FOX Business show slams Seattle as ‘socialist hellhole’

FOX Business host Lisa Kennedy Montgomery opened her show with a chyron that said “Senseless in Seattle,” and called the Seattle City Council communists for its minimum-wage law, gun tax and recent vote on an income tax on the wealthy.

FOX Business tweeted about the 2-minute segment on Wednesday.

“It’s just another example of how progressive laboratories halt progress by inviting the rich to leave, encouraging crime and hurting the poor they so disingenuously claim to help,” Montgomery said.

Montgomery pointed to a recent UW study saying Seattle’s minimum-wage law was costing low-wage workers hours and jobs. She said the law “punished Seattle’s poorest citizens.” Some critics have dismissed the UW study for excluding 40 percent of Seattle’s workforce, and a UC Berkeley study concluded the minimum-wage increase had helped restaurant employees.

Montgomery also pointed to Seattle’s gun tax, which puts a $25 tax on every firearm sold in the city and up to 5 cents on every round of ammunition. She said shootings are “skyrocketing” since the gun tax was enacted, although police have attributed a recent rise in gun violence to a gang war in Seattle and South King County.

“Good job, commies!” Montgomery said.

Montgomery also criticized “the red geniuses” on the Seattle City Council who on Monday approved a tax on the wealthy — a 2.25 percent tax on income above $250,000 a year for individuals and above $500,000 for couples. She said the rich will move to Bellevue, “where Bill Gates lives,” to avoid it. Bill Gates actually lives in Medina.

“Save yourself the airfare for that trip to Caracas,” Montgomery said. “Just head to Seattle instead, where freedom died along with every good singer from the ’90s.”

This story was originally published July 13, 2017 at 3:16 PM with the headline "FOX Business show slams Seattle as ‘socialist hellhole’."