Meeting Notes 2020-2021

COVID-19 in the White House

• Rose Garden gathering violates DC regulations (federal property)

• Hope Hicks

  • Pres. Trump

  • First Lady Melania Trump

  • Kayleigh McEnany

  • Stephen Miller

  • Senator Mike Lee

  • Chris Christie

  • John I Jenkins

  • Greg Laurie

  • Kellyanne Conway

  • Four press office aides

• 105 new coronavirus cases in DC, the highest number since June 3

Virginia Legislators & COVID-19

• Governor Northam and Virginia’s First Lady Pamela Northam have tested positive for COVID-19 with mild symptoms

  • Staff in governor’s mansion

• Delegate Danica Roem from the 13th district tested positive for COVID-19.

• Delegate Elizabeth Guzman from District 31 had to get tested

SCOTUS Nomination

• Judge Amy Coney Barrett is the nominee for the US Supreme Court, as of September 26, 2020

First Presidential Debate

• Starts at 9pm, available to watch on all major networks, and runs for 90 minutes without commercial breaks

• Topics for the debate are "The Trump and Biden Records," "The Supreme Court," "Covid-19," "The Economy," "Race and Violence in our Cities" and "The Integrity of the Election," according to the Commission on Presidential Debates

Senator Harris vs Vice President Pence TONIGHT

• Tonight is the one and only VP debate! It takes place from 9-10:30pm and will be available to watch on all major networks

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/YammBN9ecxQ

VA Voter Registration Extension

Trump and Biden's Town Halls

Governor Northam Kidnapping

COVID in the White House

Polls

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/-NpZF3AA-mw

Virginia

• BIDEN WINS.

  • Biden: 53.7% (2,315,840 votes)

  • Trump: 44.7% ( 1,927,215)

• WARNER WINS.

  • Waner: 55.6% (2,340,190 )

  • Gade: 44.4% (1,869,324)

• AMENDMENT ONE PASSES.

  • Yes 66%

  • No 34%

• House Races

  • Rashid lost to Wittman (District 1)

  • Webb lost to Good (District 5)

  • Spanberger won (District 7)

  • Wexton won (District 10)

  • Connolly won (District 11)

DC

• BIDEN WINS.

  • Biden: 93.4% (252,328 votes)

  • Trump: 5.2% (14,022 votes)

• INITIATIVE 81 PASSES

  • DC decriminalizes non-commercial amounts of psychedelic plants

Governor Updates

• Vermont’s Republican Governor Phil Scott is the only incumbent Republican governor to vote for Joe Biden.

• Maryland’s Governor Larry Hogan did not vote for Biden or Trump, opting to write-in Ronald Reagan.

National Map

• States of significance: Arizona, Georgia, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Texas, North Carolina

• Right now: need Michigan, Wisconsin, and Nevada to turn blue to get (exactly) 270

Congress Races

• The GOP holds a 53-47 advantage in the Senate; need 51 for majority

  • Democrats defeated Republican Sens. Gardner in Colorado and McSally in Arizona

  • GOP picked up a seat of its own in Alabama (Jones)

  • Graham and McConnell re elected

  • Incumbent Collins wins Maine race

• Democrats hold a 232-to-197 majority over Republicans (with one Libertarian and five vacancies); need 218 for majority

  • Progressive Bowman won the race for New York's 16th Congressional District; defeated Rep Engel, a 16-term Democratic incumbent

  • Progressive Bush of Missouri won a House seat and became the first Black woman to represent the state in Congress

Buckle Up

• Madison Cawthorn elected as a GOP representative for NC's 11th District

  • Youngest elected representative to serve in Congress since 1797 (25)

  • Nazi posts, campaign website scandal, denial of systemic racism, allegations of sexual misconduct, general lying

• Georgia Republican Marjorie Greene elected to House after backing QAnon conspiracies

Good News

• Sarah McBride of Delaware is to become the first transgender Senator in the US.

• Vermont’s Taylor Small became their first transgender representative.

• Kaiali'i (Kai) Kahele, Hawaii’s second ever Native Hawaiian representative has been elected, replacing Tulsi Gabbard in Congress.

