Washington Democrats have declared a war on jobs — that’s the logical conclusion based on the latest far-Left policies they are pushing at the local and statewide level. Democrats from Jay Inslee to the members of the Seattle City Council are supporting and advocating measures that are — simply put — hostile to businesses and job creation.
Our green governor is leading the charge against jobs, pushing his extreme “green” agenda via his carbon rule and actively supporting big labor’s self-interested schemes.
Under Inslee’s carbon rule (which he wants to jam through by executive order), companies deemed as “large emitters” will have to reduce carbon emissions by about 5 percent every three years. The new rule’s cost to Washington businesses is projected at a whopping $1.4 billion to $2.8 billion over 20 years.
Inslee’s carbon regulations (even the supposedly “revised” version of them) would create financial incentives for companies to suspend operations in Washington and move jobs out of state. As the Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers previously put it, “[The DOE’s] plan actually pays for taking jobs overseas, but punishes for keeping jobs here. If you stay, your costs go up.”
Inslee and his “green” supporters have downplayed the consequences of their anti-jobs agenda — conveniently, they either do not mention job losses or by shrug them off as improbable.
Before he even had the chance to impose it, Inslee’s extreme “green” agenda already managed to damage job production in our state. Alcoa – the world’s third largest producer of aluminum—revealed the extent of damage Inslee’s policies could wreak on our state. In anticipation of Inslee’s carbon rule and its resulting higher energy costs, Alcoa announced its intention to close factories in Ferndale and Wenatchee, resulting in thousands of lost jobs.
Other than his extreme “green” agenda, Inslee also prioritizes special interests — especially those that pump millions into his campaign. Inslee has gone out of his way to support Raise Up Washington, a union-backed coalition that is pushing a job-killing initiative this fall.
The unions’ Initiative 1433 would raise the statewide minimum wage to $13.50 per hour and require employers to provide up to seven days of paid sick leave per year. A far-left coalition is attempting to qualify I-1433 for the November ballot (by gathering 250,000 valid signatures by next month).
In an attempt to publicly express his support, Inslee recently took time away from his day job (pretending he’s working as our governor) and volunteered for Raise Up Washington in Westlake Park, collecting signatures earlier this month. Inslee has swallowed the union line hook-and-sinker, claiming that I-1433 would be good for small businesses.
Of course, that’ not true.
Small businesses across the state have responded to I-1433 by expressing concern over how many employees they could afford to retain. Simply put, it’s a job-killing measure.
If there are any liberal politicians who can give Inslee a run for his money when it comes to job destruction, it’s the members of the Seattle City Council.
The lefties on the Council have done a lot of damage to the city’s small businesses — from mandated paid sick leave, to restrictions on criminal background checks when hiring, and, of course, raising the minimum wage to $15 over the next few years. The council’s latest attack on small businesses is a proposal to that would restrict how many people businesses can hire, when they can schedule employees to work without paying a penalty, and the length of notice businesses give them if they aren’t working.
Howard Behar, the former president of Starbucks International, had choice words for Seattle City council members and their plan. Behar pointed out that the officials’ plan would legislate part-time jobs out of existence “by creating so many rules and so many blocks to doing it that companies will just walk away from it.”
Unfortunately, members of the Seattle City Council — like so many of their fellow Democrats (or Socialists) — do not care what their extreme policies do to businesses or jobs. Rather, they care about how their policies fit in to the agenda of their special interest supporters.
Labor unions, for their self-interested reasons, support heavy regulations like those that would control how businesses schedule employees. That, in the end, is who council members listen to when insisting on the job-killing measure.
Democrats are willing to sacrifice quite a lot for their special interests-driven agenda — jobs are certainly something that they do not think twice about before placing them on the chopping block.
Army Vet 4444 says
Just ONE of the many reasons that my family has voted to leave the state of Washington. We have been here for over 15 years now, and things have NOT gotten better, rather, they have gotten worse. There seem to be few people that have the same “family oriented” and “Constitutional” beliefs that we hold, so making friends has become more perilous than pleasurable. The good news is, the state of Washington will have one less family they have to take into consideration, trying to bend their will on us, turning us into a bunch of liberal communist shits.