House Republican budget lead Rep. Travis Couture (R-Allyn) joined The Ari Hoffman Show on 570 KVI Wednesday afternoon to react to the final 2025 revenue forecast, which showed another drop in expected collections and delivered a shocking projection: Washington state is expected to add exactly ZERO net jobs in 2026 and only 11,000 in 2025 — the weakest job outlook in decades.
Couture pulled no punches: “We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.” He blamed years of unchecked spending growth, record tax increases (including last session’s $9 billion hike), and what he called “radical socialist policies” for crushing families, killing construction and manufacturing jobs, and driving the state into what Moody’s now warns may already be recession territory.Key highlights from the interview:
- The real budget gap is currently ~$1–3 billion, not the $6–8 billion Democrats are floating to justify new taxes.
- Sales tax, B&O tax, real estate, and housing-permit revenue all came in below expectations — proof that over-taxation is producing Laffer-curve diminishing returns.
- Democrats are already pushing new wealth and income taxes even though Gov. Ferguson is legally required to submit a no-new-revenue budget in the upcoming short session.
- Couture called out $250+ million spent on health care for illegal immigrants and $100 million “corrupt” community reinvestment slush fund while Democrats cut Medicaid for citizens.
- He accused Speaker Laurie Jinkins of gaslighting voters by blaming Republicans after 40 straight years of total Democrat control.
“This is what happens when state spending spirals out of control and policies prioritize ideology over economic reality,” Couture warned, adding that Washington is now losing good family-wage jobs to business-friendly states while housing permits collapse and affordability plummets.
Despite the grim numbers, Couture ended on a note of hope: “The pendulum has swung too far left. It’s only got one direction left to go — back to the right. But everyone has to show up and vote.”
Listen to the full fiery interview here:
Washington families can’t afford four more years of the same.
