The WA State Socialist/Democrat Party now with the votes and fully in control of all the legislative committees in Olympia are guilty of a gross violation of senate ethics rules: Despite warnings, on February 23rd - 25th "Emerge Washington" (an organization dedicated to training Dem candidates) used the State Legislative Building facilities and staff to conduct a Democrat campaign school, on state time with state resources. Besides being highly unethical this is illegal, violating RCW 42.52.180.
Additionally more totally absurd and dangerous Democrat socialist proposed legislation is closer to becoming law as the new 2019 Dem agenda is completely out of control and off the rails, here are some examples.:
House Bill (HB) 2140 is a devious Democrat attempt to pass a "Mystery Tax & Spend Title Only Bill" which means it has not been written yet. The only verbiage says: "An act relating to K-12 education funding." This act may be known and cited as the K-12 education funding act " ---END---. The purpose is to pass a law then add new text and taxes later, in hoping you will not notice. This is a fundamental attack on transparency and "taxation without representation."
Senate Bill (SB) 5693 is an organized attempt to demonize modern agriculture, the law would require farmers to report "any incidents of slavery, peonage and human trafficking"; the clear message to our Agriculture community is that you are guilty of being a slave holder until proven otherwise.
HB 1817 and SB 5698 would require forced unionization of oil refinery workers, this would eliminate any ability of choice workers have to join (or not to join) a union; and SB 5623 & HB 1575 will make it easier for unions to start deducting dues from public employees wages. Also the unfair practice of forced Democrat unionization could soon apply to many other private sector industries like cosmetology. This is a direct violation of the 1st amendment (freedom of association).
Dem SB 5270 changes the dates and timelines for campaign business to be conducted in Olympia. This creates an environment where campaigning will be done during session and allows govt. corruption at the highest level. Currently there is a strict line between campaigns and legislative work. This law ends that, so legislators and their campaigns could easily solicit and accept money from stakeholders while in session, and "money for votes" will be all too easy.
SB 5395 has Democrats now mandating all WA public schools teach "Comprehensive Sex Education" beginning in kindergarten. E.g. curriculum includes students being indoctrinated into the Democrat transgender ideology and asked things like, "If you could be born again what gender would you choose?", Homosexual, Transgender techniques, etc.
SB 5116 / HB 1211 mandates that WA state phase out all fossil fuels, natural gas, coal, oil, etc. (have a 100% carbon neutral electricity supply) by 2030 and be 100% carbon free electric by 2045. Meaning we will be forced to spend billions of dollars to provide alternative sources of power such as wind and solar. PSE is estimating this will immediately add about $35 per month to every households heating bill. This is a ridiculous and needless penalty to our citizens as WA state currently is one of the cleanest energy states in America and the leading hydro-electric producer in the country. In the pacific NW relying on wind and solar is not economically viable and Democrat policies wanting to "Leave All Fossil Fuels in the Ground" is lunacy ; this is simply about liberal progressive govt. control and punishing taxpayers.
HB 1257 / SB 5293 "Energy Efficiency" is another government mandate program which guarantees rate hikes for natural gas by forcing the utility companies to change business practices (adding costs). Also the new law could mandate additional stringent building codes; landlords have to pay for costly "green energy" retrofits for all existing commercial building in the state (as a result these new laws would guarantee higher prices for new homes and higher rents across the board).
SB 5154 / HB 1108: The new Dem budget contains $750,000 for a State Snake River Dam Task Force to help the Orca. This is a waste of money and redundant, a new committee is not going to compete with the Federal team that has been studying the issue since Sept of 2016; Federal report will be done Sept of 2020. Obviously "special interests" and other agendas are at work here as the dams produce 5% of pacific northwest electricity. PLEASE REMEMBER our hydropower is renewable, clean, and carbon free.
SB 5949 puts taxpayers at risk by creating a state bank that would serve as a depository of public funds. This is a very dangerous path as lending decisions will be increasingly driven by politics, rather than economics.
HB 1523 requires WA Health Benefit Exchange via DSHS to create one-size-fits-all govt. health care plans, this eliminates providers, limits options / choice, and increases costs.
