Trump's Infrastructure Scam

A post yesterday looked at Donald Trump's irresponsible budget proposal.  It also looked at Trump's infrastructure "plan" which amounts to little more than a scam and seeks to privatize much of the task, leaving taxpayers hostage to rapacious private interests.  Here in Hampton Roads Virginia, the Elizabeth Rivers Tunnels scam has demonstrated the greed with which such "public/private" projects enrich the private interests while screwing over the public.  In my view, after defending the nation from hostile outside forces, a main responsibility of government is to provide the roads, bridges, tunnels, airports, etc., that serve the interests of the public and which allow economic growth and prosperity for all, not just certain greed motivated private interests.  As for tolls, they are little more than a way for government to dodge its responsibility to fund and build much needed infrastructure through tax revenues and bind issues. A piece in Fortune looks ate the scam nature of Der Trumpenführer's infrastructure proposal.  An second piece in a column in the New York Times by a Nobel Prize winning economist similarly, calls out Trump's "plan" as a scam.  First, these highlights from Fortune:

Trump’s infrastructure plan hinges on a $100 billion matching grant program for states and cities to launch their own projects, with additional funds coming from a $50 billion rural investment program, along with a few other line items. That’s supposed to entice private companies to come out of the woodwork and rebuild America to the tune of $1.5 trillion.

Just like Mexico won’t pay for a border wall, private investors won’t pay for roads, bridges, and energy infrastructure just because the president says they will. Kicking federal obligations to private companies doesn’t work that way.

Private investors care about only one thing, and that’s maximizing profit. They won’t be drawn to projects that won’t make them enough money, no matter how badly needed the projects are.

And even for projects that do materialize, private investors’ need for profit means the costs of building new infrastructure are often passed along in the form of road tolls or other fees—sometimes, these can be exorbitant. This dispels the commonly held myth that privately financed projects are always a better deal for taxpayers. As another corporate giveaway, the plan would encourage putting major public infrastructure (like, say, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport) up for sale, and would loosen environmental rules designed to protect local communities.

It came as part of a budget package that would also cut $48 billion in federal funding for other programs and services that won’t be matched by a paltry $20 billion per year in infrastructure investments. Among other things, the president once again called for the total elimination of the Community Development Block Grant program, and major cuts to Amtrak, Superfund environmental cleanups, and other programs. You better believe that Americans would suffer under this plan.

The piece in the Times is similarly harsh and calls out Trump's proposal as a con job.  Here are highlights:

Donald Trump doesn’t give a dam. Or a bridge. Or a road. Or a sewer system. Or any of the other things we talk about when we talk about infrastructure.

But how can that be when he just announced a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan? That’s easy: It’s not a plan, it’s a scam. The $1.5 trillion number is just made up; he’s only proposing federal spending of $200 billion, which is somehow supposed to magically induce a vastly bigger overall increase in infrastructure investment, mainly paid for either by state and local governments (which are not exactly rolling in cash, but whatever) or by the private sector.

And even the $200 billion is essentially fraudulent: The budget proposal announced the same day doesn’t just impose savage cuts on the poor, it includes sharp cuts for the Department of Transportation, the Department of Energy and other agencies that would be crucially involved in any real infrastructure plan.

One section says that it would “authorize federal divestiture of assets that would be better managed by state, local or private entities.” Translation: We’re going to privatize whatever we can. It’s conceivable that this would be done only in cases where the private sector really would do better, and contracts would be handed out fairly, without a hint of cronyism. And if you believe that, I have a degree from Trump University you might want to buy.

At one level, none of this should be a surprise. The current infrastructure nonplan looks a lot like the sketchy proposal the Trump campaign laid out in 2016, back when he was still pretending to be a different kind of Republican. 

Yet there is something puzzling about Trump’s failure to come up with a remotely plausible infrastructure plan.

First, the economics: America desperately needs to repair and upgrade its deteriorating roads, water systems, power grid and more. . . . massive infrastructure spending would have been an even better idea five years ago. But it’s still something that needs doing.

Where would the money come from? . . . . Despite a modest rise in interest rates, the federal government can still borrow very cheaply: The interest rate on inflation-protected long-term bonds . . . . So borrowing now to pay for essential infrastructure would still be good economics.

And as I said, there would be political advantages, too. If Trump just pushed ahead with a straightforward, conventional public investment plan, he could trumpet the number of workers employed on new projects.

[A]nd another point: Public spending can yield a lot of private profit. An infrastructure program involving real money could be very lucrative for Trump cronies, or for that matter Trump himself. Yes, there are rules that are supposed to prevent that kind of profiteering, but does anyone think those rules would be enforced under current management?

So why isn’t Trump proposing something real?

Part of the answer is that in practice Trump always defers to Republican orthodoxy, and the modern G.O.P. hates any program that might show people that government can work and help people.

But I also suspect that Trump is afraid to try anything substantive. To do public investment successfully, you need leadership and advice from experts. And this administration doesn’t do expertise, in any field. Not only do experts have a nasty habit of telling you things you don’t want to hear, their loyalty is suspect: You never know when their professional ethics might kick in.

So the Trump administration probably couldn’t put together a real infrastructure plan even if it wanted to. And that’s why it didn’t.

