The Klickitat Voice

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Tag: economics

  • VOTING FOR YOUR OWN DESTRUCTION

    Are you willing to keep voting for policies that undermine your safety, your prosperity, and your future?
    Too many voters continue to elect the same officials whose decisions have made Washington State the most dangerous in the nation. Did you know Washington now leads the country in property crime, with families and businesses suffering from record burglaries, thefts, and even kidnappings, according to FBI crime data?
     Washington State’s toxic criminal justice system shows compassion for the criminals by reducing sentences and early releases, and in many cases, within a short time, have assaulted and killed victims that would still be alive if the three strikes law that the voters overwhelmingly passed that would put these chronic offenders away for life.
     
    The legislature added $22.5 million for local government climate planning but underfunded services for crime victims and survivors by a similar amount – $21.4 million. The budget adds billions in pay raises for state employee unions but significantly underfunds the ability for law enforcement provide the best protection for the citizens.

    The 9.9% proposed tax will effectively give every business owner a choice: increase prices to cover the tax, or cut expenses. For a small business, since most of the cost is labor, there will be reduced hours, reduced wages, and layoffs as a result. Taxing the Mom and Pop businesses out of existence, that’s what the Governor and legislature are doing. Who benefits? Answer the Big business, the corporate stores don’t think they don’t have a big influence in Olympia. The old saying Money talks.
    Washington State 3rd highest in the nation for homelessness, with a whopping 12.7% increase this year. Despite spending Billions of dollars aimed at reducing homelessness, it continues to worsen. 
    The Washington State public education system is broken, with too many of our youth left behind. The future for our youth, the future of our state, depends on educating the ones who are going to be responsible for the prosperity and livability challenges that they will face.

    All that to say, who are the ones who are being hurt by a completely failed State government? The answer is the middle class and the poor. Sales tax goes up, who gets hurt the most? Gas tax goes up, who gets hurt the most? Property tax goes up, who gets hurt the most? Every tax increase is just another weight on the backs of the hard-working taxpayers. The ones who write these tax bills and the ones who vote them in certainly are not.
    What is really sad is that the ones who vote for these liberals think they are voting for officials who care about them, yet these choices enable the very policies and leaders responsible for the attack on the middle class and the poor. by the middle class and the poor in our state.

    Written By: Delmer Eldred

    Sent all comments to: theklickitatvoice@proton.me

  • FRAUD, EMBEZZLEMENT, AND THEFT

    FRAUD, EMBEZZLEMENT, AND THEFT

    I wonder why people are not going to jail for defrauding, embezzling, and theft of what looks like trillions of U.S. taxpayer dollars.
    If a citizen defrauded the government out of even 10,000 dollars he would be apprehended, placed in jail, go to trial, and be fined and sentenced to whatever the statute of the law required.
    The bureaucrats and agencies that have stolen from the taxpayers for years, using it to enrich themselves and their accomplices, have violated the law. Everyone who participated in stealing tax dollars and applied it for their own use, special interest, pet projects or buy-offs, etc.–need to be held accountable for their actions.
    This administration has finally started throwing the covers off, showing where billions and trillions of tax dollars have gone or just disappeared. I think most American taxpayers are in shock. Not that they didn’t know that bureaucratic corruption didn’t exist but had no idea to what extent. Now we know a lot of the ones who are responsible for stealing from the government treasury through the positions that they held, it is time to start holding them accountable for their actions. Just removing them from their job is no retribution for the crimes that have been perpetrated on the American taxpayer. For years these people have gotten away with adding wealth to themselves and others by using\ tax dollars that were intended for supporting approved government projects. These people knew what they were doing. It wasn’t a mistake or an oversight it was a premeditated robbery. They should be charged and prosecuted for their criminal actions and in some cases tried for treason.
    Simply getting fired or having to testify at a congressional hearing is no punishment. Their extravagant lifestyle in most cases will not change. Without any real punishment, they will just move on doing the same thing differently. Once you know the ins and outs of how to work the government the opportunities are endless; selling information to the lobbyists, showing how to put in for subsidies and grants, and collecting millions of dollars.
    A lot of these people who committed theft in their time of being employed by the federal government live in very high-class areas in a multi-million dollar home and they did it on a $174,000 to $200,000 a year income. Their lifestyle tells the story of corruption.
    If there is not a show of tough consequences, the ones that follow and become in charge will have the opportunity to do the same, knowing that there is little that will be done when caught.
    The American taxpayer deserves to know that government positions do not give a free pass to steal from the hardworking taxpayer who has sacrificed and played by the rules to support the government. This is why, when the books are open, and show the money that was budgeted increased every year and used for whatever would benefit them the most. It’s time to pay for the crime.
    This type of activity goes on in state and local government as well where there is unfettered access to free-flowing tax dollars. In many cases, the money will be used for wants not needs.