Jason Joiner’s lengthy rant (Feb. 13) boils down to two simple messages: he despises taxes and Democrats and presumes that “the people” agree with him.

Democrats hold a substantial majority in both houses of the legislature because “the people” put them there.

Many people who put them there moved here from states that enacted disastrous experiments similar to I-960 and I-695 and then watched with horror as the people of Washington started down the same path, hoodwinked by well-funded nonsense like Joiner’s.

More recent defeats of several related initiatives indicate that most of the people of Washington have learned that fiddling with the tax code is not a wise way to control government spending.

Joiner’s minority and its representatives in the legislature think “the people” need protection from majority rule, so they want to hamstring our legislature and make it as dysfunctional as the U.S. Congress and some state legislatures. Reinstating the expired I-960 would do just that.

On the other hand, public funding of campaigns would give political control to “the people.” Senate Bill SB 5912, providing public funding for supreme court campaigns, would be a good start.

Two other issues show how out of touch he is with “the people”: he opposed raising the county sales tax to continue full operation of Island Transit and opposes Senate Bill 6396, which would ban the public sale of assault weapons. The people of Island County approved the tax increase, and the International Association of Chiefs of Police recommend public bans on military-style assault weapons, .50-caliber sniper rifles, and armor-piercing handgun ammunition.

Using public funds for public transportation, public elections, and “general welfare” (see Article I, Sec. 8 of the U.S. Constitution) makes sense. Keeping weapons designed to kill people out of the hands of those who would use them against our public defenders makes sense. Joiner makes no sense.

Jim Bruner

Oak Harbor