“What else can you say about somebody that is spending money like a bunch of drunken sailors on a three-day pass?”
This quotation from Marysville businessman Tom Nichols is contained in a news release from Rep. Barbara Bailey (R-Oak Harbor), issued Monday in reaction to the state budget approved by the House of Representatives.
Mr. Nichols may be well-intentioned, but he’s got to quit using derogatory cliches, and Rep. Bailey should be more careful who she chooses to quote in a press release. It’s time to retire the stale old image of the irresponsible drunken sailor, particularly in a time of war. Sailors at Whidbey Island Naval Air Station are among the many brave Americans putting their lives on the line and giving up irreplaceable family time to fight for their country. They don’t need to come home to derogatory stereotypes.
Rep. Bailey’s credentials as a strong Navy supporter are impeccable. She’s a model Navy wife, past president of the Navy League, and she has helped Navy men and women in innumerable endeavors over the years. So this particular gaffe should not be placed on her shoulders. Suffice it to say she should make it a habit to read her news releases before they are sent to news outlets throughout the region. No doubt this is the last “drunken sailor” reference that will emanate from her office.
Other than that unwise use of a cliche, Bailey’s news release is on target. As she states, the House budget spends most of the state’s windfall tax surplus on new employees, and Republicans predict it will cause a deficit by 2010. Instead of fully funding state pensions and socking away more money in a rainy day fund, the Democratically-controlled Legislature plans to hire 3,800 new state employees, resulting in a bigger state payroll that will have to be fed even more dollars in the years to come. This budget is an eye-opening 18 percent higher than the previous state budget.
Ask any sailor and he or she will tell you that, in Olympia, they’re spending our money like a bunch of drunken legislators on a three-day pass.