The Tea Party and the Collapse of America's Infrastructure

In the magical alternate universe of the Tea Party/Christofascists highways, bridges and other elements of the nation's infrastructure somehow maintain themselves without spending and without taxes to construct improvements and/or replacement structures.  And since the beginning of the George W. Bush presidency, infrastructure spending has plummeted even as the Chimperator took America into two unfunded wars based on lies.  The result is inadequate highway systems - a phenomenon well know in the Hampton Roads area of Virginia - collapsing bridges and other dangerous conditions.  Think Progress has a piece that looks at this dangerous trend.  Here are highlights:

The austerity fervor that’s seized Washington ever since the 2010 elections has lead to a sudden, steep drop in spending on building things. The collapse in infrastructure spending is illustrated in this chart [above]from investment research firm BCA Research.

After hovering around $300 billion per year from the middle of President George W. Bush’s tenure through 2010, government spending on building things not related to defense fell by about $60 billion in just a few years. The drop is a result of Republicans blocking President Obama’s efforts to invest in infrastructure that the country needs.

As the Financial Times’ Cardiff Garcia notes, the policy choices represented in the chart above aren’t compatible with a responsible effort to cut the country’s debt. Indeed, they’ll make things worse: “It’s also likely that much of the investment that has been forgone in the name of fiscal consolidation will have to be made eventually anyways — only it will be made when rates are higher, exacerbating the long-term fiscal outlook rather than improving it,” Garcia writes. In order to bring America’s infrastructure up to a reasonable level by 2020, Congress needs to be spending about $450 billion per year, according to the American Society of Civil Engineers.

Infrastructure spending levels are tied fairly directly to economic performance. Continued underfunding in this arena over the coming years will cost businesses a trillion dollars in lost sales and cost the economy 3.5 million jobs. Infrastructure spending enjoys overwhelming support from voters. Democrats want to create a national infrastructure bank, something that would require just a $10 billion up-front investment but would provide an ongoing, sustainable funding stream for infrastructure projects.

Lynchburg News Advance Slams Cuccinelli Roads Plan

With the toxic Liberty University dominating the city in many ways, Lynchburg, Virginia is considered by some to be a reactionary backwater.  But not everyone in the city is a Kool-Aid drinker as demonstrated by the Lynchburg News Advance's condemnation of Ken Cuccinelli's plan for highway funding which would solve the state's finance problem by simply throwing more of the highway construction/maintenance burden on cities and counties.  Cuccinelli proposes to continue the very mindset that has helped put Virginia in the die straits it now faces with an inadequate transportation system.  Here are excerpts from the editorial:

Very quietly this week, Ken Cuccinelli, the Republican candidate for governor, released his transportation plan.

With one exception — the creation of a Virginia Congestion Matrix Database so the public can track progress on solving the 100 most important transportation bottlenecks, it is more of the same we’ve seen from many Republicans in Richmond during the past decade. And that makes it a bad deal for the commonwealth, localities who would be harmed, the business community and residents.

In the summary of the transportation plan (available online at Cuccinelli.com/transportation), he claims one of the “fundamental reasons” for the commonwealth’s being “plagued” with transportation woes for decades is “undeniable lack of decision making and buy-in at the local level.”
We beg to differ with the candidate.

One of the fundamental reasons for the commonwealth’s transportation woes was the utter inability of the General Assembly, specifically the no-tax wing of the GOP in the House of Delegates, to accept reality and raise revenues for transportation infrastructure problems.

For a quarter of a century, the gas tax, the primary source of state dollars for transportation, sat at 17.5 cents, unindexed to inflation. Its purchasing power was cut in half by inflation, and the GOP did nothing — nothing — to address the looming crisis. It wasn’t until this year that Gov. Bob McDonnell managed to cobble together a plan that only just begins to address Virginia’s glaring needs.

And as attorney general, Cuccinelli did his best to sabotage that plan at the last minute. Now he wants to “devolve” the responsibilities of the state upon localities, all “without imposing a statewide tax increase”?

Pardon us if we don’t buy this line yet again.

The simple reality is that highways are one of the things the state, not localities, needs to build and maintain.  And that means raising taxes - the gasoline tax is a perfect example - so that an inadequate and deteriorating highway system can be updated and maintained properly.   Forcing costs on localities which would then have to increase real estate taxes is not a solution.

Mark Obenshain: a Self-Described Successor to Cuccinelli; Vote for Mark Herring

GOP attorney general candidate Mark Obenshain has continued to run extremely disingenuous folksy and family focused ads seeking to foll Virginians into falsely believing that he's a nice guy.  What Virginians really need to know is that Obenshain has himself said he would be a successor to Ken Cuccinelli's extreme ideological agenda if elected to the office of attorney general.  Like Cuccinelli, Obenshain supports a personhood amendment and introduced a bill to criminalize women having miscarriages who failed to notify police within 24 hours.  It doesn't get much more extreme.  If gays, women,  minorities and non-climate change deniers want more of Cuccinelli's lunacy and efforts to police their bedrooms, then Obenshain is their man.  On the other hand, if you support individual freedoms, modernity and rational though as opposed to religious extremism, then you need to get out and vote for Mark Herring.  Moreover, you need to encourage everyone you know to vote for Herring as well.  The Washington Post looks at the real Obenshain, which ought to make sane individuald run screaming away from him.  Here are highlights:

The race to succeed Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II pits a Republican who has been philosophically in step with the incumbent against a Democrat who says he’d head in the opposite direction.

State Sen. Mark D. Obenshain (R-Harrisonburg) faces Sen. Mark Herring (D-Loudoun) in the low-profile but consequential contest.

The attorney general’s race is always overshadowed by the one for governor, and this year’s slugfest between the departing Cuccinelli (R) and Democrat Terry McAuliffe (D) has had no trouble dominating the Virginia political scene. 

But the attorney general’s race will decide who serves as the commonwealth’s top lawyer, presiding over a 400-employee public law firm that reviews, interprets and defends Virginia law. The contest also could help determine who’s at the top of the ticket four years from now, given that the last six attorneys general have run for governor . . .

