Earlier today I read the front page here about the Commonwealth of Virginia's Republican part giving all of us Virginia citizens the finger. I was at work and had to go home where I promptly poured my liquid Valium (Jack Daniels and Diet Pepsie) and wrote this letter to the Potomac News Messanger (my area's Northern Virginia paper). Northern Virginia is used to getting screwed by Virginia Republicans, who have blocked every measure put forth by Governor Kain and Mark Warner to improve our transportation woes. (Want an adventure? Try driving I-95 on the weekends with all the travelers. It makes the week day infamous DC rush hour seem like the Indy 500).
Because this paper has a Republican slant I doubt it will be published. But here is hoping the the conservative south west and western Virginia voters aren't too hungry in November to remember who brought this to them.
With Poll
Dear Editor,
Today Bob McDonnell and Virginia Republicans voted not to accept $125 million in government stimulus money for the unemployed. The vote in both houses of the legislator was split down party lines with the same rhetorical response that reminded me of HAL the computer in 2001 A Space Odyssey. You remember HAL who kept telling the one lone remaining human crewman Dave "I am sorry Dave you can't do that. I am looking out for you". All across the country we are hearing that same computerized response from Republicans, that to accept that money would mean higher taxes for small businesses. In one case the Senate Minority Leader had this to say about Governor Kaines bill:
Senate Minority Leader Thomas K. Norment Jr. of James City County, whose district includes Williamsburg, a tourist destination with a 19.5 percent unemployment rate, said the Kaine measure could discourage the jobless from returning to work by freeing them to reject positions they deemed unappealing.
"This is absolutely ludicrous," Norment said. "It is a disincentive."
As the father of a family of five whose wife has just been laid off, and is facing a forty percent reduction in income with no guarantees of my wife finding future employment I find that statement and the whole Republican attitude totally offensive. Yes, they are the party of "NO".
For over a decade we have suffered under the Republican mantra of "tax cuts" while they ran us into a trillion dollar deficit, from a budget surplus. At the same time they created the largest government bureaucracy since FDR which is a mess and a bottomless pit of financial waste and mismanagement. They have increased the tax burden on the middle class which has dwindled to almost nothing while providing tax cuts to the wealthy. Most of the top five percent of the income bracket get their income from capitol gains income which is taxed at fifteen percent, while yours and my income as wage earners is taxed at thirty five percent. The Republican answer to President Obama's stimulus bill was a fourty page rant about what they didn't like about Obama's plan with no economic figures or plans except more tax cuts, especially in capitol gains taxes. (Oh did I mention their plan would cost us $1.7 trillion, but with all the tax cuts we'd never dig ourselves out).
Virginia Republicans complain that accepting the stimulus money for their constituents would constitute a tax increase on "small business" (it's funny how none of this ever seems to affect big business) and it would include those working full time for three months rather then the one year model currently specified in Virginia law, as well as part time workers. What they fail to acknowledge is during these hard economic times people have been laid of and may only have just recently been lucky enough to have found a job which may yet fold in less then a year. On top of that due to the scarcity of work, many heads of the house are forced to work part time employment to feed and cloth their families (I guess these are the ones Sen. Norment figures will lose incentive to work).Oh, and those "small businesses he's worried about paying more taxes? Ask those business owners whether they would be willing to pay more taxes down the road, or be forced to shut down because no one could afford to buy their products?
The Republican base is largely in western and south west Virginia where unemployment in some areas is as high as twenty percent. I am sure their constituents are very happy these Legislators are worried about their taxes going up. I mean it is so hard to tax nothing.
I am a Democrat and was proud to see Virginia turn blue last November. I am supporting Terry McAuliffe for Governor and I am impressed with his economic plans, especially those plans to bring new jobs to Virginia that have been lost, and his focus on alternative biofuels which will help us all break away from the stranglehold the middle east has us in now. From the Republicans I hear no alternative plans except we will continue like HAL the computer to protect you from yourselves while we continue to borrow from China to pay for government. I look forward to Virginians waking up and coloring Virginia a deeper blue this November.