DAVE ROSS
Sorry, Kshama, Bezos will be on the moon before our government becomes Socialist
Jun 13, 2018, 5:55 AM | Updated: 8:53 am
Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant. (AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)
In Seattle, the same city council that voted unanimously less than a month ago to tax big companies like Amazon to raise money for homeless programs voted 7-2 on Tuesday to repeal that very same tax before it went into effect.
RELATED: Council repeals head tax one month after passage
Quite a shock in a progressive city whose council is made up of eight Democrats and one Socialist.
“This is a cowardly betrayal of the needs of working people,” Socialist Councilmember Kshama Sawant said.
So why would those seven Democrats flip? Because thousands of voters had signed petitions to put a repeal on the November ballot, and Amazon’s planned repeal campaign would likely draw a lot of non-progressives to the polls in a crucial election year.
Of course, you could look at the explosion of Amazon jobs in Seattle and the complete remake of the Seattle skyline and wonder why the government would need to get involved at all. With the economy booming shouldn’t everybody automatically have a job and a place to live?
And yet the tent encampments continue to spread.
RELATED: Repealing Seattle head tax is all about saving $630M levy
But now, Amazon has won, the tax is gone. So maybe that will fix it.
And if not, Kshama Sawant has a Plan B.
“Would it be better if the state Legislature and the federal government somehow turned Socialist today? Of course.”
Although by then Jeff Bezos will probably be living on the Moon.
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