On the campaign trail, as in the ornate Senate chamber, they have had sharp philosophical disagreements on matters ranging from Medicaid expansion to gay rights. 

Herring, also a lawyer in private practice, has sought to make the campaign largely about Cuccinelli, a social conservative who developed a national reputation for his battles against the federal government, a university climate scientist and a public colleges with policies that protect gay people from discrimination. Herring has said that Obenshain is likely to take the attorney general’s office further down that activist path, one that he says has made Virginia a less appealing place to do business.

“Time and again, he has bent and twisted the law and misused and abused the power of the office in order to advance personal ambition and an extreme ideological agenda,” Herring said of Cuccinelli in the debate. “Senator Obenshain would be a continuation of what we’ve got.”

When it comes to his own record, Herring has highlighted his sponsorship of legislation to strengthen penalties in domestic violence cases . . . . . He has also stressed his support for a $1.4 billion-a-year transportation funding overhaul passed this year, which Obenshain opposed.

Those in Hampton Roads and Noerhtern Virginia should be most concerned about Obenshain's anti-transportation mind set.  As in the gubernatorial race, the choice could not be more stark.  Obenshain's base consists of  those motivated by reaction against modernity, reaction against racial demographic change, reaction against the larger population’s rejection of a fear- and hate-based version of Christianity, and reaction against the decline of white privilege.  We need Mark Herring, not Mark Obenshain to be the next attorney general of Virginia.

Virginia Beach Republican Mayor in TV Ad for Democrat McAuliffe

Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms has gone even further in his support for Democrat gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe.  He's now appearing in a TV ad for McAuliffe with two local Democrat Mayors (see above).  His motivations are likely multiple.  First, Sessoms - whom I have known for over 20 years - is not and has never been an extremist on social issues.  In fact, he has spoken at several HRBOR networking event (HRBOR is the local gay and gay friendly chamber of commerce).  Second, with much of the Virginia Beach economy relying on tourism, I suspect that Sessoms understands that the extremist image a Cuccinelli governorship would give Virginia would not be good for business.  Another likely issue is Virginia Beach's need to see the transportation system in Hampton Roads drastically upgraded to ensure that Virginia Beach tourism isn't killed by local gridlock.  Cussinelli opposed the transportation bill passed during the last session of the General Assembly and has basically offered slashing taxes as his cure all for Virginia's economic ills.   Here's a sampling from the Virginian Pilot:

Virginia Beach Mayor Will Sessoms has gone all in for Terry McAuliffe.

The resort city’s Republican mayor endorsed the Democratic gubernatorial candidate last month. Now he’s appearing in a TV ad on McAuliffe’s behalf along with two Democratic mayors, Paul Fraim of Norfolk and McKinley Price of Newport News.

Peppered with scenes from Hampton Roads, the ad was released by the McAuliffe campaign today. It’s part of a Democratic narrative meant to portray McAuliffe as a more mainstream candidate than his Republican opponent, Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

Republicans Against Reality

One of the Republican Party's biggest hurdles in the coming years is overcoming the control of the party grassroots by those who live in an alternate universe from objective reality.  Yes, once again I am talking about the Christofascists and Tea Party nutcases who now make up much of the GOP base.  Science and knowledge continue to advance and the demographic make up of the country continues to change, yet the GOP base wants to return to a 1950 world when minorities were subservient (and segregated in the South), gays were invisible, and unwarranted deference to religion was perhaps at its height.  Paul Krugman looks at this GOP disconnect from reality in a column in the New York Times.  Here are excepts:

Last week House Republicans voted for the 40th time to repeal Obamacare. Like the previous 39 votes, this action will have no effect whatsoever. But it was a stand-in for what Republicans really want to do: repeal reality, and the laws of arithmetic in particular. The sad truth is that the modern G.O.P. is lost in fantasy, unable to participate in actual governing. 

I may believe that Republicans have their priorities all wrong, but that’s not the issue here. Instead, I’m talking about their apparent inability to accept very basic reality constraints . . .

Am I exaggerating? Consider what went down in Congress last week. 

First, House leaders had to cancel planned voting on a transportation bill, because not enough representatives were willing to vote for the bill’s steep spending cuts. Now, just a few months ago House Republicans approved an extreme austerity budget, mandating severe overall cuts in federal spending — and each specific bill will have to involve large cuts in order to meet that target. But it turned out that a significant number of representatives, while willing to vote for huge spending cuts as long as there weren’t any specifics, balked at the details.

Then House leaders announced plans to hold a vote cutting spending on food stamps in half — a demand that is likely to sink the already struggling effort to agree with the Senate on a farm bill. 

Then they held the pointless vote on Obamacare, apparently just to make themselves feel better. (It’s curious how comforting they find the idea of denying health care to millions of Americans.)

In other words, Republicans, confronted with the responsibilities of governing, essentially threw a tantrum, then ran off to sulk. 

How did the G.O.P. get to this point? On budget issues, the proximate source of the party’s troubles lies in the decision to turn the formulation of fiscal policy over to a con man. Representative Paul Ryan, . . .  What’s happening now is that the G.O.P. is trying to convert Mr. Ryan’s big talk into actual legislation — and is finding, unsurprisingly, that it can’t be done. Yet Republicans aren’t willing to face up to that reality. Instead, they’re just running away. 

