Brian Dow’s letter to the editor on Nov. 20 goes to show that, once again, the left doesn’t get it. He starts with the long-term health care initiative that didn’t pass, complaining that Sen. John Braun doesn’t want people to have long-term health care. Wrong.
Braun doesn’t think the government should pay for it. Mr. Dow comments that all four initiatives were paid for by a wealthy person. Perhaps. But did he notice who supported this anti-initiatives campaign? Labor unions. The labor unions didn’t want this initiative to pass because that cost would have been passed on to them. They didn’t want to pay for it. As with most liberal organizations, unions don’t want to pay for anything. They only want to take hard-earned money from the workers they “represent” and pay outrageous salaries to their leaders.
Then there’s I-2109, the capital gains tax on income. First of all, an income tax is prohibited under the Washington state Constitution. But that’s never stopped the tax-and-spend Democrats running this state. They’ve tried to get an income tax in this state for at least 70 years, possibly longer. But the citizens refuse to let them when they get promises like “give us an income tax and we’ll maybe cut the sales tax.” And, like with most tax legislation from the left, it’s their way of getting their foot in the door. Inch by inch, they’ll get their income tax and large sales tax.
Finally, I-2117, the cap-and-trade tax. This is the Democrats’ way of raking in more tax money by selling “carbon credits” that allow the industries they’re so worried about to continue to pollute. And we have already seen that this tax is just passed directly to the consumer in the form of higher gas taxes and groceries and the rest of our cost of living. Some of the money is supposed to go to education, but that’s like the lottery money going there. It goes into the general fund and is spent as the Democrats wish. If the left is so worried about the environment, they should take a look at electric vehicles. The environmental damage done by the mining of the rare minerals required for the batteries far exceed any environmental effect they claim, plus the added weight of the batteries do more damage to the roadways and wear tires considerably faster. And there still isn’t a good battery recycling program. If they really want to make an environmental impact, they should look at the new Netflix documentary “Buy More!” and see the damage plastics and “recycling” are doing to the environment.
As with the anti-initiative advertising, Mr. Dow only told half of his story.
Bruce Peterson
Centralia
