Letters for April 30

More taxes mean less economic freedom

We cringe every time the Washington Legislature goes into session. It is always the same, more taxes – and less economic freedom for us.

Our new governor said he wanted to dig deep to find out why the state is in the fiscal mess it is in. Simple: Before his first term, Jay Inslee said that new taxes were “the wrong direction” for Washington and that instead he would reorganize state government to make it more efficient. As soon as he got in, he proposed, and signed into law, one record-breaking budget after another, doubling Washington’s budget in 12 years with the size of government exceeding historical tax revenues. For the preceding eight years, his predecessor, Christine Gregoire, did the same thing every time she had a Democrat majority in the Legislature.

The utter arrogance of our state’s municipal politicos is astonishing (“Local leaders need new revenue tools to serve our communities,” April 23). These radical ideologues are yammering for yet more of our money, including a massive hike in our property taxes, to fund their “investments” in unnecessary state “services” and “programs” to better “serve” us. Where are we supposed to get the money for all of that, especially seniors?

As C.S. Lewis famously noted, “Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. Those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.”

Mark McFall

Colbert

Other people also need help

Just Ukrainians, Rep. Michael Baumgartner? (“Baumgartner, in Bipartisan Letter, Asks Trump to Continue Protections for Ukrainian Refugees,” April 8).

What about other people fleeing violence in their homelands? What about the many innocent, hardworking, tax paying people ripped from their families and communities, and sent to a holding cell in Tacoma, or worse, to El Salvador, without a shred of due process? Why doesn’t Baumgartner take his picture with the food truck owner and mother from Othello, Washington, or the many others like her, whose arrest he remains silent about?

Don’t get me wrong, it would be a moral outrage to send anyone back to Ukraine by pulling the protections they have been promised. Why does it seem to be less concerning to detain/deport people of color with no criminal record, even those here legally? What Baumgartner said about Ukrainians can be directly applied to many, many other immigrants from other countries: “Many of them have found employment, pay taxes, have their children enrolled in school, and are positively contributing to their new communities.”

Let’s change our immigration laws to allow opportunities for more people to enter and stay in our great country legally. Communities all over America are enriched in myriad ways by immigrants’ contributions. Sending people back to life-endangering situations in their homeland is in Baumgartner’s words, “devastating … for the broader moral obligations, we have as a nation.” Call his office today at (202) 225-2006.

Julie Bohman

Spokane

GOP lacks leadership

Idaho Gov. Brad Little has finally taken a bold stand against the great menace of truck nuts. And our president, Donald Trump, is heroically battling the tyranny of low-flow shower heads. Truly, we are witnessing leadership at its finest.

Meanwhile, in the real world, Republicans are busy orchestrating an economic face-plant that’s chewing through our 401(k)s like termites in a log cabin. And let’s not forget how they’ve managed to alienate international markets our farmers spent decades building – because nothing says “America First” like destroying the livelihoods of the very people who feed us.

Blake Albretsen

Veradale