Nothing says “climate leadership” like cutting wildfire prevention funds in half while the state chokes on smoke.

In a Seattle Times op-ed, Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center lays out the obvious: if you want fewer catastrophic fires, you thin forests, harvest unhealthy timber, and use controlled burns. Tribes like the Colville and Yakama are already doing it successfully, and even the Department of Natural Resources has made progress through the Good Neighbor Authority program. But instead of keeping their promise to fund forest health, Democrats in Olympia gutted the budget—leaving millions of acres dangerously overgrown.

The kicker? Democrats never miss a chance to lecture about “climate change” while ignoring the fact that their own policies make fires worse. They’d rather virtue-signal about carbon taxes than actually protect forests, salmon streams, and air quality.

As Myers points out, the solutions exist—and Washington is even seen as a national model when the state actually funds the work. But thanks to Democrat budget games, the smoke will keep rolling in every summer while politicians keep patting themselves on the back for their “green” credentials. Read more at the Seattle Times.

Nothing screams “Democrat competence” like spending $133 million converting a ferry to hybrid-electric power—only for it to break down less than a month after launch.

The Wenatchee, hailed as the crown jewel of Washington’s “green ferry future,” sputtered to a halt on the Seattle-to-Bainbridge route when two of its four drive motors suddenly cut out, briefly leaving the boat dead in the water. Officials brushed it off as a “normal part of vessel commissioning,” which is bureaucrat-speak for “we spent a fortune and it still doesn’t work.”

This fiasco comes after the conversion ran nearly a year behind schedule and blew past the original cost estimate for converting three ferries—with the Wenatchee alone topping $133 million. Meanwhile, Gov. Bob Ferguson was forced to pause further conversions and hand a $714 million contract to a Florida shipbuilder, snubbing Washington’s own shipyards that couldn’t compete thanks to the state’s sky-high taxes and regulations.

And yet Democrats are still pushing ahead with their $4 billion dream of an all-electric ferry fleet, funded by—you guessed it—the Climate Commitment Act and other tax hikes.

So riders get unreliable ferries, taxpayers get the bill, and politicians get green bragging rights. Call it what it is: a luxury climate vanity project where the only thing moving smoothly is your money straight out of your pocket. Read more at the Post Millennial.

Life under Democrat rule comes with a bonus feature: everything costs more.

While national inflation rose 2.7% over the last year, the Pacific region—home to California, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, and Hawaii—got hammered with a 3.27% hike. Core inflation? Also higher than the national average. Translation: blue-state policies are giving families an even bigger hit at the grocery store, the gas pump, the doctor’s office, and just about everywhere else.

Since 2020, the average Pacific household has shelled out an extra $46,339 thanks to runaway prices—$7,146 more on food, $13,801 more on transportation, and over $11,000 more on housing. And that’s with housing inflation supposedly “slowing down.” Only in Democrat strongholds does “slowing” mean you’re still paying through the nose, just slightly less than before.

Experts can point to supply shortages, housing demand, or rising medical costs all they want—but the reality is Democrats’ tax-and-regulate obsession has made the West Coast the most expensive place to live in America.

So while D.C. Democrats keep patting themselves on the back for “taming inflation,” families in Washington, Oregon, and California are left with a different reality: under progressive leadership, the only thing guaranteed to grow faster than the national average is your monthly bill. Read more at Center Square.

Turns out, when regular people finally get to speak up—even from their couch or their car—Democrats in Olympia can’t pretend their tax-hiking schemes have “broad support.”

Forced by COVID to allow remote testimony, lawmakers discovered that thousands of Washingtonians would actually like to weigh in on bills that affect their wallets. And the results haven’t exactly gone Democrats’ way. Take their attempt to blow up voter-approved limits on property tax growth: tens of thousands signed in to oppose it, outnumbering supporters by a landslide. The message was so overwhelming that Democrats had to quietly strip the most unpopular parts out of their bill.

House Speaker Laurie Jinkins is busy patting herself on the back for “expanding access,” but the truth is Democrats never wanted this. Remote testimony only became permanent because Republicans pushed it years before the pandemic. And now, with hundreds of thousands of citizens on record opposing Olympia’s cash grabs, Democrats are stuck with a more engaged—and much louder—public.

So yes, remote testimony is “good for democracy.” It just happens to be very bad for Democrats’ favorite pastime: pretending their tax hikes are what the people actually want. Read more at the Washington State Standard.

Democrats in Olympia have a funny relationship with money—when it’s yours, they’re happy to slap on restrictions. But when it’s federal dollars flowing into their own bureaucracy, suddenly caps are “unfair,” “harmful,” and “politically motivated.”

Attorney General Nick Brown just announced yet another lawsuit against the Trump Administration, this time because Washington can’t skim more than 10% off the top of federal energy funds for “administrative costs.” Here’s the kicker: the state’s own climate law (the Climate Commitment Act) caps admin costs at five percent—half of what Trump’s DOE allows. And in other parts of the state budget, Democrats have imposed caps as low as three and four percent. So apparently strict limits are fine when Democrats are holding the purse strings, but if D.C. tells them to live within the same kind of budget discipline? That’s a lawsuit-worthy outrage.

This isn’t about good policy; it’s about good politics. Suing Trump plays well with their base, even if taxpayers end up footing the legal bill. Brown gets headlines, Democrats get their talking points, and Washingtonians get stuck paying for the stunt.

Bottom line: Democrats aren’t opposed to spending caps. They’re just opposed to anyone else applying them—because waste is only fun when they’re the ones in charge of it. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.

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