don’t have sick days. And even those who do can’t always afford to use them. So – do you have access […]

Reprinted from the Everett Herald: Nov. 4, 2008 seems a long time ago. The Legislature of our state has effectively shredded the two themes of that Election Day — hope and change. Now that they have finished their rendezvous with lobbyists in Olympia, we can survey the damage they have done to our state and […]