I work for a major Virginia employer. The company’s PAC did a town hall today, McAuliffe got 20 minutes and then Youngkin did 20 minutes, broadcast to all employees. I really wish all Virginians could have heard it. What a useless tool Youngkin was, the difference is night and day.
Youngkin just gave vague answers and talked about what a failure Virginia has been, but then had to admit CNBC just ranked Virginia #1 to do business. All he talked about was tax cuts, tax cuts, tax cuts, with nothing about how he’ll pay for it.
- “Virginia is too expensive — cost of living is too high. Last time I checked, cutting taxes at the state level will do nothing to bring down the cost of living for anyone.
- “I’m going to rev up the job growth machine just like Carlyle Group does” — no, they don’t, they rev up the debt in the companies they own to pay dividends out, and then cut capital investment, cut expenses, lay off people to pay for it. And not one — not one! — specific point about how he’ll do this.
On health care, McAuliffe talked about a great policy — getting a sunlight bill passed to get to the true cost of developing + manufacturing pharmaceuticals, so the state can negotiate drug prices on a level playing field. Youngkin? “Oh, yeah, I believe in transparency too.” Like hell you do — private equity and hedge funds buying up generic pharma manufacturing and distribution and jacking prices sky high is a huge cause of high drug prices. To say nothing of the Carlyle Group’s disgrace with the nursing home chain and pediatric dentistry clinics that Carlyle turned into nightmares, as well as their current middle-man drug price jackers Welldyne.
Tennessee, Maryland and North Carolina are growing and we’re not”. Really? Trash talking your state to one of its biggest employers is the way to go? And once again this is false — Virginia is growing, has a GDP per capita over 10% higher than North Carolina and almost 20% higher than Tennessee. VA is about 5% below Maryland mostly due to a much higher military presence and larger rural population in the west.
“Virginia had a surplus because we were overtaxed”. Once again, this stupid lie — federal government’s relief programs created the surplus, which is a one time thing. When pandemic relief is over and the tax revenue is way down — what do you do then? What gets cut? Can’t answer it. I can answer it — just like Fraud McDonnell and Car Tax Gilmore, Youngkin would cut education funding to cities and towns and then pull BS accounting gimmicks like accelerating July tax revenues into June or holding checks in June to balance the budget, which just causes a huge hole in the next year.
I just cannot imagine how anyone could vote for a private equity ghoul that has never done anything in government, has no plans but to enrich the 1%, and would leave cities and towns worse off.