Say what you will about Seattle Mayor Ed Murray, but suggesting that he has a “lack of compassion” when it comes to spending taxpayer dollars on anything liberal is rather silly. Yet, that’s exactly what Socialist Seattle City Council member Kshama Sawant claimed based on Murray’s budget proposal.
This week, the socialist councilmember went off on the mayor’s budget and claimed Murray’s “progressive rhetoric is not matched in the budget with real numbers. ” Specifically, Sawant said that Murray’s budget was “lacking in urgency to address the housing crisis” and that it “amounts to little more than window dressing obfuscating a Chamber of Commerce–approved budget that does almost nothing to rein in runaway inequality.”
The socialist councilmember then topped her ridiculous comments with this out-of-left-field line, “The mayor finds it difficult to say ‘Black Lives Matter,’ and so does his budget. How can we explain this lack of urgency, other than as an utter lack of compassion?””
Sawant is, of course, just attempting to grab headlines—it’s been awhile since anyone has paid attention to her. And, as we’ve all come to realize, she has a tendency to grasp on to the latest and greatest controversy and drop it into conversations when you least expect it. It’s her version of a mic-drop—a mic-drop she thinks is effective, but leaves her audience wondering what just happened.
As lefty blog Publicola points out, contrary to Sawant’s claims, Murray’s budget spends plenty of taxpayer dollars on causes pushed by affordable housing and social justice activists. His budget “includes $1.5 million in new resources for homeless services, funds a new 100-bed shelter, includes $1.5 million for new community health facilities, and adds $240,000 to support the three new homeless encampments that the council, including Sawant, voted for.”