Legalization

• Arizona, Montana, New Jersey, and South Dakota, voters legalized recreational marijuana.

• Mississippi and South Dakota legalized medical marijuana.

• Oregon has become the first state to legalize psychedelic mushrooms. They also decriminalized all drugs, becoming the first state to do so.

• A third of all people in the U.S. now live in a state/district where marijuana is legal.

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/uGjKbpgoGh0

Election Reflection

Virginia

National Map

Georgia's Runoff Elections

Virginia’s Gubernatorial Race

Happy Thanksgiving! Talking Turkey

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/5CwWt381fyU

Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg: 1933 - 2020, May her memory be a blessing

• Text RBG to 504-09

Policing

• A package of police reforms passed through the legislature!

• Keep pushing for qualified immunity

Vote, Virginia!

• Election Day is Tuesday, November 3, 2020.

• The deadline to register to vote is Tuesday, October 13, 2020.

• The deadline to request a ballot by mail is Friday, October 23, 2020 (must be received by then)

• Early voting period runs from Friday, September 18 to Saturday, October 31

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/O-0qhV5BS5A

What Encouraged National Action?

The death of numerous Black Americans caught international attention, including Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, Elijah McClain, Ahmaud Arbery and Jacob Blake.

The loss of these lives spurred action in the streets and propelled a movement for justice, after years of work.

Key Terms

Black Lives Matter: Black Lives Matter is a social movement focusing on combating police brutality and racial discrimination against Black people. It is decentralized, meaning they avoid having a notable leader or organization head, instead opting to use national action at a grassroots level. The term was coined by Alicia Garza, Patrisse Cullors and Opal Tometi.

Institutional Racism: Institutional racism/systemic racism is forms of discrimination deeply imbedded into different systems and policies.

Environmental Racism: Environmental and climate crisis that disproportionately impact communities of color.

8CantWait: Terminology used to emphasize eight key police reforms- Requires De-Escalation, Use of Force Continuum, Bans Chokeholds and Strangleholds, Require Warning Before Shooting, Ban Shooting at Moving Vehicles, Exhaust All Alternatives, Duty to Intervene, Comprehensive Reporting.

Reparations: Policy to directly pay descendants of slaves.

Police Brutality: Excessive force used by police officers. This disproportionately impacts Black Americans, particularly Black men.

Police Unions: Police unions protect precincts and individual officers, becoming a massive lobbying force against reforms.

A.C.A.B.: “All cops are bastards;" the term means that those who participate in a racist system are upholding something broken and wrong, though the individuals themselves are not inherently wrong like the system (though they are not absolved).

Defund The Police: Reallocating funds from police departments to better fund other government agencies and social programs.

Abolish The Police: Fully dismantle the system of policing as a means of creating a new system of neighborhood monitoring, under the belief that reforms are impossible.

Prison Abolition: Prison abolition focuses on the reduction or elimination of the prison system as a whole in the United States. Three pillars: moratorium, decarceration, excarceration.

Virginia’s Role

• Second most schools named after Confederate figures

• Most Confederate monuments/symbols in the U.S.

• Racially divided housing

• Education

  • Segregated schools through the 1964 (FCPS) - 1968

  • Changing of school names in FCPS stalled by Dems

  • Historical content

  • Higher level course/school isolation

• Financial division

• Gentrification and nationally disproportionately high eviction rates in Richmond

• Lack of equitable pandemic relief action taken in the legislature

• Historic elections

• Crown Act

• Juneteenth is an official paid state holiday

Policing Policy

• The majority of police shootings in Virginia have been ruled as justified, but the reporting and recording of these cases allows for biased policing

• In April of this year, lawmakers passed House Bill 1250 Virginia Community Policing Act

  • Bans racial bias in policing

  • Must form a Community Policing Reporting Database

    • Officers must enter data regarding ethnicity, age and reason for stopping. They must also include information regarding what occurred during the stop (citations, searches, etc). If officers do not comply with this reporting, their departments will be “ineligible for 599 funding.”

  • Improved the reporting of complaints and channels to the Attorney General’s office.