When it comes to fiscal policy, then, Republicans have fallen victim to their own con game. . . . . For a long time the Republican establishment got its way by playing a con game with the party’s base. Voters would be mobilized as soldiers in an ideological crusade, fired up by warnings that liberals were going to turn the country over to gay married terrorists, not to mention taking your hard-earned dollars and giving them to Those People. Then, once the election was over, the establishment would get on with its real priorities — deregulation and lower taxes on the wealthy.

At this point, however, the establishment has lost control. Meanwhile, base voters actually believe the stories they were told. . . . .  And the party establishment can’t get the base to accept fiscal or political reality without, in effect, admitting to those base voters that they were lied to.

What makes this frightening is that Republicans do, in fact, have a majority in the House, so America can’t be governed at all unless a sufficient number of those House Republicans are willing to face reality. And that quorum of reasonable Republicans may not exist.

Bob McDonnell's Gift to Virginia - $1 Billion Bill for Tunnel

The antiquated Mid-Town Tunnel

In general rather than raise taxes and revenues for transportation, Governor Bob McDonnell and the Republican Party of Virginia have pursued "public-private partnership" projects which generally equate to private interest being given the right to screw the taxpaying public.  A case in point is the deal for construction of a second Mid-Town Tunnel tube that basically gives taxing powers to VDOT and private interests.  On Wednesday, a circuit court judge ruled that the deal violates the Virginia Constitution.  The result?  Virginia may be on the hook for the $1 billion project.  This disaster, combined with the growing Star Scientific scandal, would seem to make McDonnell's national aspirations about as unsinkable as the Titanic.  An article in the Virginian Pilot looks at the court ruling and possible fall out.  Some of the comments are delicious and would underscore that McDonnell's "legacy" may be tanking fast.  Here are some highlights:

The state would be on the hook for more than a billion dollars of debt if a judge's ruling striking down the Midtown and Downtown tunnel tolls stands, according to a ratings agency.

Portsmouth Circuit Judge James A. Cales Jr. declared the tolls unconstitutional Wednesday, saying the General Assembly exceeded its authority by delegating to the state transportation department "unfettered power" to set the rates "without any real or meaningful parameters."

Gov. Bob McDonnell said the state will appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Virginia, and representatives from the Virginia Department of Transportation and its private partner said work will continue on the $2.1 billion project.

 

The plaintiffs in the lawsuit that led to Cales' ruling have maintained since filing their challenge in July that the state was proceeding with the project at its own risk.

Fitch Ratings told investors in an April 9 report that if the litigation stopped Elizabeth River Crossings from collecting tolls, the state would be required by its contract to repay the debt that has been incurred for the project.

That amount includes $663.75 million in private bonds that were issued in April 2012 and a $422 million federal loan, according to the Fitch report. Elizabeth River Crossings bears the risk of repaying that debt under the normal terms of its agreement with the state, with tolling.

Fitch assigned a rating of BBB- on the debt, the lowest rating for investment-grade debt. Ratings lower than that fall into a category that investors consider speculative, said Scott Zuchorski, Fitch's primary analyst on the Elizabeth River Crossings account.

 

"If it's not resolved by the end of next January, then it could become more interesting," Zuchorski said.  Ratings downgrades cause the price of bonds to fall, potentially leading to losses to investors.

Again, for real fun, read subscriber comments on the piece.

Terry McAuliffe for Governor of Virginia

Last night the boyfriend and I attended a fundraising reception for Terry McAuliffe, the prospective Democrat nominee for Governor of Virginia who will oppose Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli the all but crowned GOP nominee.  It was my first chance to talk with McAuliffe one on one and candidly, I was impressed.  It is hard to stress just how stark the choice Virginians will face in November 2013.  And frankly, the prospect of Cuccinelli in the Governor's mansion ought to terrify anyone rational - which is one reason we are seeing members of the Republican business community attack Cuccinelli and in some cases openly endorse McAuliffe.  McAuliffe is a successful businessman (and ironically, his mother went to my high school) who has a let's work together and get the job done attitude.  Here's a partial summary of the contrasts between McAuliffe and Cuccinelli:

On the one hand there will be McAuliffe who first and foremost isn't a religious fanatic who seeks to impose his religious beliefs on all Virginians.  Indeed, he has come out in support of civil law gay marriage.   In contrast, Cuccinelli is allied with the most vicious and extreme Christofascists in Virginia and seeks to (i) end all abortions in Virginia, (ii) make contraception decisions for women, (iii) keep LGBT Virginians a perpetual under class in terms of civil rights and employment protections.  Cuccinelli may blather about freedom and liberty, but like most of the Christofascist set, his idea of liberty and religious freedom comes down to imposing far right religious beliefs on all citizens and making public policy follow the most extreme beliefs of the far right Christians.

Another huge issue - and one that I confront daily using the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel - is that of transportation funding.  Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads are being strangled economically by the increasingly outdated and inadequate transportation system.  Here as sampling of McAuliffe's view on the problem:

Virginia is a great place for business, but one of the things holding us back from the top is an infrastructure system that can feel outdated and inefficient. In Hampton Roads, commuters are stuck in traffic for 43 hours per year, with a total economic cost of $700 million annually. In Northern Virginia, it’s 67 hours and over $1 billion. And roads and bridges that need repair are a pressing problem all over the Commonwealth.

In February, Governor McDonnell and both parties in the legislature came together to pass a plan to fund transportation that will finally begin to address gridlock. It wasn’t perfect, and there are plenty of things I disagree with, but inaction on transportation was no longer an option.

By focusing on projects that best serve the economic travel needs of our citizens and businesses — along with key safety improvements — we will ensure that those rail, road, and bridge projects that absolutely must get done do get done.

