Leave it to far-left freshman State Senator Pramila Jayapal (D-37, Southeast Seattle) to speak truth to power in her party – that “you’d be hard pressed to find significant differences between her [Kshama Sawant] and our party platform.”
Anybody who has paid attention to the Democrat platform in recent years would note the Democrats’ commitment to a state income tax and other means of redistributing wealth using a state government their party has been running for a generation. Karl Marx would certainly approve of the direction Washington State Democrats have made under the “leadership” of Jay Inslee and Frank Chopp.
But leave it to Jayapal to link the arms of legislative Democrats and the Socialist Sawant, in complaining to the 37th District Democrat organization that it is wrong to exclude someone who doesn’t consider themselves a Democrat from a Democrat candidate forum.
Kind of like welcoming Socialist Bernie Sanders to the Democrat race for president – even though he has consistently refused to be called a Democrat when running for office – as the Washington State Democrat party did a couple weeks back.
tensor says
…other means of redistributing wealth using a state government…
Senator Baumgartner is a Socialist from Seattle??!?!?!?
Overall the Senate plan spends nearly $1 billion in Spokane County and provides a net return of $1.35 for every dollar Spokane sends to Olympia in the form of gas taxes and other fees.
You go, Comrade “Welfare Baum”-gartner! Take money from evil Seattle capitalists and spend on common good of Spokane drivers! That will show silly Seattle mass-transit riders for chumps they are!
Biff says
Weak analogy, comrade. Really, that’s the best you got?
tensor says
It’s not an “analogy,” it’s a fact. I strongly suggest you not throw around terms you don’t understand.
Given the number of posts here praising the Senate Republicans’ transportation bill, and the post here, decrying the use of government to redistribute wealth, it seems more than a little odd that I’m the only one who has noticed that one explicitly-stated purpose of the Senate Republicans’ transportation bill is to redistribute wealth. As a financial contributor to this site, what do you make of this miserable failure by the front-page posters?
Biff says
Seeing as how your weak analogy is now fact, what is a transportation bill for? Building and maintaining roads, be they in Spokane, Vancouver or the Puget Sound area. Last time I checked Spokane was still in WA state so building a road in WA is one of the only uses of a WA transportation bill
tensor says
…what is a transportation bill for? Building and maintaining roads…
No, it’s for improving transportation. Building roads might detract from that goal, e.g. the WSDOT ferry system being a better transportation option than more roads.
If we’re going to redistribute wealth via a transport bill, then we need to see some realistic — and conservative — predictions showing this wealth transfer doing some good, for both the makers (King County’s taxpayers) and the takers (Spokane). So far, all we have is Sen. “Welfare Baum”-gartner screaming like a toddler for his nanny state to give him another toy freeway.
Biff says
The best way to improve transportation is to improve the transportation people use the most, by an overwhelming majority, roads. The ferry system is a another heavily subsidized boondoggle that is only marginally more effective than light rail. No matter how much you want all your comrades in their gray uniforms gloriously riding buses and trains, normal people are still going to choose the best option: driving. Get over it.
tensor says
The best way to improve transportation is to improve the transportation people use the most, by an overwhelming majority, roads.
Yes, there have been massive public subsidies for financial support of privately-owned vehicles over many decades — and we have massive traffic jams almost every working day in King County to show for it. That we’ve sunk huge amounts of taxpayer dollars into socialism for automobile owners doesn’t necessarily mean that building more roads is a good idea now.
The ferry system is a another heavily subsidized boondoggle that is only marginally more effective than light rail.
By what metric(s)? Also, why not compare ferries to roads? Or are you pretty certain the roads would fail that comparison?
No matter how much you want all your comrades in their gray uniforms gloriously riding buses and trains, normal people are still going to choose the best option: driving.
Strange — all of those certain words, and not a single financial metric showing how Sen. “Welfare Baum”-gartner’s pet pork project will benefit us King County taxpayers he’s proudly trying to soak for it.
Biff says
“Yes, there have been massive public subsidies for financial support of privately-owned vehicles over many decades”
What an idiot. Who has paid for the “massive public subsidies”? Could it be maybe the gas tax which is paid by….motorists when they put fuel in their evil privately owned vehicles?
“not a single financial metric showing how Sen. “Welfare Baum”-gartner’s
pet pork project will benefit us King County taxpayers he’s proudly
trying to soak for it”
Comrade, when you’re riding the bus in your gray uniform to another glorious day at the Ministry of Truth, you don’t pay any Washington State gas taxes so your opinion doesn’t count on how to spend the Washington State gas tax. We Washington State motorists who pay the Washington State gas tax have no problem with those funds building a road in Washington State. It’s a far better deal than using those funds to pay for Frank Chopp’s relatives lifestyle.
“why not compare ferries to roads?
Don’t let it out at the CPUSA meeting that you’re cool with subsidizing the bourgeois capitalists transportation to their second homes in the San Juans.
tensor says
Who has paid for the “massive public subsidies”?
