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    Home»Opinions»What’s in it for me?: Voter self-interest is highly underrated
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    What’s in it for me?: Voter self-interest is highly underrated

    The Daily FuseBy The Daily FuseJune 28, 2025No Comments6 Mins Read
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    What’s in it for me?: Voter self-interest is highly underrated
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    Take into account this column a treatise on the significance of voter self-interest.

    Ask: What’s in it for me? How is that this going to make my life higher? How do I profit?

    There may be nothing fallacious in demanding solutions to those questions. In truth, not asking them prompted our politics each domestically and nationally to go significantly off-track.

    Too typically, hurting the opposite man — making your perceived enemies pay, regardless of if it finally ends up making your personal life really worse — is a very powerful factor.

    This can be a certain strategy to unhealthy outcomes. Simply have a look at the final legislative session.

    Some context. State lawmakers convened in Olympia in January going through a $12 billion shortfall — the results of an excessive amount of spending and unrealistic projections of how a lot tax cash could be rolling in.

    An inside electronic mail amongst Senate Democrats inadvertently released simply earlier than the legislative session outlined choices for brand spanking new revenues together with a payroll tax on companies, a rise within the Enterprise and Occupation tax, a brand new “Wealth Tax” and elevated capital good points taxes.

    To clean the best way for all these tax will increase, Senate Democrats beneficial particular speaking factors of their confidential memo: “Be particular concerning the ‘villain’ — speak about ‘the rich few’ and people who wrote our flaw (sic) tax code 100 years in the past.”

    About the identical time, enterprise teams started fascinated by political messaging and conducting their very own analysis. That’s no shock.

    Right here’s the place it will get fascinating.

    In a sequence of carefully held surveys, voters overwhelmingly instructed business-backed pollsters that the Legislature had sufficient cash to deal with necessary priorities, it simply wanted to spend extra successfully. And most didn’t belief the Legislature to make significant progress on homelessness and reasonably priced housing.

    Polls carried out in January discovered that 59% of respondents stated the price range deficit was attributable to state lawmakers failing to manage spending slightly than inflation, inhabitants progress or demand for companies.

    On the similar time, solely 42% of individuals polled believed that elevating taxes on giant companies and rich people by billions of {dollars} was a good suggestion.

    One month later, the identical share of individuals agreed that out-of-control state spending prompted the price range woes.

    However by February, 54% supported taxing rich individuals and companies to repair the issue.

    What prompted that huge swing?

    In a phrase: Trump.

    The inauguration of President Donald Trump on Jan. 20 and the sight of the nation’s wealthiest enterprise leaders comparable to Jeff Bezos, Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk enthusiastically welcoming the new administration was an excessive amount of for a lot of Washingtonians.

    Right here comes the half concerning the significance of looking on your personal self-interest. As a result of if polls are to be believed, individuals needed to tax the wealthy — punishing huge corporations and company fats cats — even when it meant harming themselves.

    Remarkably, 85% of these polled believed companies would simply cross on new state taxes to prospects, elevating the price of dwelling for all Washingtonians.

    Amongst self-identified Democrats, 33% believed if the Legislature went by with its plans to extend taxes, their very own lives could be about the identical, whereas 1 in 5 predicted their lives would really worsen.

    In different phrases, inflicting ache on perceived enemies — even when they escape with little injury and the insurance policies ended up inflicting hurt in your personal life — was sufficient for lots of people.

    That is tribalism run amok.

    In the long run, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a budget that contained roughly $9 billion in new taxes over 4 years.

    Right here’s one other instance.

    In February, Seattle voters selected a $50 million payroll expense tax to pay for what boosters referred to as social housing. The proposal was strongly opposed by the editorial board, which believed it was not well-conceived or deliberate. The brand new tax handed by 63%.

    Earlier than the election, polls together with one by the Northwest Progressive Institute confirmed a toss-up.

    So what occurred to drive an enormous victory for social housing and extra enterprise taxes?

    Trump occurred. His inauguration occurred two days earlier than ballots went out within the mail.

    An after-election ballot by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce confirmed that 62% believed corporations will cross the price of the brand new payroll tax to prospects, leading to an excellent greater value of dwelling for Seattle residents.

    Voters had been cut up on whether or not the cash would make a distinction within the metropolis’s reasonably priced housing disaster. Just like the state polls, a majority of respondents supported taxing “billionaire tech CEOs” to ship a message.

    To be clear, this phenomenon has been totally documented for voters on the correct of the political divide for many years.

    Take into account Trump’s One Large Stunning Invoice Act, which handed the Home on Might 22. It included huge cuts to meals stamps and practically $800 billion in reduced Medicaid spending over 10 years, in keeping with the Congressional Price range Workplace.

    Each Medicaid and meals stamps disproportionately assist Trump-supporting rural areas.

    Round right here, Central and Japanese Washington have the highest proportions of oldsters on Medicaid. Within the 4th Congressional District, which stretches down the center of the state from the Canadian to the Oregon border, 70% of youngsters are on Medicaid.

    Nonetheless, Republican U.S. Reps. Michael Baumgartner of Spokane and Dan Newhouse of Sunnyside voted for the package.

    Let’s return to the premise: Voters could be higher served by following their very own pursuits — in any respect ranges of presidency.

    What if individuals depending on backed well being care requested: What insurance policies will enhance my medical entry and supply higher employment alternatives so I can afford good personal insurance coverage?

    Regionally, what if Seattleites demanded to see progress on homelessness and housing, as a substitute of merely being instructed that Metropolis Corridor has spent over $1 billion on reasonably priced housing during the last 4 years — a shocking quantity for a metropolis of about 750,000 residents overlaying 83 sq. miles.

    What if reaching outcomes on housing, transportation and caring for essentially the most susceptible had been extra necessary than merely taxing companies and inflicting ache on the rich?

    Backside line: Asking “What’s in it for me?” is a high-quality strategy to choose public coverage, and voters should do extra of it.



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