Second, we need to incentivize regional planning and implementation of smart growth planning. Some of our transportation issues aren’t the result of bad roads or transit systems; they’re the result of improper or poorly planned development.

Where is Cuccinelli on the issue?  He is seeking to undo the transportation funding plan passed by the General Assembly last month.  Just yesterday - in a pattern that is standard for Cuccinelli who finds anything he doesn't like to be "unconstitutional" even when the U. S. Supreme Court has ruled otherwise - issued opinions claiming that the transportation funding plan is unconstitutional (as is the Medicaid expansion plan).  Here are highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

Two of the legislature's biggest policy actions this year - approval of a major road-funding bill and inclusion of Medicaid expansion language in the state budget - are legally suspect, according to Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli.

One advisory opinion issued Friday by Cuccinelli questions the constitutionality of elements in the transportation bill to assess higher sales taxes in Hampton Roads and Northern Virginia to raise revenue for regional projects.

Cuccinelli's other piece of guidance applies to a provision in Virginia's revised two-year budget that vests a Medicaid expansion decision with a 10-member legislative commission, a delegation of authority that the attorney general considers constitutionally improper.

Both opinions were released in response to earlier requests from Del. Bob Marshall, a Prince William County Republican and key player in the legal challenge that toppled regional taxing authorities created in a sweeping 2007 road-funding bill.

Cuccinelli is a Tea Party extremist - and climate change denier - who opposes any and all tax increases even as Virginia's transportation system is crumbling.   The fact that he is in league with Bob Marshall, perhaps the most delusional lunatic in the General Assembly - speaks volumes about Cuccinelli's extremist views and beliefs.  It is also telling that Cuccinelli's insane lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of laws have been failures across the board.   On the issue of Medicaid expansion, here is McAuliffe's view: 

According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, the federal government is offering Virginia $21 billion in funding over seven years to expand our Medicaid program. If we don’t accept the money, it will simply flow to other states. I believe that Virginia taxpayer money should stay in Virginia.

Accepting federal funds for Medicaid has broad bipartisan support: Both very conservative and very liberal Governors have accepted the funds.

Expanding Medicaid will cover nearly 400,000 uninsured Virginians and create up to 33,000 jobs by 2021, according to the Senate Finance Committee. Covering the uninsured for regular visits to the doctor for shots and checkups and life saving cancer screenings and treatment will also help reduce health care costs for those with insurance already.

Despite his claimed religiosity and piousness, Cuccinelli would kick these 400,000 Virginians to the curb.   Sadly, he is like most Christofascists who are best known for who they hate - gays, blacks, non-Christians, Hispanics, etc. - and utterly ignores the Gospel message of aiding the poor, the sick, and the less fortunate.

On the issues, there is really one one decision one can reach: vote for Terry McAuliffe in November.

Ken Cuccinelli’s Arrogant and Untenable Position in Virginia

Despite a tradition that traces back to after World War II, Ken Cuccinelli has refused to resign as Virginia Attorney General as he campaigns for the Governor's mansion this November.  In the process there are serious questions as to his use of salaried state employees in his campaign which, combined with his own salary, add up to his forcing every Virginia taxpayer to subsidize his campaign.  But that is only the beginning of the problem as Kookinelli as he is best called works to politicize every issue possible in an effort to aggrandize himself and win points with the delusional Neanderthals and religious fanatics that now comprise the base of the Republican Party of Virginia.  Am article in the Washington Post looks at the continuing problem which in many ways is tantamount to Kookinelli telling the majority of Virginians to go f*ck themselves since he views himself as above the law and decades of precedent.  Here are article highlights:

SINCE WORLD WAR II, 10 of Virginia’s 11 attorneys general have run for governor. Nine of those 10, Democrats and Republicans alike, resigned to do so, and for good reason: They were loath to politicize an office whose effectiveness and prestige depend on making legal judgments untainted by politics.

Despite that wise precedent, Virginia’s current attorney general, Ken Cuccinelli II (R), has refused to follow suit. He has clung to his position even as he angled for his party’s gubernatorial nomination, bringing a cloud over his office and casting doubt on its ability to act impartially as the state’s legal counsel.

An unfolding example is Mr. Cuccinelli’s maneuvering over Virginia’s landmark transportation bill, awaiting Gov. Robert F. McDonnell’s signature after the General Assembly approved it last month with bipartisan support. Mr. Cuccinelli, a darling of the tea party and an unyielding conservative, opposed the bill because it raises taxes. It’s unfortunate, and irresponsible, that he attacked a bill that he now may be called on to defend.

Although Mr. Cuccinelli has not yet identified constitutional or legal problems with the transportation bill, others have. Writing in The Post last month, Paul Goldman and Norman Leahy argued that the measure violates Virginia’s constitution by imposing surtaxes in two congested regions — Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads — that would not apply statewide.

If that or another alleged flaw becomes grounds for litigation, then Mr. Cuccinelli, already on record as opposing the bill, will be called on to defend it in court. How vigorously can Virginians expect him to do so? If Mr. Cuccinelli himself identifies a constitutional problem, how would anyone believe that his legal opinion has not been colored by his political thinking?

This sort of quandary is precisely why previous attorneys general chose to resign before running for governor. By refusing to do the same, Mr. Cuccinelli is doing Virginians a disservice and subverting the integrity of his office.

Of course, besides being the darling of the Tea Party forces, Kookinelli is also the darling of the Christofascists at The Family Foundation - something which likely explains Kookinelli's lack of integrity.  In Virginia there are few organizations that lie and spread deliberate falsehoods more than The Family Foundation and its "godly Christian" followers and water carriers.

