Reasons to Vote Democrat

The following letter to the editor was submitted to The Daily World on October 9:

Linda Orgel's "Sign Up" list overlooked a few reasons to vote Democrat, like:

1. Washington can keep barreling toward Californization.  Forty years of Democratic rule have bankrupted that state, crippled its economy with skyrocketing taxes, "progressive" regulations and pricey green-energy policies that drive away businesses, drive up housing prices, dry up growth, or all of the above.

2. Women need government to take care of us.  We're only interested in access to abortion, “free” birth-control or government sponsored “free” healthcare, not issues like government spending and infringement of our Constitutional rights, unemployment, national security, taxes, crime, education or the impact of future government debt on our children and grandchildren.

3. Women need more 'equal pay for equal work' like at the Democratic National Committee, where women staffers make 15 percent less than their male counterparts (Washington Free Beacon, August 8, 2012).  Ditto the Obama White House, where female staffers make 18% less than male staffers (WFB study based on 2011 Annual Report to Congress on White House Staff).  (Maybe these ladies will file suit under the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act?)

As for the oft-repeated myth that "Republicans are generally opposed to any type of unions," the truth is that most Republicans support employment growth, increased job opportunities and higher compensation, all of which are higher in Right to Work states. 

According to the National Institute for Labor Relations' report on the U.S. Commerce Department's Bureau of Economic Analysis 2011, "All of the top five, and 10 of the top 12, states for 2001-2011 private-employment growth are Right to Work states. Meanwhile, the 10 bottom-ranking states for employment growth all lacked Right to Work statutes at the time.  According to the BEA, private-sector, nonfarm employment grew by 12.5% over the past decade. That’s well over triple the average for forced-unionism states, and nearly double the national average.  And workers in forced-unionism states suffer from lower compensation growth as well as fewer job opportunities." 

What most Republicans oppose is forced public sector unionism that routinely picks the pocket of state government at taxpayer expense.

Is more of the same old, same old what we want for Washington State?  Your vote will be the answer.