Gov. Jay Inslee was recently on a CNN town hall and as far as I’m concerned he did what most wanna-be presidents do — talked a lot and said very little, except about him and his “leadership” as Washington’s governor.
In case you missed it, here were some of the comments he made:
“Washington built the first commercial jetliner and pioneered the tech industry, he said. “We even invented the $4 cup of coffee.”
When Washington created the first commercial jetliner, what kinds of policies and people were running our state? Certainly not anyone thinking that adding even more regulations and socialist thinking to what’s here now is a good idea. As for the $4 dollar cup of coffee, that’s not really something I’d be all that proud of. Besides, once he gets all our disposable income and raises our gas prices to offset cow farting, who’ll be able to afford coffee?
Only politicians like him.
“How to help college graduates with crushing debt? Washington has increased student aid and extended it beyond tuition with programs that also help with room and board.”
OK, now that wasn’t our super governor who had much to do with that. That was mostly Republicans over the objections of Democrats. But besides that, free college is just as silly as expecting college professors to teach and not indoctrinate college kids.
It’s all about feelings these days, not facts.
“What about legalizing marijuana? Washington’s experience has been ‘an unalloyed success, better than many people expected and the warnings about health problems and rampant crime haven’t happened,’ ” said Inslee.
Really? See, I thought one of the biggest promises was to empty jails and prisons because of all those beds occupied by possessors of pot.
As far as I can tell, that’s not happened. In fact, if anything, what has happened is the government has cracked down on their competition; unlicensed pot dealers that cut into their (government) profits.
They really didn’t “legalize” anything, they just regulated and taxed it.
And now we see from a Seattle Times story published in The Chronicle, 1 in 4 marijuana users have reported being high at work. Now that’s a success, right governor?
A Jan. 2014 Healthline article also doesn’t seem to square with the “unalloyed success” comments the governor made either. The author, Shawn Radcliffe, quoted several experts with less than-flattering things about the legalization results.
“The public is largely misinformed about the health and behavioral effects of marijuana,” says Roger Roffman, D.S.W., a professor emeritus in the School of Social Work at the University of Washington and author of the forthcoming book Marijuana Nation. “There are an awful lot of people who simply don’t know what science knows about marijuana.”
One is that marijuana is addictive.
“While marijuana dependence is not life threatening,” says Roffman, “it can result in very serious adverse consequences for an individual in terms of their functioning in school, at work, in relationships…”
What? I’m sure we were told it was just an herb and miracle substance?
He adds in the article, “Other health effects of marijuana include an increased risk of heart attack and stroke for adults with cardiovascular disease and acute psychotic episodes in people with a history of schizophrenia.”
Better get rid of this guy — he’s not toeing the it’s all natural and all good philosophy and there may be even more unhealthy consequences as time goes on.
Finally, our governor told his audience, “Large corporations should not be able to threaten to leave a community if they don’t get tax breaks or pit one city against another when looking for a new location,” he said.
Right. Companies shouldn’t be able to self determine their success and control their costs. And states or communities that don’t agree with Inslee shouldn’t have the right to negotiate to bring jobs if they want to.
Instead, he knows best. Spend too much, spend poorly, and when he needs more simply demand we pay more.
Everything this guy and his ilk have in store for us will just make being here more expensive.
As far as I can tell, Inslee has run nothing and all he knows is politics.
Nothing points to that more than his claim he’s entitled to the millions more it costs us while he gallivants the country running for president.
Meanwhile, back at home, the Centralia School District has to consider cuts in its music program.
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John McCroskey was Lewis County sheriff from 1995 to 2005. He lives outside Chehalis, and can be contacted at musingsonthemiddlefork@yahoo.com.