Petroleum Association Bucks McDonnell and Asks For Gas Tax Increase

Anyone who commutes during rush hour in Hampton Roads or Northern Virginia knows that Virginia's transportation system is not only inadequate, it's also crumbling (e.g., the potholes on east bound Interstate 64 in Norfolk between the HRBT and the Granby Street exit that I drive each day  make the pavement look like its been bombed in places).  Meanwhile, the state's gasoline tax hasn't been raised in over a quarter century in keeping with the GOP's no tax increase mantra.  And rather than increase the gas tax, Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell wants to scrap the tax, increase the state sales tax, and raid funds for already stretched programs.  It's idiocy that so far has been blocked by the Virginia Senate.  Now, the petroleum association that represents gasoline retailers statewide has come out in support of an increase in the gas tax and displayed far more logic than Taliban Bob. Here are highlights from a Virginian Pilot article:

How desperate are Virginians for a statewide transportation funding solution?  Here's one example: a trade group that represents gas stations is bucking tradition and backing a higher fuel tax to pump new money into state road building accounts.

The Virginia Petroleum, Convenience and Grocery Association this week has expressed support for raising the state's 17.5 cent per gallon gas tax to 23.5 cents starting in July. More than 25 years have passed since the state's gas tax was last adjusted.

In a statement, the group cited the mushrooming maintenance deficit that has required Virginia to increasingly spent more of its road construction dollars to repair its decaying road network,
"Should this continue it will eventually impact the productivity of our membership and other Virginia businesses, and affect the quality of life for many Virginians," the Feb. 7 statement reads.

The association also said it would work toward "consensus legislation for the 2014 General Assembly session that adjusts Virginia’s cents per gallon rate along with the biennial state budget, to accommodate the increase in federal gasoline efficiency standards for all passenger vehicles."

The transportation funding plan still alive in the General Assembly is the House of Delegates' version of Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal to dump the current gas tax and replace it by increasing the state sales tax from 5 percent to 5.8 percent, among other plan wrinkles.

The transportation funding plan still alive in the General Assembly is the House of Delegates' version of Gov. Bob McDonnell's proposal to dump the current gas tax and replace it by increasing the state sales tax from 5 percent to 5.8 percent, among other plan wrinkles.  .  .  .  the Senate version of McDonnell's plan and several proposed amendments to it were defeated by Democrats who consider its revenue sources either unreliable or sacrosanct.

McDonnell needs to dump the GOP's failed approach on taxes and increase the gasoline tax and make sure all of the new revenues go to highway repair and expansion.

The Virginia GOP's Failed Transporation Solution

Rather than raise the state gasoline tax which has not seen an increase in 25 years or raise the state sales tax to pay for Virginia's increasing crisis transportation funding, the Virginia Republican Party's solution has been to slap tolls on road projects build either completely by private money or in what are euphemistically called public-private partnerships.  In these later scenarios, there is no partnership and the real intended relationship is that the public gets screwed and the private interests get rich. As with all of their funding approaches, the Virginia GOP tells the gullible public that they did not raise taxes - the public just ends up paying in some other way be it "user fees," increased license fees or, in the case of the new Jordan Bridge which spans the southern branch of the Elizabeth River by allowing a private interest to reach into the tax payers' pockets.  I'm sorry, but maintaining a first class transportation system is the state's responsibility - especially if Virginia's economy is to be protected from strangulation due to transportation gridlock.  Also distressing is that Hampton Roads has been disproportionately targeted for financial rape by public- private road projects.

Interestingly, an article in the Virginian Pilot shows the other fallacy of the Virginia GOP's approach: people will change their travel habits to avoid tolls.  So far the new bridge has seen traffic levels drop by 90%.  Here are article highlights:

The new South Norfolk Jordan Bridge is a nice place for a stroll. The span's snaking white walkway provides unparalleled views of surrounding cities as it climbs 145 feet over the Elizabeth River's Southern Branch.

And for deep thinkers, the path provides plenty of silence, even during rush hour.
After opening in late October, the privately owned bridge drew 35,271 E-ZPass customers from Nov. 1 to Dec. 21, according to data provided by the Virginia Department of Transportation. That equates to fewer than 700 a day or, assuming no traffic on weekends or Thanksgiving, about 980 per weekday.  The old Jordan Bridge averaged about 7,000 vehicles per weekday before it was closed in 2008 for safety reasons.

Kevin Crum, the new bridge's general manager, sent a statement by email that said the crossing "averages 2,500-3,500 vehicles per day (depending on the day)" and that the owners "are pleased with where we are."  The bridge cost $142 million to build and was financed entirely by private investors. 

Jason Ewell, the owner of SoNo Auto Sales, said he suspects the $2 toll, combined with the E-ZPass membership, has kept drivers from trying the bridge.  "Before, if you had 75 cents laying in the ashtray, you could go across it," he said.

Ewell said he expected the bridge to continue to draw more traffic as people become more familiar with it. The beginning of $1.84 rush-hour tolls at the Downtown and Midtown tunnels in early 2014 also could persuade more people to take the Jordan.

And what happens if the traffic never comes? The city is protected in a development agreement by a clause that says it can begin the process to take ownership of the bridge if it is ever closed for more than three months, for reasons other than acts of God, labor strikes, war or scheduled improvements.

When the tolls hit the Midtown Tunnel next yea (to enrich private interests, of course), I have already decided that I will adjust my commuting schedule and my use of the Midtown will become a thing of the past - at least until VDOT  and the Virginia GOP empower some private interest to butt rape commuters on the commuters on the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel as well or I decide to relocate the law firm to Hampton.  As at the national level, the Republican Party in Virginia is proving that it is unfit to govern and that average citizens and the needs of the public are the last on their priority list.  One can expect regionalism between the Peninsula and south side to take a huge step backwards as the populace is strangled with tolls - all because the Virginia GOP and Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell are afraid to stand up to the lunatic elements of their party base.