SB 5811 is going to require all new car dealers to have a minium of 2.5 % of their inventory be electric cars. Yes Democrat government is again telling business owners how to run their businesses, in this situation mandating what their business inventory must be, making private business public and completely by-passing the free markets.
Democrat SB 5223 requires utility companies dramatically expand their purchases of power from customers with rooftop solar panels, to at least 4% of their load, if enough customers join the program, then electric utilities must pay full retail price for power generated by private rooftop solar panels (more than wholesale rates utilities pay for other sources of electricity) driving up our costs. This especially hurts middle & low income families, renters and seniors because under the bill, customers who don't have solar panels would pay higher electric costs to support the customers that do.
HB 5323 statewide plastic bag ban. This is another socialist "climate change" power grab that mandates to business and their customers what they can or can't do. Check the science: Plastic bags are cheaper to produce and are the most energy-efficient form of grocery bag. The UK Environmental Agency compared energy use for plastic, paper and re-usable bags. It found the "global warming potential" of plastic grocery bags is 1/4 that of paper bags and 1/173rd that of a reusable cotton bag. Re-usable bags are also very toxic as they spread germs (those bags spend time in trunks of cars, with pets, etc.). This new law also hurts other industries like 'building supply' as plastic bags are being recycled into "Trex weatherproof composites" used for decks, fences, park benches, even playground equipment. Additionally plastic bags can be recycled into tennis rackets, electrical devices, solar cells for batteries, among other things. Also plastic bags can inexpensively be recycled into new plastic bags again and again, and yes the plastic bag recycling process is more environmentally friendly than other methods.
Even though WA state has the 2nd highest state gasoline prices in the country many Dem proposals still aim to punish us with higher fuel prices; SB 5412 / HB 1110 directs the Dept. of Ecology to set up a "Low Carbon Fuel Standard" which would add more biofuel and other costs to produce gasoline, this could equate to an immediate .16 cents per gallon tax increase and potentially go up to .34 cents per gallon, increasing inflation, delivery costs of goods, food, etc., so If you thought that voting down I-1631 was the end of a carbon tax in WA you were wrong; SB 5970,71 &72 are other options that imposes a new "Carbon Fee" ($15 per metric ton) which could equate to a .19 cents per gallon gas tax.
HB 1638 would mandate vaccinations for all children that go to public school, yes parents now have no say so in whether their own kids get to have a needle stuck in them. Forced immunization is an attack on personal and individual rights especially when the government is the only authority in saying what can or can't go into someones body.
SB 5889 is another Dem bill that attacks parents rights allowing teens to have medical procedures and documentation (including abortions & sex reassignment hormone surgeries) kept private and away from parents knowledge.
SB 5356 establishes a Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual & Transgender State Run Commission and SB 5689 singles out the LGBT community as a protected class.
SB 5165 would create a "Special Protected Status" for Illegal Aliens, which means that if you were a landlord or employer you couldn't ask their status if they are here legally or not; i.e. people who have broken the law to get into our country (illegally) technically would have more rights than citizens.
HB 1311 / SB 5393 / HB 1340 creates program entitlements for Illegal Aliens to be considered "resident students" qualifying them for College Scholarship programs.
SB 5497 / HB 1815 prohibits local law enforcement agencies from cooperating with Federal authorities; prevents sharing of the criminal's info, blocks jail interviews, etc.
HB 1488 / SB 5339 does away with "Life Without Parol" for convicted murderers and reduces death sentences down to 15 years, with time reduced for "good behavior". This means that a person who murders someone (even several people), then found guilty in a court of law, after incarceration could possibly be back on the streets in less than 10 years.
SB 5129 includes a 67 % B & O increase in taxes on service related businesses and a new income tax on capital gains which will severely impact job creation and probably would set the stage for a future state income tax that most everyone will have to pay. This equates to $2.6 billion in new taxes for 2019-21 and $3.1 billion for 2021-23.
HB 2156,57 & 58 are new B & O tax policy proposals that (among other things) will raise health care costs by massively taxing independent doctors and health care professionals. This will make health care much more expensive for all of us and make life much harder for people on fixed incomes and Medicaid.
