Is this supposed to be "taxing the rich?"

Washington State Democrats headed to Olympia on the promise of taxing the rich this year. 

The earliest evidence looked good—they put forth a genuinely bold plan to tax million-dollar+ incomes, raising $3 to $4 billion a year. That’s enough to fund universal affordable childcare in the state while giving caregivers a 20% raise; cover the deficit so we don’t have to cancel the climate investments voters overwhelmingly supported in 2024; and spend $500 million more on public health, transit, and housing—as well as defending civil rights. 

That’s the kind of taxing the rich I can get behind!

But it’s starting to feel like they don’t really mean it. 

Tax the rich . . . later?

First, the tax won’t gather revenue for several years. That’s not their fault—they are rightly anticipating court challenges and a likely ballot referendum. So what are they doing to fill the gap in the meantime? America is under attack from the Feds, and people are desperate. Is the establishment treating this crisis as a crisis?

State Dems don’t bother taxing the rich now.

Nope. In fact, their best option for doing so, which was the Well Washington Fund, which doesn’t look like it’s going anywhere. It was a modest payroll tax on high earnings, like JumpStart in Seattle. It even gave a break to businesses already paying JumpStart! Well Washington would have raised $2.5 billion a year.

But last year, Amazon, Microsoft and much of the Trump-enabling set spent $2.6M last year trying to bully Dems into backing down on corporate taxes. Apparently it worked. (Why are they worried? Do they really think a corporate branded-campaign against taxes on big corporations will persuade anyone right now? They are being cowards).  

In fact, they are cutting taxes for the rich

Not only that, but it looks like they plan to cut inheritance taxes for billionaires and other very wealthy people, from 35% to 20%. 

The millionaire tax bill itself even includes cuts for large corporations. Hanna Krieg at the Burner reports that the establishment quietly slipped in a $500 million tax break for big businesses.

So at the moment, when we’re already facing dire cuts, it looks like we plan to raise taxes several years from now (if the mechanism turns out to be legal and passes a referendum), but cut taxes on inheritance and corporations sooner so we can–what? Cut even more?

What are they doing down there?

I am a Democrat, AND I can see why people accuse us of being weak-willed, beholden to the donor class, and afraid to fight for the little guy.

Because too often we are weak-willed, beholden to the donor class, and afraid to fight for the little guy. 

We need better.