• Senate Bill 5030 Policing reform; acquisition of military property, training of officers in de-escalation techniques

  • Grants the Virginia Department of Criminal Justice Services more power in oversight and editing, and requires new members who are lawyers

  • DCJS must adopt new state requirements on de-escalation and educational standards for officers that are evaluated annually

  • Officials must report officers who have engaged in any misconduct within 48 hours of being made aware of the infraction

  • Board can begin the process of decertifying any current or former officers who have engaged in “serious misconduct.”

  • Prospective jail or law-enforcement officers are required to report any past arrests or prosecutions, regardless of whether it has been expunged.

• Deadly force and any form of neck restraint is fully illegal now, unless deemed absolutely and immediately necessary for protection.

• Any officer found in violation of this ruling or found abusing their authority is guilty of a Class 6 felony.

• Other officers must now intervene and provide aid if they bear witness to another officer using excessive or illegal force.

• Officers are also now prohibited from firing into or at a moving vehicle.

• Agencies are blocked from gaining some military surplus equipment from a federal grant program (federal 1033 Program), or they can forfeit their 599 funding.

  • Disliked by activists, as demilitarization will only be possible when armored vehicle purchasing is through the buy-in approach.

• Qualified immunity has not passed, and a new sub-committee will address it in 2021.

• Amendments on the new no-knock and nighttime search warrant bans being introduced

• Now if officers can prove that they at least tried to contact a judge, they can gain approval from a magistrate.

  • Magistrates are the first level of judge in Virginia (most do not have law degrees) who usually oversee minor matters.

  • Amendments pushed by Police Unions

Democrats Nationally

• Voting against the Tim Scott (GOP) JUSTICE Act

  • Accountability

  • Transparency

  • Additional

    • “finally make lynching a federal crime.”

    • Form “two commissions to study and offer solutions to a broader range of challenges facing Black men and boys, and the criminal justice system as a whole”

  • Nothing done afterwards to combat police racism or prison reform

  • No COVID relief

  • Rejecting the notion of police reformation in the House and blaming it on losses

    • Representative Abigail Spanberger, VA

    • “All this backlash to ‘Defund The Police?" How fast are people gonna fold when we get serious about reparations?” - Rep. Jamaal Bowman

    • “To be real, it sounds like you are saying stop pushing for what Black folks want.”- Rep. Rashida Tlaib

Vice-President-Elect Harris

• Senator Harris is the first partially Black woman to be vice president

• Harris was the District Attorney General (A.G.) of San Francisco from 2004 to 2011, then California’s A.G. from 2011 to 2017.

• She referred to herself as the “top cop.”

• Inmates in California fight wildfires for $2 per day, and according to a study from Berkeley, generate $150 million in direct sales for California. Supreme Court and federal judge ruling demanded that California’s prison population was to be reduced, but Harris’ office worked to push back against this.

  • Harris stated that she was “shocked” upon reading this in an article, saying she wanted to check for accuracy.

• Harris was very strongly against marijuana use, eventually softening on medicinal and federal legalization, but not recreational usage. Harris now fully supports legalization.

• Harris passed truancy laws that disproportionately impacted poor communities, as fines and court time could reach up to $2,500 and parents were jailed outside of her county.

  • In a New York Times op-ed, the former director of the Loyola Law School Project for the Innocent in Los Angeles, Lara Bazelon, stated that Harris “fought tooth and nail to uphold wrongful convictions that had been secured through official misconduct that included evidence tampering, false testimony and the suppression of crucial information by prosecutors.”

President-Elect Biden

• Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act (1994 Crime Bill)

  • Worked in tandem with The Anti-Drug Abuse Act of 1986, altered sentencing between crack and powder cocaine

  • Expanded policing nationally

• Led charge during the war on drugs

• Worked with segregationists, most infamously on bussing

  • Limited school integration

• Biden said he believed America would "find the root of systemic racism in this country."