Dem SB 5273 will mandate that all voters who want to vote in the upcoming 2020 Presidential Primary election MUST choose a party affiliation as either a Democrat or a Republican by checking a box on the ballot, otherwise their vote is null and void and will not be counted. This completely disenfranchises the voters and will lead to massive voter suppression as an estimated 500,000 + people will most likely choose not to vote.
SB 5078 is a concerted attempt to remove President Trump off of the state 2020 elections ballot. This would force Presidential candidates to disclose tax returns (even though Trump for the past 3 years has repeatedly said that he will make his tax returns public after the IRS finishes their audit). If this becomes law expect a court challenge for state lawmakers placing conditions on Federal Elections.
Enough Democrat Authoritarianism, we are already over-regulated, over-taxed and over burdened. There is simply way too much socialist abusive micromanagement by the Democrat state legislature. Also WA state has over a 2.8 billion dollar surplus of tax revenue and state tax revenue has increased by 57 % in the last 5 years. Has your salary grown by that much? There is absolutely no sensible justification for more sources of excess taxation that needlessly hurt working families.
Additionally many of these "Green Energy" proposals are not realistic and will be dangerous to our electrical supply grid and could easily produce "brownouts". The new proposed laws are not sustainable without massive new taxes and severely penalizes the citizens all in the name of reducing a carbon footprint; all this does is prohibit industries from moving forward in free markets. Here is an example to help understand the Dem "Climate Change" disinformation campaign hoax: China recently ordered 7,700 new airliners, the amount of carbon that is produced by those new airliners would be about 4 times what the entire state of WA produces per year in carbon (just by these airliners servicing China).
These Democrat socialist new taxes and policies does little for the environment, it is about govt. power & control all done in the name of promoting a "Green Manifesto" which now could potentially cost families thousands of extra tax dollars per year. Sadly it is totally unnecessary as WA state already is a nation leader with 77% of our electricity coming from renewable sources.
Also of important note in Olympia: Democrats killed many good Republican bills, including HB 1635 which would have prevented WA state public libraries (using taxpayer dollars) to allow patrons to openly view pornography, apparently the Dems think this should be the norm and is totally acceptable in many of our state's counties. Also the Dems killed Republican HB 1588 which would follow our state constitution and prevented local governments from imposing an income tax on an individual or household's income, and HB 1378 which would have reduced daycare costs by giving child care providers more options when it comes to required education standards.
Our Republican state legislators have been consistently unified by vehemently opposing these and many other terrible Democrat bills via amendments and floor debate, but in most cases are being shut down by Dems in control and censored by most all media. To voice your comments please contact your legislators or call the legislation hotline @ (800) 562-6000.
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her Campaign Manager (and now her Chief of Staff) Saikat Chakrabarti are under investigation by the FEC for funneling over $1 million in political donations into private companies. Evidence shows the two created and controlled 2 Political Action Committees (PAC's) and did not report expenditures. Also appears AOC donors exceeded campaign limits by donating to AOC and the AOC controlled PAC's which in turn were giving money to private companies controlled by AOC's Campaign Manager, and they did not report the use of the money. Chakrabarti's LLC companies appear to have been set up for the sole purpose of obscuring how the political donations were used. Both could be facing jail time. More proof of the obvious; we live within a massive Democrat media bias of double standards. IF THIS HAPPENED IN TRUMP'S CAMPAIGN WHAT WOULD THE MEDIA BE SAYING ABOUT IT???
The Southern Border crisis has completely spiraled out of control, the numbers keep spiking; according to US Customs and Border Protection in February alone 76,000 illegal aliens were apprehended at the southern border, and in March it was over 100,000. These were only the individuals caught, an estimated 50% + are not caught. And new projections say the numbers of illegals caught in the last fiscal year will be more than the previous combined 3 year total. Yes, this is a criminal invasion and an emergency as the system is beyond capacity and at a breaking point. With these kinds of numbers massive amounts of new violent terrorists, murderers, MS-13 gang members, drugs, etc.entering our country are assured. Currently about 70% of those being arrested are from the "Northern Triangle of Central America", which includes Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Obviously the corrupt Democrat machine, lobbing groups and liberal media are doing much in their power to facilitate the illegal immigration process, this includes the reckless US Congress who voted to stop the President's (completely legal and just) Souther Boarder Emergency Declaration. The Democrat plan for illegal immigration has been in the works for decades as it directly leads to Democrat votes in elections all across the country. This includes working with CAIR (Council on American-Islamic Relations), the front group for the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas. Lets not forget that Hamas is a terrorist group which has an ideology and religion bound on he destruction of Israel.
