Will Voters Turn Back the Progressive Tide in Special Senate Election?
The choices cannot be starker for Newport and Jamestown voters next week: To vote for or against increasing the number of progressive lawmakers in the General Assembly.
In my opinion, opportunities for Rhode Island families to move up the income ladder and achieve a better quality of life would be threatened if the progressive-left’s agenda were to be more fully implemented. Many of you may feel differently, but that’s why we have elections.
Already drowning from a 45th rank in business climate and in overall family prosperity, Ocean Staters would be asked to bear a tidal wave of new costs – billions annually – in order to fund the entire legislative vision of the state’s progressive-Democrat wing.
Research released last week by the Center projected new costs of $6 BILLION per year that would be heaped upon our state’s families and businesses – via tax hikes, higher ratepayer fees, and new employer mandates – if just 15 “progressive” bills that were formally introduced in 2017 were to became law. Consistent with past trends, bills often take years to work their way through the internal politics of the General Assembly.
Such added government-imposed burdens would create new barriers to job creation, while reducing disposable income for virtually every Rhode Islander. Already suffering from a serious out-migration problem, Rhode Island taxpayers, residents, and business owners should be alarmed that this wave of progressive bills … in the areas of healthcare, business regulation, energy, and education … would likely sweep away even more Rhode Islanders into other states.
The most onerous piece of legislation submitted by progressives is a proposed single-payer healthcare system that would cede control of the state’s entire healthcare industry to an overly politicized and incompetent government bureaucracy. Cost: $5.4 billion per year.
The second most costly of the progressive bills, would be a $391 million annual burden on employers under a $15.00 minimum wage mandate, also submitted by progressive-Democrats.
The third most burdensome bill, which will be considered next month when the General Assembly re-convenes, is the controversial paid-time-off mandate, also sponsored by progressives; it would impose a $49 million cost on employers.
One thing is clear: the progressives’ extremist agenda can no longer be denied. Rhode Island progressives now overtly advocate for government control over industry, for control over employers, and for control over all of our lives.
Will District 13 voters support a candidate who would favor such a progressive tidal wave of costs, or will they vote for an alternative to the status quo and its destructive progressive agenda?