  • “The chief cornerstone has already been laid, the groundwork has already been done, the foundation has already been built. The only thing that he has to go in and do is continue to capitalize off of the momentum. Biden needs to hit the ground running on legislation and executive action.” - Louis L. Reed, #Cut50

Criminal Justice Plan

• Policy points

• • Elimination of the death penalty

  • Supports police reform

  • Limit incarceration (particularly young women)

  • Repeal cash bail

  • Expand research

  • Use the president’s clemency power

  • Limit prison privatization

  • Mandate prison collection

  • Improve health needs for incarcerated women

  • Decriminalize the use of cannabis and automatically expunge all prior cannabis use convictions

  • End all incarceration for drug use alone

  • Development of federal program and task forces

  • Bobby Scott’s SAFE Justice Act (VA, 3)

    • Reduce recidivism

    • Concentrate prison space on violent and career criminals

    • Increase use of evidence-based sentencing alternatives

    • Curtail overcriminalization

    • Reduce crime

• Policy issues

  • Investing $300 million in expanding community interactive police

    • Expands police power

• Racially reflective police departments

  • Does not change arrest or violence rates

• Will not make a statement regarding meeting with Black Lives Matter leaders

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/BQCtRMyGu5o

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/TkxIT4Gni8U

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/028h875O0To

The U.S. Healthcare (Mess)

The Basics

How is healthcare structured?

• The US spends more on health care services than does any other nation. It ranks last amongst its peers “on measures of quality, efficiency, access to care, equity, and the ability to lead long, healthy, and productive lives,” according to the Commonwealth Fund.

• Healthcare in the U.S. works on a Federal, State, and local government level, combined with private insurance. There is no single nationwide system of health insurance, meaning each citizen pays into a different system.

• 45,000 people die each every year as a direct result of not having any health coverage. 27.8 million Americans went without any health insurance. (Harvard, 2018)

• A lack of accessible health care contributes to the U.S.’ staggering infant and birthing mortality crisis.

• The U.S. is number 33 out of 36 amongst Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries for infant mortality. Black women died at a rate 2.5 times higher than white women when giving birth.

• Hospitals are owned by private and public companies. The eight states with the highest levels of hospital closures since 2010 are not Medicaid expansion states.

• 1/4 rural hospitals are at risk of closing. (CCRH, 2019)

What is Medicare?

• Medicare is the federal program that covers healthcare for people over the age of 65. The Affordable Care Act expanded Medicaid to nonelderly adults with a certain income to receive federal funds.

• Medicaid is the federal program that provides medical coverage to those who are most financially struggling. It only covers certain out of pocket costs, it does not provide complete coverage.

• Medicaid is established as a state-federal system, meaning that states can choose to expand upon what the government provides. Virginia is a Medicaid expansion state. Some states utilize Section 1115 waivers to opt out and provide their own supplements.

• There is a match formula, which means people have to have a certain percentage of their coverage matched by government dollars, as is appropriate for their financial situation.

• This still often discriminates against disabled people. Medicaid is income-based, and when people marry a partner not on those programs, their assets are included in the calculation and used to determine eligibility. This means Medicare (and SSI) keep marriage equality from being a reality.

• 44 million people in the U.S. are on Medicare (15% of the population).

Why can’t states provide care directly?

• Too expensive for a state budget to handle

• Requires federal cooperation to be effective

• The Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA)

  • Blocks expansion

  • Blocks repealing of employer-funded healthcare

• Virginia is ranked ninth in the nation for best state coverage

What did the Affordable Care Act do?

• The Affordable Care Act (ACA)/ObamaCare was signed into effect in 2010, and was the most comprehensive healthcare change in recent U.S. history

• It allowed private and employer-based insurance to continue

• It subsidized the cost of insurance for those earning 400% or less of the federal poverty level

  • Single person: $49,960

  • Family of four: $103,000

• It did leave millions of Americans uninsured

• Expanded the age children can remain on family health insurance to 26

• Provided coverage of the “ten essential health benefits”

  • Prescription Drugs

  • Pediatric Services

  • Preventive and Wellness Services and Chronic Disease Management

  • Emergency Services

  • Hospitalization

  • Mental Health and Addiction Services

  • Pregnancy, Maternity, and Newborn Care

  • Ambulatory Patient Services

  • Laboratory Services

  • Rehabilitative and Habilitative Services and Devices

What is Medicare for All?

