Interested in re-election in 2014? You can pack your bags for home if you vote for the chained CPI. It doesn’t matter what party: if you are a Democrat, the Republican candidate will hammer you for cutting Social Security. And if you are a Republican, the Democratic candidate will hammer you for cutting Social Security.…

Given the decision of the Washington State Supreme Court in the McCleary case, which highlighted Washington’s failure to adequately fund education, the new legislature and Governor will soon be looking for new revenue to meet the state’s financial obligation to basic education. Educational reforms alone will require at least $1 billion in new public revenue in the 2013-15…

Every day we hear about the fiscal cliff. But don’t be scared, because in reality it’s a fiction of rhetoric, foisted on the American people by Wall Street and inside-the-beltway politicians, especially those who just took a drubbing in November’s elections. The crowd of Wall Street elites and DC losers want to use the fiscal…

Now that all the election results have rolled in, there is a lot of work to do. Our governments, at the federal, state, and local levels, must grapple with the slow motion of our economy, the defunding of public services, and the necessity of new jobs. Nationally, enhancing Social Security has got to be at…

I wonder if this rain is going to make tomorrow’s Thanksgiving a little more difficult for some of us in Washington state. I worry about family and friends in transit to their intended Thanksgiving meals and holidays. I wonder if the floods will hold back or get worse. We don’t know if rail beds will…

We may know who will be governor by the time you read this – and then again, we may not. The same goes for some competitive legislative races, like the state senate race north of Everett between Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, and Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor. But no matter who wins, there is a…

Eight years ago, while thousands of corporations were shutting down their retirement plans, the United Methodist Church decided to go back to the future. The Methodists took a lesson from their faith. The Methodist Book of Discipline guides the church in employment practices, and states that the church is “to discharge our fiduciary duty solely…

So Mitt Romney thinks that 47 percent of us are moochers. Let’s keep in mind that Mr. Romney is only referring to the federal income tax. He disregards what comes out of each and every one of our paychecks for Social Security and Medicare. And that’s a hefty amount — 7.65 percent before the great…

Eleven years ago yesterday we woke up to a beautiful blue sky morning, and our world came crashing down on our heads. And 11 years ago today, we looked in one direction to help us, protect us, and rebuild our world. That direction was to our government. The firefighters who lost their lives trying to…

On July Fourth, we here in Washington actually got to appreciate a little bit of summer … finally. August delivered some hot weather that our friends back East would have easily claimed as a respite from their humidity and heat. Now we have this great weather, with the air cooling off and beautiful blue skies.…