Virginia's GOP Created Fiscal Cliff

An article in the Richmond Times-Dispatch looks at the Commonwealth of Virginia's own approaching fiscal cliff.  It's interesting that many of the problems cited that will make Virginia less competitive in the future and more fiscally insolvent track directly to the policies of the Republican Party of Virginia and its refusal to raise taxes to fund desperately needed spending on transportation, infrastructure and education.  While not specifically mentioned in the article I would also cite the Virginia GOP's continued push for reactionary social policies that make the state unattractive to progressive businesses that are hesitant to try to relocate employees with almost Medieval laws on equality and women's rights.  Should Ken "Kookinelli" Cuccinelli be elected governor next November, the state's decline would likely accelerate. Here are some article highlights:

A national task force says Virginia may be heading toward its own version of a “fiscal cliff,” despite the state’s well-deserved reputation for prudent financial management.

Virginia could be heading for a major fall because of its reliance on federal government spending and its failure to fashion a sustained source of revenue for transportation improvements essential to economic growth.

“The problems that threaten other states the Task Force studied also threaten Virginia; but, most of the problems are less worrisome thanks to the state’s sound financial management and good fortune,” the report states. “The two exceptions are potential cuts in federal spending and chronically unmet transportation needs.”

The study released this month also raises concerns about the decline in state spending for public education, the gradual privatizing of higher education by substituting higher tuition and fees for state support, and declining state investment in infrastructure because of limited debt capacity.

Options for raising revenues to pay for public services are dwindling, especially for Virginia’s 170 counties, cities and towns, it says, while costs are rising, especially in the state’s bare-bones Medicaid program for the poor and the public employee pension obligations that the state has systematically underfunded.

“The state’s planning documents indicate that Virginia’s general fund revenues will not be adequate to fund obligations from prior years (debt service and pensions), keep up with health care costs, restore recession slashes to local aid, improve health and education services, and maintain and improve transportation and other infrastructure,” the report concludes.

[O]ne of the advisers on the Virginia report said the state is living off past accomplishments that can’t be sustained without changes in approach.  “The problem now is we need some investments,” said James J. Regimbal Jr., a former Senate Finance Committee budget analyst who advises local governments on fiscal policy and recently authored a biting critique of the McDonnell administration’s approach to funding transportation through tolls and private partnerships.

Local government advocates focused on the report’s warning of a reckoning ahead in the next four to six years as Virginia runs out of money for transportation improvements and other investments.  “We’re coming to a time in which the ‘Virginia way,’ which means relying on economic growth to generate the revenue that pay for public services, is no longer going to be able to pay the tab,” said Neal Menkes, director of fiscal policy at the Virginia Municipal League.

Virginia is more dependent on federal spending than any state in the country, said the task force, which noted that Moody’s Investors Service already has placed the state on a credit watch because of the potential for federal spending cuts that could cost the state 122,800 jobs, $7.3 billion in wages and $10.5 billion in annual state gross product.

Transportation is the other elephant in the room for state policymakers, the report states. “Inadequate funding has proved chronic and resulted in the substitution of capital funds for operations and maintenance and a growing dependence on federal funds.”  The task force notes gridlock on transportation funding since Virginia last increased the gasoline tax 25 years ago, as well as changes in vehicle efficiency and driving habits that have eroded the value of the tax by 45 percent.

Virginia’s Medicaid program ranks 48th in the country in eligibility and benefits even though the state ranks seventh in per capita income, the report notes. Expansion would bring an estimated $21 billion in federal spending the first seven years and generate more than 30,000 jobs in health care by some estimates, as well as provide health coverage to more than 400,000 Virginians without it.  But expansion also would cost Virginia more than $1 billion over 10 years, according to the McDonnell administration’s most recent estimate, at a time when Medicaid costs outpace revenue growth to pay them.

In the end, the task force suggests that Virginia faces a politically difficult decision about taxes and investments.  “Will the state’s leaders determine which crucial public investments must be made?” it asks. “Will they make the case to taxpayers for the need to raise revenues and use the golden AAA credit to leverage those revenues for tomorrow’s infrastructure?”

As long as the GOP controls the General Assembly and the governorship, the answer to the study's last question is a resounding "no."   Virginia will continue to decline thanks to the Virginia GOP's backward and greed driven policies.

The GOP Budget: Cannibalize the Future

This blog has looked at the smoke and mirrors of the GOP budget proposed by Rep. Paul Ryan before. A budget that benefits the wealthy while savaging the poor and middle class and running up even bigger deficits in the future. The budget approach, however, is not unique to the GOP at the national level. One is seeing the same sort of budget tactics used in states ranging from Wisconsin, where the governor is facing possible recall, to Virginia where Bob McDonnell lauds "public-private partnerships" such as the proposed Norfolk-Portsmouth Midtown Tunnel deal which will seriously screw over citizens while giving ridiculous guaranteed rates of return to private interests. An op-ed in the New York Times maintains that New Jersey and Chris Christie need to be added to the list of Republicans who are selling out the future in order to mindlessly cling to a no tax mantra even as the nation's infrastructure crumbles. Here are column highlights:

One general rule of modern politics is that the people who talk most about future generations — who go around solemnly declaring that we’re burdening our children with debt — are, in practice, the people most eager to sacrifice our future for short-term political gain. You can see that principle at work in the House Republican budget, which starts with dire warnings about the evils of deficits, then calls for tax cuts that would make the deficit even bigger . . .