• There are numerous pieces of Medicare for All legislation

  • • The most comprehensive include Senator Bernie Sanders’ and Representative Pramila Jayapal’s

  • No premiums

  • Funded by taxes

  • Replaces Medicare and all private insurance

  • Prohibit copays and deductibles

  • Fully comprehensive (dental, psychological and eye care)

• Raise taxes to fund Medicare For All

  • Implement wealth tax

  • Would financially benefit 95% of Americans, as the taxes paid would be significantly lower than health insurance costs

• Urban Institute appraises the total cost at $32-34 trillion over 10 years.

• The federal government currently spends $1.2 trillion on healthcare annually, while states each spend an average of $3.5

• Switching to a single payer system would ultimately save $400-600 billion overall.

Why do we have medication monopolies?

• There is very limited regulation on the costs of medicine in the U.S.

• There is no government panel responsible for any kind of drug oversight

• The multiple layers of administrative overhead up prices

• People pay out of pocket

• Individual drug prices in the U.S. ranged from 708-4,833% higher than 11 other nations

• Other countries regulate the development of drugs, whereas they’re handled in the private sector in the U.S., meaning it benefits productivity to keep the investment rate high

Democrats

Where’s the party going?

• 59% of people in the U.S. supported Medicare for All in March of 2018, but it dropped down to 51% in October of 2019.

Is universal healthcare feasible in the U.S.?

• The U.S. government doesn’t like large changes

• It would take at least a decade to transition the nation away from private insurance

• It’s going to take a lot of work to gain public favor (Red baiting)

• Having the Senate changes the game completely, but even if Bernie Sanders had been elected many were skeptical

• Within the next ten years it will likely become more realistic

Who is fighting universal healthcare?

• Insurance companies

• Pharmaceutical companies

• Those with an interest in “limited government”/avoiding expanded budgets

• Interest groups spent $100 million shaping the ACA to be more favorable (MC)

The Biden-Harris Administration

What was VP Harris’ plan?

• KamalaCare intended to:

  • Expand Medicare’s currently existing programs without developing or adding needed items like vision

  • Avoid taxing those making less than $100,000 per year (which neglects to factor in the brunt of the finances that the middle class will bare)

  • Keep care in the hands of private companies with no intention of transitioning to a single-payer system

  • “Hints” at getting rid of copays and deductibles, while expanding Medicare over a 10-year period

What does President Biden want to do?

• The BidenCare plan intends to:

  • Get 97% of Americans insured to some extent

  • Lower the Medicaid eligibility age to 60

  • Reinstate the individual mandate, which penalizes people for not being covered

  • The plan will only allow people to spend 8.5% of their income on insurance (ACA = 10%)

  • Begin negotiations with drug manufacturers to lower prices

  • Limit price increases on “abusively” priced drugs while launching new prices for drugs that do not have competition and allowing citizens to buy cheaper priced prescription drugs from other countries

  • Terminate drug advertising tax breaks

  • Allow undocumented immigrants to buy into the public option, sans subsidizing

• The Biden-Sanders taskforce asked that the federal government pay the full cost of continuing the coverage that people lost, using the federal law COBRA

What has President Biden done so far?

• The Biden administration’s freeze on Trump-era blocked two rules intended to lowering drug prices (rebates and insulin)

  • The Department of Health and Human Services issued numerous regulations that sought to address high drug prices in Trump's final days

  • These changes originated in a set of executive orders from July and September

• He reopened HealthCare.gov for a three-month enrollment to check state ACA insurance options outside of the regular window

  • 7.7 million people lost their employer health insurance due to the pandemic

• He issued a Presidential Memorandum to protect and expand access to comprehensive reproductive health care

• Reexamining agencies relating to health

How will Democrats utilize the Senate?

• The House recently approved a large expansion of ObamaCare. Now the Senate has the opportunity to approve and push for large changes. It was recently changed to allow DREAMers to get coverage.

• Reconciliation is a parliamentary maneuver that allows the party in control of Congress to pass most big-dollar legislation with a simple 51-vote majority in the Senate without concerns of a filibuster.

• The public option policy won’t fit into reconciliation’s rules, though versions of Medicare for All do fit into the restrictions. It is likely that not enough senators have an interest in pushing for a new public option.

