I was shocked this morning, reading a commentary from Zac Eckstein, the current chair of the Lewis County Democratic Party.
He makes some astounding claims that are nowhere near the truth. He bemoans the loss of funding for many of our critical programs, many in the health care field and cuts to higher education.
The letter was filled with flat-out lies. I happened to be there every single day of the legislative session. The biggest falsehood is in the last paragraph. “GOP legislators refused to even participate in negotiations.”
No, they didn't refuse anything. They were shut out of the entire process, because the Democrats almost have a supermajority.
It is true that Republicans believed the budget could have been passed without the increases in property tax, capital gains tax, B&O tax, sales tax, etc. — without cutting one single current expenditure. Why did they believe it? Because they created a budget that did just that.
We didn't have to have the historic increase in the taxes you end up paying. Our funding in this state was almost at record levels before the tax increases, but Democrats still made the choice of making you pay more. There are more details about that budget on the Republican Caucus Website. Just Google $ave Washington Budget.
The cuts to Medicaid, the lack of funding for mental health, the cuts in funding for drug-addicted babies and kidney dialysis, ending Meaningful Day, etc., were choices. These choices were made by nobody other than the Democrats. They found money to pump into all sorts of DEI programs. They even found the money to give $125,000 home loans (that don't have to be paid back) to people based on race.
The Department of Commerce, right now, is offering huge grants to organizations (unelected and unaccountable NGOs) that cater to the needs of those here illegally. Those were more funding choices made by the Democrats.
Zac even mentioned the regrettable hit to higher education, which means higher tuition for any family with a college-bound student. That is a back-end tax on the middle class. When the Republicans had a one-vote majority in 2015, they rolled back tuition. They paid the bills, and they didn’t increase spending by tens of billions of dollars.
These are priority choices. Don't ever tell me that the GOP is responsible for the "painful cuts." It’s a lie. They weren't allowed any input into that horrible budget, and they shouted it from the roof tops.
While these things were choices the Democrats made, you also have a choice at the ballot box. When you vote, choose to vote Republican.
Ruth Peterson
Curtis
