Nurses care about our communities

Later today in Yakima, nurses, healthcare workers and community advocates will appeal directly to bank officials in Yakima to return the multi-million dollar tax breaks they receive under an outdated tax loophole, while patients and families lose access to healthcare.

“More cuts to Basic Health and the Disability Lifeline will mean more people who can’t get the help they need. If state leaders succeed in closing Yakima Valley School, that’s going to cost our community 300 jobs as well as services that we badly need. Tax breaks for banks and big business are money on the table that could be used to help patients. The banks should share in the sacrifice that so many of us are being asked to make,” said Sandra Quick, an RN at Yakima Valley School.

“We’re essentially giving revenue away, but we don’t know where our patients, families or neighbors will go for healthcare,” Sandy continued. “It doesn’t make sense, and it’s not right.”

Well Said

This from the Seattle PI's Joel Connelly: "Government workers did not cause the Great Recession. Nurses did not strip value from 401(k) plans. Schoolteachers did not torpedo Wisconsin school districts' investments. Care workers did not render WaMu stock worthless, or employees in Washington jobless."
Read more here

Why Wisconsin Matters

Its claim to fame is cheese. They have a Super Bowl championship team. It's really snowy. On first blush, it may seem like there's not much in common between us and Wisconsin. But what's going on over there is an attack on the middle class, and that's troubling for all of us. Let's be clear: this has nothing to do with balancing Wisconsin's budget. The state workers have already agreed to pay and benefit cuts. And the Wisconsin governor is actually proposing a whole slew of new tax loopholes, so how bad could it be? No, this is about killing unions. It's about strangling the voice for jobs, decent pay and health care. It's about making corporations the only players on the political field. And that's why Wisconsin matters, and why we're paying attention.

Time to put on the green eye shades

It's crunch time with the state budget, and every penny counts. But why doesn't government start acting like a business? That's the question posed by state Rep. Andy Billig from Spokane in this thought-provoking editorial. It's so obvious. Discounts mean less money coming in. When a business is having a tough time, it re-examines the discounts it offers. But the state has put corporate tax loopholes off limits. And that's just a recipe for bad management.

Nurses with a Rx for our economy

Nurses know how to make their patients well, and they know their communities. They also stand up for what's right. And it's right to get rid of a tax loophole that helps the banking industry at the expense of working people whose employers don't provide health insurance. By eliminating a $100 million giveaway for Bank of America, Chase and others, we could maintain the Basic Health Plan. But instead of just talking, the nurses took action. Check out the video below or read more.

Tax breaks for banks are making us sick: Save Basic Health