• For now, the focus will likely remain on:

  • Closing the Medicaid gap in the 12 states without the expansion (Wyoming, South Dakota, Texas, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee and Mississippi)

  • Readjusting drug prices

  • Small ACA expansions

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/m7Qrc3x1yrk

Website: https://perrymanforvirginia.com/

Volunteer Opportunities: mobilize.us/perrymanforvirginia

Email: sean@perrymanforvirginia.com

Introduction

• Running for Lt. Gov, from Fairfax (was president of Fairfax NAACP)

• First in his family to go to college/law school, worked in litigation; asked to become a senior associate on case on Donald Trump

  • Due to Trump’s comments on POC, José Andrés closed his restaurant in Trump International Hotel; Trump hired Perryman’s law firm and at that point, Perryman quit his job and walked away (realized Trump’s dangerousness)

• Worked for Congressman Elijah Cummings

  • Inspired by his sense of purpose and wondered how he could get involved in his community

• Got involved with the Democratic Committee and NAACP (became youngest president and grew organization from 400-1400 by tackling “unsolvable issues” such as changing Robert E. Lee High School’s name to John Lewis)

  • Also worked on education system, connection b/w police and schools, and changes to first responders in order to build equity in NoVA

• Took on state wide challenges during pandemic by fighting for worker protections

• First campaign, raised 200k

  • Focused on struggle between economic policy and racial/environmental/social justice

  • Black/brown, low income, rural communities are compromised; wanted to fight for them

VA has recently passed bills regarding criminal justice; regarding your plans for reimagining criminal justice/prison systems, what is your number 1 goal and focus?

• Barr’s legacy: no parole system, ending cash bail

• Wants to oversee legalized cannabis market and address communities impacted

• Expanding access to the ballet by abolishing felony disenfranchisement (legacy from Jim Crow Era and has racist roots)

How would you say working as a lawyer prepared you to be president of the Fairfax NAACP and to run for office?

• As an advocate, you always make arguments to persuade

• Write for your audience; couch arguments in a way that would be acceptable and resonate with the audience you are talking to

  • Ex. for police reform, want transparency/accountability

• Digging into policy/figuring out how to create effective solutions

Because you haven’t held a state level office before, how will you be prepared for this position?

• You can have the most impact state-wide and the issues are not limited to one district

• Movement on issues are after state level officials see importance in them

How would your policy goals affect teenagers like us, and other young people?

• How can we give opportunities that don’t require student loan debt?

• Expand STEM boot camps to rural VA to train people with useful skills w/o debt

Is your campaign internship program open to high school students?

• Yes but no full-time roles

• Find new ways to reach people

• Links

  • perrymanforvirginia.com/internships

  • twitter.com/SeanPerrymanVA/status/1356595956238737408?s=20

Could you talk about your plans for climate change?

• Need to end our use of fossil fuels to reduce carbon footprint statewide

• Support Green New Deal / VA Green New Deal (but thinks the timeline needs to be quicker)

• Clean school buses

• Link to platform

  • perrymanforvirginia.com/issues/stopping-the-climate-crisis-in-its-tracks

How would you attempt to achieve "VCEA’s timeline to reach 100% renewable energy sources by 2035" if elected?

• Need to have intervention on Dominion

• Through tax incentives to adopt certain technology (like solar panels), use of public standards, credits for buying a hybrid/clean vehicle, make it more affordable to use renewable energy and environmentally friendly options

How has working/campaigning during a pandemic shaped your goals?

• Broadband access for education/work/health (telemedicine)

• Getting rid of limiting factors

• Digital government infrastructure (modernization; counties are using different systems, need a centralized, technical solution); lack of communication b/w Richmond and localities

  • Ex. vaccine rollout, unemployment checks

Hopefully the pandemic will be over (or mostly over) by the time you would take office, but what are your plans for VA's recovery from it?

• Hope to see/wants to push for the cannabis market (economic recovery; how will we be prepared for the next crisis?)

• Big, broadband infrastructure project (stimulus project)

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/dBV9PBVr_Jc

Medical Aid in Dying: An overview of its importance and next steps for Virginia

Medical Aid in Dying defined

• Medical aid in dying is a safe and trusted medical practice in which a terminally ill, mentally capable adult with a prognosis of six months or less to live may request from his or her doctor a prescription for medication which they can choose to self-ingest to bring about a peaceful death.

