Governor Jay Inslee’s desire to spew reckless and irresponsible demagoguery was on full display yesterday when he called recent decisions by the U.S. Supreme Court a “reign of terror.”  Appearing on a Washington Post video blog, the governor sought to grab more attention for himself from the nation’s liberal elites by uttering outlandish comments regarding the court’s recent decisions which take power out of the hands of bureaucrats and unelected judges, and returns it to the voters and their elected representatives. But unfortunately for the governor, the Washington Post blog was the only place that carried the governor’s attention-seeking comments.

The governor responded to a question about the court’s recent decisions by stating, “This is just the beginning of this Supreme Court reign of terror…This effort to prevent the majority will in this country has just started.”  Thus Governor Inslee is equating the U.S. Supreme Court using long standing judicial beliefs which return power back to the American voters to the horrors experienced by millions during the Holocaust, Stalin’s Great Purge, and Mao’s Great Leap Forward. Thus to the governor, the court making a ruling he does not like is equal to millions of people dying.  It is a fanatic comment one would expect from a drunk overly-enthusiastic college student on social media, not from someone who wishes to portray himself as a statesman.

Remember these comments come from a governor who has eliminated his state’s legislative branch for the last 859 days as he has abused his emergency authority to impose permanent rules on Washington State workers and residents. Imagine the incendiary and outlandish hyperbole the governor would use if some Republican president had abused his powers as Governor Inslee has done and eliminated Congress from the decision-making process. (Washington Post Twitter and Washington Post blog)

Speaking of Governor Inslee’s abuse of powers, In a recent interview he said he would likely again use a line-item veto in the future despite decisions from the State Supreme Court which ruled such vetoes were illegal.  In a recent interview with Axios, the governor stated, “They (the state supreme court) resolved it in favor of the legislature this time. They may favor the governor the next time.”

A report from the Washington Policy Center points out that the 1974 law which regulates the governor’s vetoes states, “If any bill presented to the governor contain several sections or appropriation items, he may object to one or more sections or appropriation items while approving other portions of the bill: Provided, That he may not object to less than an entire section, except that if the section contain one or more appropriation items he may object to any such appropriation item or items” (emphasis WPC).  The law clearly states that the governor can veto full sections of bills and appropriations items, but the governor cannot simply strike a word or line from the legislation as Governor Inslee has done often.  We wonder why the governor has not labeled the Washington State Supreme Court’s decisions against him as “the beginning of their reign of terror” as he has done with the U.S. Supreme Court (see above story). (Washington Policy Center report and Axios)

A new report from the Washington Research Council states that due to three significant factors the state’s poorly designed WA Cares plan and payroll tax already fails to meet its solvency requirement.  By state law the plan cannot exceed a premium rate of 0.58% (of workers’ paychecks). Yet if this rate were used when the delayed implementation is scheduled to begin in July, 2023, the plan would not be able to pay for itself as it is required to do.  The three factors are

• 473,000 Washington workers have already opted out of the state plan (the state predicted only 103,000 would do so).
• The 2022 legislators added some near retirees and others to receive benefits from the plan while exempting military families from paying premiums. (Thus legislators increased the number of people eligible for receiving benefits while reducing the number of workers paying into the plan.)
• The state had estimated that only 16.5% of those opting out would be under the age of 35 (i.e. those who will pay into the plan for longer). Yet data reveals that 32.3% of those who opted out are under 35 years old.

The Office of the State Actuary is scheduled to provide the new rates which will keep the plan solvent later this fall.  Our guess is this will happen after the November elections, as the state government releases information when it is convenient for Democrat politicians, not when its good for citizens to make informed election choices. Republican legislators and legislative candidates have unanimously called for scrapping the poorly-designed and already bankrupted WA Cares plan and instead provide government backing to a privately run voluntary plan.