Last month with HR 1 "For the People Act" The Democrat US controlled House of Reps voted along party lines 228 - 197 to defend local governments that choose to allow illegal aliens to vote in their elections, this bill included an historic expansion of voter registration and access, as well as a major rewrite of campaign finance laws, luckily it was blocked by the GOP Senate; however this makes it crystal clear that Democrats prioritize illegal immigrants over American citizens which in turn devalues the vote of legitimate voters.
Fisher Sand & Gravel Company is saying they can build 234 miles of the much needed southern boarder wall for just $1.4 billion, lets hope more private industry follows suit. Leave it to private business to minimize govt. bureaucracy to help solve this massive national crisis.
New data from the US Commerce Dept shows that real GDP grew by 3.1% from the 4th quarter of 2017 to the 4th quarter of 2018. Also, 3.6 million fewer Americans are on SNAP (Food Stamps) then when President Trump took office. More confirmation that nationwide GOP Pro-America economic policies are working!
In a recent 5-4 decision he US Supreme Court handed the Trump Administration a huge victory, now making it easier for Homeland Security agents to hold illegal aliens under criminal custody during deportation proceedings. This reversed a lower court decision and will help to curb nationwide sanctuary city policies that fosters government negligence and lawlessness. Also the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals has a newly appointed Conservative Judge and two more coming soon. Another important reminder why it is absolutely necessary to re-elect Trump in 2020 or our country may be done!
It is very sad to have seen Fox news choose to go so far left on the political spectrum with the recent hiring of Donna Brazile (the corrupt Democrat and former CNN commentator that was caught giving Hillary Clinton the questions ahead of time in the 2016 Presidential debates); and Fox aligning themselves with CAIR over a benign and factual commentary by Judge Jeanine Pirro is even more troubling. The main stream media (and Fox news) is continually censoring and spinning much important truth. I would highly recommend One America News Network (OAN) as a very reliable, true and trusted news source. OAN has a group of professional journalists and broadcasters that are True Conservatives, see oann.com / klowdtv.com or Direct TV Channel 347.
NASA newest data is saying that the greatest global two year cooling event of the last century just occurred, Feb 2016 - Feb 2018, blowing out of the water many Dem "global warming trend" talking points.
March 20th, 1854 marked the official founding of the Republican Party. On that day a formal meeting happened in Ripon, Wisconsin. The main topic was the anti-slavery movement discussed by several former Whig Party members.
Thank you to LD 28 GOP Sen. O'Ban who sponsored WA State Senate Resolution 8611 which commemorates the end of slavery in America and the 156th anniversary of "Reconstruction", it also honors President Lincoln's signing of the congressional resolution for the 13th Amendment to the US constitution. In addition to the abolition of slavery, Reconstruction also brought forth the 14th Amendment which gave citizenship to former slaves and guaranteed equal protection under the law. The resolution, which will coincide with National Freedom Day, passed last month.
Thanks to the Snohomish County Republican Party for helping us to host, and the Washington State Republican Party for putting on last weekends GOP Campaign Training / Advocacy Workshop in Arlington. It was a very informative event that was attended by over 75 Republicans. The SCRP is here to promote Conservative values and good GOP candidates for elected office and events like this help us to achieve our goals!
A big thank you to Tim Lewis for helping to host this years SCRP Lincoln / Reagan Day Dinner at the beautiful Corporate Air Center in Burlington. We are also very grateful to have Washington State Treasurer Duane Davidson and and State House Republican Floor Leader Jacquelin Maycumber as Featured Speakers at this years special event. Do not miss, it will be on Saturday, May 11th and a lot of fun! For more information and to RSVP please see: http://skagitrepublicans.com (Homepage).
To see Jacquelin Maycumber in action fighting for us in Olympia please click here:
Respect & Blessings,
Bill Bruch, SCRP Chairman
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