Jay Inslee’s top 5 deceptions of 2014

Sorting through all of Jay Inslee’s partisan attacks, ideological talking points, sports metaphors and just plain weird sentence structure took us the entire calendar year. But, in between watching bowl games today, enjoy a few of the public lowlights of the state’s green governor.

1. Jay Inslee often points to dying oysters as proof of ocean acidification. In fact, during 2014, dying oysters became his “central argument for cutting carbon emissions.” Here’s the thing: absolutely no evidence exists that oysters are dying due to ocean acidification or any other reason—that fact was confirmed by scientists at Inslee’s own Department of Ecology (DOE).
2. During his gubernatorial campaign, Jay Inslee repeatedly promised that he would veto any new tax proposals. He classified new taxes as the “wrong direction” for Washington State. Yet, earlier his month, even the mainstream media called Inslee out for breaking his promise in a historic way by proposing unprecedented multi-billion dollar tax hikes in his recent budget proposals – though, of course, those paying attention will recall that Inslee has proposed new taxes in each of his two previous budgets, so the promise was actually broken in early 2013. But hey, better late than never for the media types to notice a Democrat not telling the truth.
3. Our green governor is attempting to pass off his budget proposal—which includes historic spending and tax increases—as an “all for the children” necessity. In reality, it’s all about fulfilling his extreme green agenda and benefitting his top campaign donors.
4. Jay Inslee has spent much of 2014 contradicting his own consultant’s report and insisting that his fuel mandate scheme will not result in an increase in fuel prices of more than a $1 per gallon. However, the state’s budget writers predicted that reaching Inslee’s defined carbon-reduction goal “would add an additional $1.47 to the cost of a gallon of gasoline in 2035, and cause a substantial price increase in natural gas.”
5. Our green governor claims that the 2014 mid-term elections results—which saw Republicans gain an outright majority in the State Senate and weaken Democrats’ majority in the state House by picking up four seats—was not a referendum on his extreme political agenda.  Inslee refuses to acknowledge that, by releasing another draft report about his environmental agenda just a week before the election, he placed himself and his policies on every ballot. And, voters said “NO.” Two recent polls provide further proof that Washingtonians do not support Inslee’s plans.

Now, once the bowl games are over, we can start the tally on Jay’s 2015 exaggerations, misrepresentations and outright falsehoods. Stay tuned to Shift to see them all, in real time.