The first federal funds for highway construction arrived in Washington state in 1916, when a privately-owned automobile was still a rare sight on our roads. Owners of private vehicles have been gobbling down huge slabs of government pork since the days when there were hardly any of them to feed.
…you don’t pay any Washington State gas taxes so your opinion doesn’t count on how to spend the Washington State gas tax …
You’ve already made your contempt and loathing for our system of free and fair elections very clear on many threads here, even when you had to go completely off-topic to do so. Your total lack of respect for the way in which we free people choose to govern ourselves does not, however, in any way alter our form of government. A citizen gets one vote, regardless of his tax burden.
So, why not compare ferries to roads?
Do you approve of Senator Baumgartner’s open use of our state’s transportation budget as a governmental device to redistribute wealth?
Biff says
“Do you approve of Senator Baumgartner’s open use of our state’s
transportation budget as a governmental device to redistribute wealth?”
How dense are you? One too many indoctrination sessions, Comrade. Again, as a Washington State motorist who pays Washington State fuel taxes (currently among the highest in the nation), I have absolutely no problem with Washington State fuel taxes funding construction of roads anywhere in Washington State. As stated in the 18th amendment to the Washington State Constitution, it’s the only legal use of those funds. Do you need more clarity than that? Funding Frank Chopp’s relatives lifestyle is not listed in the 18th amendment’s text. Subsidizing the bourgeois 1%ers transportation to their 2nd homes in the San Juan’s isn’t either. But you’re cool with that, just as long as it’s not getting the comrades to another glorious day at the bus factory in Spokane.
tensor says
I have absolutely no problem with Washington State fuel taxes funding construction of roads anywhere in Washington State.
Thank you; that answers my question. You fully approve of our state government being used as a vehicle for redistribution of wealth from the creators (primarily taxpayers in King County) to the takers (in places like Spokane).
As stated in the 18th amendment to the Washington State Constitution, it’s the only legal use of those funds.
Wrong. Section 40 of our state’s constitution, per Amendment 18, specifies ferries as a completely legitimate use of those funds:
Such highway purposes shall be construed to include the following: […] operation of ferries which are a part of any public highway, county road, or city street;
Subsidizing the bourgeois 1%ers transportation to their 2nd homes in the San Juan’s isn’t either.
According to the 2014 WSDOT statistics, only ~10% of ferry rides were in the San Juan Islands (2+ million of 23+ million); most were in the south Sound.
Biff says
So you’re cool with subsidizing 2 million trips by 1%ers to their 2nd homes every year. Got it. You actually have to pay for motor vehicle fuel to pay the tax, so what do you care? No skin off your nose. Bike on, dude.
tensor says
So you’re cool with subsidizing 2 million trips by 1%ers to their 2nd homes every year.
Yes, every last ferry ride, each and every year, from Anacortes to the San Juan Islands is always a rich person going to a second home. Sure it is, genius. (Got some numbers to back that up? Nope, didn’t think so.)
Given that a fare from Anacortes to the San Juans is $12.95, while it costs $8 to get from Seattle to Bainbridge or Bremerton, and $5.20 to go from Fauntelroy to Vashon, wouldn’t it be more accurate to say the wealthy riders to the San Juans are subsidizing the workers who commute via ferry?
Bike on, dude.
Yes, I’ll continue staying healthy, using less space on the roads, and not sending my money to those wonderful regimes in Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. You must be so proud of your chronic financial support for Latin American radicals and Arab jihadis!
Biff says
“Given that a
fare from Anacortes to the San Juans is $12.95, while it costs $8 to
get from Seattle to Bainbridge or Bremerton, and $5.20 to go from
Fauntelroy to Vashon, wouldn’t it be more accurate to say any wealthy riders to the San Juans are subsidizing the workers who commute via ferry?”
No, it wouldn’t be accurate at all. Fares don’t pay the bills. Motorists do. Without motorists to pay the bill, all your schemes would collapse.
“You must be so proud of your chronic financial support for Latin American radicals and Arab jihadis!”
No less proud than you are of your non-support for your fellow Americans in Alaska and North Dakota.
tensor says
No, it wouldn’t be accurate at all. Fares don’t pay the bills. Motorists do.
If that’s true, it’s per the Washington State Constitution. By all means, please contact your state representatives and urge them to de-fund the state ferry system. (Let us know what, if anything, they tell you in response.)
No less proud than you are of your non-support for your fellow Americans in Alaska and North Dakota.
Huh? Alaska leads the nation in per-capita receipt of federal taxpayer money. North Dakota doesn’t do so badly either; it’s well above the national average. Washington State is almost exactly at the national average, so my federal tax dollars are flowing freely to both places you specified.
Socialism is alive and well here; money flows from rich urban liberals to impoverished rural conservatives all of the time, thanks to government at the federal and state levels. Maybe the title of this post should be, “Conservatives Don’t Admit That A Socialist Agenda Is Their Agenda”?
Have the princes of Arabia thanked you for all of the jihadis you’ve helped them to finance?
Eastside Sanity says
You Idiot.