• Nuanced terminology

  • Preferred: Medical aid in dying, death with dignity

  • Opposed: Euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, suicide, assisted suicide

Who is eligible for MAID?

• A resident of the state

• An adult (18+)

• Terminally ill with a prognosis of six months or less to live

• Mentally capable of making their own healthcare decisions

• Able to self-ingest the medication

How does it work?

• Patient must make two oral requests and one, written request with a witness for lethal medication

• The oral requests must be 15 days apart

• Both an attending and consulting physician must confirm the patient’s capacity and terminal diagnosis. A third opinion can be requested as can a full psychological examination.

Arguments against MAID

• MAID is a slippery slope towards mercy killing.

• MAID is a violation of the Hippocratic Oath.

• We already have Voluntarily stopping eating and drinking and Palliative Care/Palliative Sedation, we don’t need MAID.

• People requesting MAID are clinically depressed and can’t be trusted to make this decision.

• Only God should decide when life is over.

A brief history

• 1900s – Euthanasia was secretly being practiced in the U.S., however, the eugenics movement strongly influenced the discourse on legalizing euthanasia and the issue largely disappeared.

• 1980s – Dr. Jack Kevorkian creates a device terminal patients can use to self-administer lethal medications and advertises himself as a “death counselor” in Detroit area newspapers.

• 1990s – Dr. Kevorkian assists ~130 people end their lives before he is convicted of second-degree murder and sent to prison.

• 1997 – Kevorkian’s conviction caused his physician contemporaries to file a suit against the NY Attorney General arguing the State of New York’s prohibition against physician-assisted suicide violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.

  • This case ultimately went to the Supreme Court which ruled there is no constitutionally-protected right to die (Vacco v. Quill, 1997), thus leaving such decisions to the states.

Years of passing by state

• 1997 – Oregon (ballot initiative)

• 2008 – Washington (ballot initiative)

• 2009 – Montana (Supreme Court ruling)

• 2013 – Vermont

• 2015 – California

• 2016 – Colorado (ballot initiative) and D.C.

• 2018 – Hawaii

• 2019 – New Jersey and Maine

Virginia Compassion and Choices Goal

• Make the medical practice of aid in dying a legal and accessible option in Virginia for terminally ill adults who are mentally capable to make healthcare decisions.

Legislative history

• 2018 – Virginia Joint Commission on Healthcare published “Medical Aid in Dying Final Report,” a study undertaken at the request of Del. Kaye Kory (D-38)

• 2019 – Del. Kaye Kory introduced HB 2713, the Virginia Death with Dignity Act; referred to Committee for Courts of Justice, failed to meet a legislative committee deadline, and did not advance.

• 2020 – Del. Kory introduced HB 1649, the Virginia Medical Aid in Dying Act; referred to Committee for Courts of Justice

Next steps

• Make sure you and your loved ones have advanced medical directives in place and have discussed end of life options.

• Consider having your group sign on as an official endorser of this legislation in advance of the 2022 General Assembly session.

• Write to your local state delegate to let them know you support MAID.

• Talk to people in your lives about this issue – increased awareness is the biggest driver of increased support.

• Reach out to kate@untoldresearch.com if you want to get more involved!

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/gkmtOnB-JNo

Women’s History Month

Violence

Biden’s Record/Plan:

• Violence Against Women Act (1994)

• Fair Housing Act:

  • Establish a new coordinated housing initiative

  • Expand access to housing assistance

  • Provide cash assistance to survivors

  • Allow survivors to access their retirement savings

  • Guarantee paid domestic violence, sexual assault, and stalking safe leave

  • Expand access to lawyers

Violence Against Women Reauthorization Act of 2019

Violence against women is incredibly common: 1 in 7 women have been injured by an intimate partner.

Trans women face fatal violence: since 2015, 80% of transgender homicides were Black women, and less than half of those cases led to arrests

The Wage Gap

What is the wage gap?

