WA Rep: Inslee has an ‘elementary understanding of what risk really is’

Governor Inslee recently unveiled his plan to help struggling businesses, which includes $70 million in grants for businesses, $30 million for a recovery loan program, and $20 million for rental assistance, including for landlords. He’s also recently stated that these businesses can only really be helped with federal intervention.

Rep. Jesse Young (R-Gig Harbor) joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH with his reaction.

“Well, I’ve gotten used to setting a low bar for the governor, but this was probably the most unprofessional response I’ve ever seen the governor give the state of Washington … We had already acknowledged his initial plan, that he spoke with no legislators prior to coming out with what was a drop in the bucket, and effectively, he said his response — after admitting that the house is ‘on fire’ — that instead of giving us a full bucket, he’s just gonna put two or three more drops in it,” Young said.

“And that’s a really sad state,” he added. “By the way, I can confirm that the governor, when he says he talked with legislators, he did not talk with Republican legislators.”

Explaining how Gov. Inslee has the power to cap third-party delivery fees

Young says Inslee is not following the science with these mandates, choosing data that’s only convenient to what he wants to do and not consistently applied across various businesses that have not been shown to be COVID super spreaders.

“Well, the truth is, the governor did not offer a single apology for this scenario that he created,” Young said. “He is not following the science. He’s admitting that he’s not following the science. And when some of the reporters were asking him about the scientific differences and trying to ask legitimate questions about why this and not that, why is there a contradiction? He comes up and invents new numbers around how cases are measured, and that’s it.”

WA Rep: Inslee is ‘detached from reality’ and ‘prefers to govern alone’

Young argues that Inslee is not considering the greater social impacts and health concerns of what these mandates are doing.

“The problem here is that when it comes to assessing risk, it is clear that the governor has an elementary understanding of what risk really is because if he is not looking at the data for what the health concerns are going to be for families, single parent mothers that can’t put food on the table for the kids or can’t afford rent, or fixed income seniors that are one month away from being able to afford their rent or afford their prescription drugs,” he explained.

“And he thinks that by giving a few grant dollars, a few drops in the bucket that’s going to solve this, then we have a major storm coming,” Young added. “And it’s mind boggling that he will not work with the Republicans to fix this.”

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.