Register Here For April’s Program
After registering at the above link, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the zoom meeting Tue. 4-22, 2025, 12 noon to 1:15 PM (ET).
Many people, including those who voted for Trump, are angry at what this Trump 2 administration is doing to destroy our federal government and its many taken for granted services. They are concerned with the destruction of Federal agencies which weren’t even mentioned as targets during the 2024 Trump Campaign or in the Heritage Foundation Project 2025 which was disavowed by Trump during the Presidential Campaign. Dr. Sue Klein, Co-President of the Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues (CWI) will set the stage by providing a brief outline of the massive destruction of the Federal Government in the DC area and across the nation. Jan Erickson, CWI Co-President, will introduce Nancy J. Altman who is President of Social Security Works and chair of the Strengthen Social Security Coalition. She will provide more detailed discussion of the many threats to social security. Past CWI Co-President, Connie Cordovilla, will introduce Professor Leighton Ku from the Milken Institute, School of Public Health, George Washington University. He will review the ways some health and welfare programs are being obliterated and discuss some ways these attacks can be thwarted followed by an audience Q&A with additional suggestions on defending against and stopping these harmful attacks.
Dr. Sue Klein, who worked 34 years as a Federal Civil Servant in the U.S. Dept. of Education and for another 25 years at the Feminist Majority Foundation will outline the whole of government surprise attack on the federal agencies including many Non-Executive Department offices and those that that were not on previous Trump enemies lists. In addition, Trump 2 used Elon Musk and the so called “Dept. of Government Efficiency” (DOGE) to severely cut staff in Congressionally authorized and appropriated offices like the Dept. of Education (which Trump had announced he planned to abolish) as well as many others. She will speculate on why the public missed this extensive threat and what government advocates should do to maintain good government and stop the unwise terminations of agencies, civil servants, and programs. Do you agree that many voters for Trump would have not done so if they had been aware of plans to destroy the well-functioning federal government by killing many agencies and drastically weakening most others by extensive civil service and program funding cuts?
Jan Erickson will introduce Social Security Works President, Nancy Altman. She has a fifty-year background in the areas of Social Security, Medicare, private pensions, and related programs. She is the author of several books on Social Security history and policy. Altman will provide historical information about Social Security as well as coalition efforts to improve benefits and secure long-term financing of the SS Trust Fund. She will note the impact of the sizeable influx of Baby Boomers who are now joining the ranks of the retired, plus Social Security’s role in reducing poverty among older women and the importance of the Supplemental Security Income program to persons with disabilities. Altman will provide updates on the effects of Elon Musk’s DOGE efforts to fire SSA employees, close local SSA offices and limit access by telephone.
Connie Cordovilla will introduce Professor Leighton Ku, Director, Center for Health Policy and Management, Milken Institute school of Public Health, George Washington University. Among his areas of expertise are national and state health reforms, Medicaid, the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), immigrant health, prevention and health care financing and budgets, with an emphasis on strengthening the health care safety net. Dr. Ku will present data on Economic, Employment and Tax Impacts of Major Budget Cuts and their effect at the state level on programs such as SNAP.