This Week in Review - From the Washington State Democratic Party
1. TrumpCare is Done – For Now
We had a huge victory on Friday afternoon – Donald Trump and Paul Ryan announced that they would be suspending their efforts to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with their terrible TrumpCare bill. The GOP refused to bring their own bill to the floor of the House of Representatives for a vote.The, bizarrely, Trump began blaming Democrats for saving millions of people from losing their health care."We had no Democrat support. We had no votes from the Democrats. They weren't going to give us a single vote, so it's a very very difficult thing to do," Trump said. "I think the losers are (House Minority Leader) Nancy Pelosi and (Senate Minority Leader) Chuck Schumer because now they own Obamacare. 100% own it.”Democrats do “own it”!But this victory wasn’t just won on Friday alone – together, we managed to save health care for millions of people through week and weeks of work.It’s “on us”: all the phone calls we made, the emails we sent, the town hall meetings and rallies we went to, it all played a major role in blocking this bill. Remember, we can block the Republicans from advancing their extreme conservative agenda when we all stand together.We have no doubt that the Republicans have more bad ideas in store for us - the Gorsuch Supreme Court nomination is up next, then we must fight the re-permitting of the Dakota Access Pipeline – and it probably won’t be long until they’re trying to undermine health care and the Affordable Care Act again. But as long as we keep fighting, we can push back and make change happen.Because of our people and our work, health care for millions of people has been saved. We’re doing the right thing. Thank you!
2. Senate Republican Budget Unveiled In Olympia
Our next focus will have to be in the Washington state legislature, where the Republicans who control the State Senate unveiled their budget proposal this past week.Their proposal includes a wildly unfair tax plan - giving giant new tax breaks to corporations like Boeing, Walmart, and Comcast, at the same time as they would raise property taxes on seniors and working families by $5.5 billion statewide.And their proposal makes giant cuts from critical services for Washingtonians. They’d eliminate early learning and pre-school for low-income three year olds, they’d cut homelessness prevention programs despite the homelessness crisis on our street and other assistance for needy families, and it would end the voter-approved I-732 cost-of-living raises for teachers.Their budget would even raise tuition at our colleges and universities, and fails to fully fund schools as called for by the McCleary decision. Education is our paramount duty, and this budget fails students at every level.
What you can do
1. Contact Your Legislators
We need to let our legislators know that Washington can do better than this terrible Senate Republican budget that fails students and families.You can reach your legislator through the legislative hotline at 1-800-562-6000OrEspecially contact the office of Sen. Dino Rossi, one of the Senate Republican budget leaders. Rossi has already been beaten three times running for higher office, but he’s back and he’s found a way to try to push his extreme conservative agenda through these cuts. Call Rossi at 360-786-7672 and tell him his budget will hurt kids, the vulnerable, and all the people of Washington!
2. Get Involved With Campaigns
Ultimately, we’re going to have to stop the Republicans by retaking our state Senate, but there’s good news. With three Republican-held seats up for election this year, we have to win just one to retake the state Senate with a Democratic majority! We’re contesting every seat – the 45th, 31st, and 7thlegislative districts – and we’re going to fight hard to win these.But we’ll need your help. We’re assembling a list of volunteers we can call on for help in these races – will you sign up to help?If you provide us with your contact information here, we can help you get involved in retaking the state Senate so we can deliver a Democratic majority that will be able to advance progressive legislation rather than just having to fight back against the Republicans.With your help, we can do this. Join us!
3. Help Fund Our Grassroots Organizing – Join The Resistance!
We’ve rolled out our new program to fund grassroots field organizing across the state – The Resistance! We’ve heard from the activists of the party that field organizing working with local party organizations is the most effective thing we can do to help, and that’s exactly what we’re doing. This is an exciting new program that will help us build the progressive movement, win elections, and retake our state and our country!Click here to find out more and help fund our grassroots efforts at $3, $7 or $14 dollars a month - even $27 - makes a huge difference! Thanks for considering and again, here is the link.