Witches, vampires, ghosts–they are all scary in movies. But the threats faced in real life are much scarier.
🎃Threats to Health Care and Food Assistance: Massachusetts faces deep cuts in health care access, food assistance, and more due to the Big Ugly Bill passed this summer, and we face looming cuts to SNAP given President Trump’s illegal decision not to spend emergency resources. Massachusetts has a higher GDP than Sweden: we are a rich state with ample resources, and we should be raising new revenue and tapping into our flush rainy day fund. (When it’s raining, you take out the umbrella.)
🎃Threats to Privacy Rights:As Big Tech behemoths like Facebook and Google become accomplices to Trumpist authoritarianism, we need to rein in their ability to buy and sell our personal data in an unregulated market place. The State Senate took action last month, but the House needs to as well. And the clock is ticking.
But we can prevent these frights with good policy.
When you watch a horror film, you know that one of the scariest things can be inaction. That sense that the outcomes were not inevitable at all, that opportunities were missed, that voices were unheeded, all of them empowering whatever villains lurk.
We have seen far too much inaction from Beacon Hill this year.
On the last day of the 10th month, only 49 bills have been signed into law. Of those 49, 21 were home rule petitions for one city or town, 13 were personnel matters about individual people, and 8 were budgets and supplemental budgets.
Let’s change the ending of this scary movie.