WA Rep MacEwen: Inslee is ‘leveling financial disaster on thousands’

A group of Washington GOP lawmakers are suing Governor Inslee over his slow approach to reopening the economy. In return, Inslee has questioned their motivations and labeled them heartless.

One of the plaintiffs is state representative Drew MacEwen (R-Union), who joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss why we need to reopen and his reaction to Inslee’s statements.

“We don’t want to see anybody die, of course not,” MacEwen said. “And for [Inslee] to resort to such language and name calling is childish on his part. We have tried to engage with the administration from the beginning on this and were supportive of the initial emergency declaration and the actions taken.”

“But as things progressed and moved on, we continuously lend the voice to those that were being affected in other ways, those that were not getting the illness and are on the verge of financial ruin, … and that just fell on deaf ears,” he added. “He has refused to engage the Legislature.”

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With the lawsuit, MacEwen is arguing that Inslee can’t keep governing on worst case scenarios when we’ve already begun to come through the virus.

“We have flattened the curve, our death rate is in line with other areas of the country, and our health care system is so underwhelmed that we have medical facilities on the verge of bankruptcy,” he said. “The things that were cited in that initial declaration have been met and you cannot continue to govern because something might come back.”

“Because if we’re going to do that, then we might as well live in a state of emergency, as some time we’re going to have the Cascadia earthquake. … I’m not suggesting that we that we would want to throw open the doors and put profits above people, … I trust businesses and labor to make the proper decisions for healthy ways to operate more than I trust the governor to make those decisions,” MacEwen said.

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There doesn’t seem to be a sense of urgency in reopening, Jason noted, even as businesses are desperate to get going again. MacEwen believes this is a symptom of a governor with little understanding of the business world.

“What we’ve seen with his decisions is leveling financial disaster on thousands of Washington families,” MacEwen said. “He has no private real world experience and doesn’t understand that businesses don’t survive when there’s nothing coming in.”

“The governor has picked winners and losers, and that is the last thing government in any form should do,” he said. “Why is it OK to go to a big box store with a few hundred other local citizens but a landscaper couldn’t landscape by himself, or a painter couldn’t paint?”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.

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