For background, see Democrats Challenge Republican Two Thirds Rule, Shut Down Senate Transportation Vote The Democratic amendment, which lost on a party line vote, would have also blocked a controversial GOP amendment that takes all sales tax revenue from transportation projects out of the general fund (about $1 billion) and puts it into the transportation…
In Road Kill: How Bertha Left the Surface-Street Option In the Dust, Ellis E. Conklin reports that “Powerful interests rallied around the tunnel and diverted then-Governor Gregoire from a less costly route.” Specifically, “The downtown business interests, the Chamber of Commerce, Boeing, the unions, they all wanted a highway, period. Nothing was going to stop…
For more info see, Microsoft’s tax avoidance schemes: national and in Washington State.
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/virtuallyspeaking/2015/02/06/gaius-publius-and-alan-grayson
Many Washington State legislators were elected courtesy of the Koch Brothers. In particular, Andy Hill and Steve Litzow squeaked by in 2010 via attack ads funded by the Koch brothers’ Americans for Prosperity. The State Republican Party was later fined for violating election reporting requirements in that election.See State Republicans fined for violating reporting requirements…
Conservatives love to hate government, and they often say that the free market is more efficient than government at providing services. Inconveniently for conservatives, government-run health care systems in other industrialized nations provide higher quality health care at far less cost than America’s complicated market-based system. And Medicare has lower overheads that private insurance. And…
Another reason to be liberal. According to 75 Years In The Making: Harvard Just Released Its Epic Study On What Men Need To Live A Happy Life, With regards to sex lives, one of the most fascinating discoveries is that aging liberals have way more sex. Â Political ideology had no bearing on overall life satisfaction,…
Which 35 House Democrats Just Joined the GOP to Try to Gut Dodd-Frank? lists Washington Rep. Suzan DelBene among the turncoats. Ultimately, the GOP-sponsored bill to roll back reforms failed, when enough Democrats voted against it to prevent the 2/3rds majority needed for it to pass as a suspension of rules. Last I heard DelBene…
Obama gave a priceless gift to the GOP: immunity from prosecution for war crimes, torture, disastrous wars, politically motivated prosecutions by the Justice Department, widespread corruption, and other criminality. In 2008, it appeared that the GOP was destined for many years of repudiation. They’d proven themselves corrupt, incompetent, and imperialistic. But Obama nursed the GOP…