Here are two items that have received little attention from the media in Washington State:

According to Rick Newman, business correspondent for “U.S. News & World Report” (July 9), 43 states fared worse than Washington State, based on his “pain index” measure of personal and economic hardship brought on by the nationwide recession. These include states run by Republicans, as well as Democrats.

“Forbes” msagazine ranked Washington State as one of the country’s four “best places for doing business.”

Yet it’s one of the staples of the Republican echo chamber that Washington state’s economic problems are caused by Democrats. This plays well to those who’ve forgotten that our economic woes resulted from deregulation of predatory banks, which Republicans promoted as “free-market” economics. And the country was locked into staggering bailouts for these same banks by former Goldman Sachs CEO Henry Paulson under the Bush administration.

Republicans block every attempt to fix the mess and rein in abuses by their Wall Street friends. Instead, their focus is on trying to shift the blame.

Gene Bullock

Poulsbo