• In 2018, the gender pay gap in the United States in was about 18.9%

• The Wage Gap is worse in Virginia — “Women in Virginia typically make $0.79 for every dollar paid to men. The national figure is $0.82. Black women in Virginia typically make $0.60 cents for every dollar paid to white men.”

What’s being done to combat the pay gap?

• Paycheck Fairness Act

  • Sponsored by Sen. Murray and Rep. DeLauro

  • Protect against retaliation for discussing salaries with colleagues

  • Prohibit employers from screening job applicants based on their salary history or requiring salary history

  • Passed by the House

  • Senate next?

• Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act (2009)

• Harris’ Record

  • Vice President Harris wants to address racial inequality through the Fairness Act, and focus on diversifying the job market. She said we should raise the minimum wage, but backed down on that.

  • Harris also called for the passage of the Equal Rights Amendment.

• Biden’s Record

  • Says he will work to expand businesses owned by women

  • Requested data

  • Says he will fight for the Fairness Act

  • Calling for pay transparency

Medical Sexism

What is medical sexism and how did the U.S. get to this point?

• Misdiagnosis:

  • Mental health

  • Serious diseases

  • Learning differences

    • Women have a 50% higher chance of getting an incorrect initial diagnosis, even after having a heart attack.

• High mortality rates

  • Black women are three times more likely to die during pregnancy, with little action being taken

• Medication not developed by women or for women

  • Prevention of women entering medical fields

• Continual prevention of medical abortion access, as well as medical services provided at organizations like Planned Parenthood

• Period poverty

  • No anti-tax legislation

• Incarcerated medical violence

  • Biden says he will focus on this

• Trump-era repeal of ACA anti-discrimination clauses (impacts women, trans folk, those with disabilities, etc.)

Education

What are Democrats doing to combat education barriers?

• 57% of U.S. students in college are women

• Affordable higher education

  • Biden stated that he will encourage women in education

  • Biden’s loan/education plan right now = ?

• Global education

  • Minimal action taken, currently

• Jill Biden’s initiative is focused on education

Recording Link: https://youtu.be/fBXaE7H2Sd4

Violence against the Asian community

• Biden-Harris Administration condemns violence

  • Limited concrete plans that specifically focus on AAPI

  • Voter rights

  • Primarily focused on language and immigration barriers

• Biden Cabinet already criticized for lack of Asian and Pacific Islander representation

  • Limited Congressional representation

• Need to undo previous policies

Border Humanitarian Crisis

• Reopening with ill preparation

  • Three times as many people as in 2020

• Collapsed infrastructure

• ICE

$1.9 Trillion Stimulus Bill

• All GOP and Jared Golden (ME) and Kurt Schrader (OR)

• $10, 000 tax break in unemployment

• $300 unemployment extension

• $1,400 checks and narrower eligibility

• $75,000 per year and couples earning $150,000

• $3,000 tax credit per year year for each child ages 6 to 17, and $3,600 for each child under 6.

• $350 billion for states, cities, tribal lands and territories

• $20 billion in emergency rental assistance

• $10 billion goes to mortgage and homeownership assistance

• $130 billion towards K-12 school reopening, $40 billion to universities, $1 billion to early childhood education programming

• All coronavirus-related student loan relief tax-free.

• $1.25 billion for summer enrichment; $1.25 billion for after-school programs and $3 billion for technology.

• $86 billion bailout for failing pensions

• $510 million for the FEMA Emergency Food and Shelter Program

• It expands the Employee Retention Tax Credit for start-up companies

• Increases the value of the federal COBRA health insurance program

  • Medicare For All bill reintroduced to the House

• The Senate bill also adds $8.5 billion in funds for the Provider Relief Program to assist rural health care providers.

• Establishing more COVID testing and vaccine centers

• $10 billion in infrastructure

  • New plan coming soon?

• Adds $200 million to Amtrak relief

• No federal minimum wage increase

  • 58 Senators just voted against it, eight of which were Democrats

    • Joe Manchin (WV)

    • Jon Tester (MT)

    • Jeanne Shaheen (NH)

    • Maggie Hassan (NH)

    • Angus King (ME)

    • Kyrsten Sinema (AZ)

    • Tom Carper (DE)

    • Chris Coons (DE)