Hello, everybody. This is Robbie Gupta, and this is an episode of Regressives, which is a show all about how we as progressives can get better, or just how progressives generally can get better.

And today we're going to talk about a story of unions selling out their own members, politicians selling out the working class, and about a broken healthcare system.

It all centers around a legal case that's been making its way through the courts here

in my home state of New York.

And fascinatingly enough, my law school roommate or former law school roommate, Jake Gardner,

has been representing the plaintiffs in this case.

And Jake is a graduate of Yale Law School where he was senior editor of the Yale Law Policy Review after earning his bachelor's degree from Stanford University.

And somewhere between his time in law school, he joined the FDNY.

So actually, when I was jumped off to join the Obama campaign, Jake went and joined the fire department where he was a member of Latter 43 in East Harlem, eventually finished his degree in law school, wound up clerking in the district court and in the circuit court for two different judges.

And now as a partner at his law firm where his firm has been taking

on this case. I can never say your firm's name properly so you can shout them out, Jake.

But Jake, welcome to the podcast. Thank you. It's Waldenmont. Walden Mott. Yeah, Walden Mott. WMH.

Shout out to them. And this is not a legal podcast, but I love firms where like the partners do the work, you know,

like I've worked with firms before where they sell you on it and then they pass work down to

associates. And what I love about your firm is you guys, among many other things, is like you guys do the

heavy lifting, which is great. But okay, that's not what we're here to talk about. What we're

here to talk about is a promise that was made, I think starting in 1966, right? City workers, like my mother,

who works at a city hospital and has taught at the College of Staten Island. And so she's a two-time

city worker. They were promised a long time ago and continually in writing and verbally that they would get one health care plan

and recently the rug was pulled out under him. What should our audience know about this story?

There's a lot to know. I'll try to simplify it. So you're right for the past 57 or so years.

So Medicare, the Medicare program, the federal Medicare program, which provides

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