These are dangerous times. For the first time in its nearly 250-year history, the United States is staring at the abyss of an autocratic state. There is indeed a fork in the road: we either defend the democracy that, for generations, has been a beacon for other countries, or we give in to authoritarianism and oligarchy.

To defend our system of government, we must apply a two-pronged defensive strategy. The first is to raise our concerns with the public and our elected officials. 

OCPP is working with a large group of state partners to create a coordinated media and advocacy response to the threats from the new administration. This coalition — which includes organized labor, immigrant rights organizations, civil rights and LGBTQ advocacy groups, and environmental and legal defense organizations — is the first line of defense. We will inform Oregonians about the dire consequences of cutting funding to the Oregon Health Plan, nutrition assistance, and many other programs that appear to be on the chopping block. We will tell of the impact on families and the state’s economy as mass deportations increase in frequency and intensity. We will pressure our congressional delegation to push back, or at least not go along with supporting policies that will harm their constituents.

The second line of defense is right here in Oregon, not in D.C. As the laboratories of democracy, states will have to step up and reduce the impact of cuts to services that support all Oregonians. The list is long. Just think about it — if you’ve driven on 1-5 or if your children attend public school, you’ve benefited from federal investments. Oregon lawmakers will confront massive budget holes since nearly one-third of the funds the state spends are federal dollars. The choices they will have will be difficult and potentially painful.

But good options do exist. One of those is raising taxes on the richest Oregonians and on the most profitable corporations. Oregon can also stop multinational corporations from avoiding taxes by artificially shifting profits abroad, raising nearly a quarter-billion dollars per biennium. 

Lawmakers should also look for ways to respond to the economic needs that voters clearly articulated in the last election. As Dana Hepper from the Children’s Institute and I wrote in the Oregon Capitol Chronicle, policies like Employment Related Child Care enable “parents to join the workforce” and bolster “family finances by making child care affordable for families with the fewest resources.”  This investment in working families, along with a boost to the state’s Earned Income Tax Credit, “can ease the financial stress many families presently endure, increasing the odds that these children will grow up healthy and able to thrive.”

OCPP continues to advocate for our legislative priorities this session, while at the same time, we will inform elected officials about the impact of the federal budget cuts on their constituents. We need to insist that our state’s policymakers choose wisely among the many options available to address potential budget shortfalls while also advancing a fair state economic agenda. Investing in families and education, protecting the gains we’ve made in health care, ensuring billionaires and corporations pay fair taxes, and strengthening workers’ rights are all real options that could reduce the harm caused by the policy choices made at the federal level. 

OCPP is celebrating 25 years of research and advocacy that have had a direct impact on people’s lives – from ensuring children have health insurance to strengthening the state’s EITC and creating the Oregon Kids Credit for parents with low incomes, for example.  

We must not let up, and we must not let the emerging plutocracy manipulate, for their own benefit, the very real economic insecurity afflicting so many people. With your support, we will continue to speak against these ill-conceived policies and advocate for policies that truly lift ordinary folks. Working together, Oregon can be a bulwark for freedom and economic justice.