The WA Cares program continues to be the epitome of the liberal political philosophy which makes promises to fix a problem by imposing an ineffective expensive government program which is only successful in making government larger and imposing higher taxes on its citizens. (Washington Research Council and Washington House Republican Caucus media release)

Car thefts continue to rise since the passage of the Democrats’ 2021 anti-police legislation.  Since criminals know that police cannot pursue suspected car thieves, there is very little preventing them from continuing to profit from the Democrats’ reckless actions.  According to the Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force, 50 cars were reported stolen in Pierce County over the July Fourth weekend.  As of this morning only 12 vehicles had been recovered.

Car thefts will continue to increase as long as thieves know they can get away from officers due to current pro-criminal pursuit prohibitions.  Despite public outrage over the increase in car thefts, Democrats during the 2022 legislative session refused to pass a bill (SB 5919) to fix the problem and allow police to pursuit suspected car thieves. And as long as the Democrats control the legislature, there is very little hope that a fix will be passed since the chair of the Senate Law & Justice Committee Manka Dhingra (D -Redmond) has gone out of her way to ensure police can no longer pursuit criminals.  This year Senator Dhingra is being challenged by Ryika Hooshangi in the 45^th Legislative District Senate race. (MyNorthwest, Puget Sound Auto Theft Task Force Facebook page, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, Seattle Times, and Shift Newsmaker Interview)

A 14-year-old girl was the 25^th homicide to occur in Tacoma this year as violent crime continues to skyrocket throughout Washington State.   Sadly it is certain that the city will surpass the 33 murders which took place during all of 2021, as crime rates have climbed since the passage of the Democrats’ 2021 anti-police package.  This is what happens when lawmakers allow liberal violent rioters to dictate the state’s public safety laws. (Q13 FOX News)

Democrat Senator Emily Randall (Bremerton) giddily promoted the vandalism of a pro-life billboard as the number of similar attacks have been reported against local churches and pregnancy centers.  Senator Randall stated in an Instagram video that she “had to pull over when I saw the decorated/corrected billboard” that is in Gorst (just east of Bremerton).  The sign was paid for by a Pro-Life group and had been spray painted to display a pro-abortion message.  Evidently the senator believes that vandalism and political violence are acceptable ways to promote a political viewpoint.  (MyNorthwest)

Travelers can blame Governor Inslee’s COVID vaccine mandate for the extra hours they are forced to sit in their cars waiting for a ferry.  The Washington State Ferry System currently has 30% less sailings than normal due to lack of certified workers available to work on board the vessels.  132 state ferry workers were fired last October for refusing to submit to the governor’s vaccine mandate for state employees in the executive branch of state government. The governor made this long term “emergency” order which has impacted thousands of lives without consulting with legislators, local officials, or local health officials as he has now undemocratically abused his emergency powers for 859 days. (KING5 News and MyNorthwest)

The high price of gas has impacted first responders in the Tri-Cities more than it has their counterparts in more urban communities.  Emergency services in rural areas are more impacted by the price of gas because fewer fire stations are responsible for serving a broader territory.  The Benton County Fire Department had increased its 2021 fuel budget by 30% for 2022.  Yet the department has already surpassed its yearly budgeted allotment. The impact is even more significant since most large emergency vehicles run on diesel, which is approximately a dollar more expensive than normal gas.  If the Washington State Democrat lawmakers ever decide to join Republican lawmakers (and their Democrat colleagues in other states) to provide Washington residents with gas tax relief, first responders will also receive the benefit. (YakTriNews)

A new report from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) strongly contradicts beliefs held by wealthy urban environmentalists by stating the few lethal removals of predatory wolves have not impacted the specie’s recovery in the state.  Governor Inslee (on behalf of his wealthy contributors in the Seattle environmental community) has insisted that more regulations be put in place to stop the removal of wolves who attack cattle and other farm animals.  The new WDFW report stated that more regulations are not needed and “Washington has some of the lowest levels of wolf-caused depredations and subsequent wolf removals anywhere in the nation under current management practices.” (Capital Press)

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