And you can see it in the actions of Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, who talks loudly about acting responsibly but may actually be the least responsible governor the state has ever had.

Mr. Christie’s big move — the one that will define his record — was his unilateral decision back in 2010 to cancel work that was already under way on a new rail tunnel linking New Jersey with New York. At the time, Mr. Christie claimed that he was just being fiscally responsible, while critics said that he had canceled the project just so he could raid it for funds.

Now the independent Government Accountability Office has weighed in with a report on the controversy, and it confirms everything the critics were saying.

The governor asserted that the projected costs were rising sharply; the report tells us that this simply wasn’t true. The governor claimed that New Jersey was being asked to pay for 70 percent of a project that would shower benefits on residents of New York; in fact, the bulk of the financing would have come either from the federal government or from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which collects revenue from residents of both states.

But while it’s important to document Mr. Christie’s mendacity, it’s even more important to understand the utter folly of his decision. The new report drives home just how necessary, and very much overdue,the tunnel project was and is.

New Jersey is linked to New York by just two single-track tunnels built a century ago — tunnels that run at 100 percent of capacity during peak hours. How could this situation not call for new investment?

Well, Mr. Christie insisted that his state couldn’t afford the cost. As we’ve already seen, however, he apparently couldn’t make that case without being dishonest about the numbers. So what was his real motive?

One answer is that the governor is widely assumed to have national ambitions, and the Republican base hates government spending in general (unless it’s on weapons). And it hates public transportation in particular.

Another answer is that canceling the tunnel allowed Mr. Christie to divert funds from that project — as his critics have said, to cannibalize the investment — and put them into the state highway fund, thereby avoiding the need to raise the state’s tax on gasoline. New Jersey gas taxes, by the way, are lower in real terms than at any point in the state’s history. But, as a candidate, Mr. Christie said that he wouldn’t raise those taxes, so cannibalizing the tunnel helped him avoid embarrassment.

The crucial point about both of these explanations is that they stand Mr. Christie’s narrative about himself on its head. The governor poses as a man willing to make hard choices for the future, but what he actually did was sacrifice the future for the sake of personal political advantage.

Unfortunately, Mr. Christie’s behavior is all too typical these days. America used to be a country that thought big about the future. Major public projects, from the Erie Canal to the interstate highway system, used to be a well-understood component of our national greatness. Nowadays, however, the only big projects politicians are willing to undertake — with expense no object — seem to be wars.

And, of course, the GOP has no qualms about throwing aside middle class and poor Americans as if they were easily discard trash even as GOP politicians wrap themselves in the cloak of Christianity. They are modern day Pharisees or worse..

More Details on the Heinous Hampton Roads Toll Plan

I've noted before how Hampton Roads is being singled out from the rest of Virginia in terms of new taxes. Of course, in typical Virginia GOP fashion, the reach into residents' pockets isn't called a "tax" but rather "tolls." No matter how one describes it, Hampton Roads residents will be out the money. Even as other areas of the Commonwealth see huge highway expenditures made without similar tolls. As the Virginian Pilot notes, the deal stinks and Bob "Governor Ultrasound" McDonnell is screwing local residents while running up a bill that will be left for future governors to pay. It's not exactly a pretty picture of leadership, but the norm in today's Virginia GOP. Here are some highlights:

[A]s Del. John Cosgrove, a Chesapeake Republican recently put it, the state's relying on "borrowed money."

The deal also ensures Hampton Roads drivers pay tolls to cross the Elizabeth River - $1.84 one way for cars during rush hour and $7.36 for trucks; $1.59 for cars in off-hours and $4.77 for trucks - for the next four years, perhaps more, until the new Midtown tube is finally completed.

Starting in 2017, when the Midtown is set for completion, tolls on both tunnels can be increased by 3.5 percent per year - or more - until 2070.

Drivers using Interstate 264 through the Downtown Tunnel will pay tolls for the duration of the contract without ever seeing a new lane of capacity.

ERC will be allowed up to a 13.5 percent annual return on equity, at a time when few investments pay anything close to that.

McDonnell often justifies this plan by declaring that there are "no free lunches" when it comes to transportation. But it's doubtful that any one expected lunch to be this expensive.

Never mind the nearly $1,000 annual tax hike that McDonnell's Elizabeth River Crossings deal imposes on thousands of working men and women. Most, if not all, settled in Hampton Roads under the assumption that their government wouldn't tax them disproportionately for roads that benefit the entire state's economy. Most, if not all, never thought they'd be ordered to pay an inordinate fee to sit on a daily basis in the same traffic they're sitting in now.

The $4 billion that McDonnell mentions comes mostly in the form of "borrowed money" that will be repaid from heaven knows what sources.

It allows the governor to reap the political reward that comes with racking up projects on the commonwealth's credit card; the bill, meanwhile, is a problem for Virginia's taxpayers and a future governor. McDonnell will be long gone by the time it comes due.

Yep, the deal sucks for those of us in Hampton Roads and benefits the private company disproportionately. And worse yet, this is the type of leadership Governor Ultrasound wants to take to Washington. That's scary.

Washington Post: Deeds for Governor of Virginia

For anyone who wants Virginia to move forward into the 21st century, the decision of who is better suited for Virginia's next governor should be an easy call. True, Creigh Deeds is a conservative Democrat, but at least he is in touch with reality and doesn't have his every action motivated by a theocratic plan to intertwine religion and government. Throughout his legislative career, Bob McDonnell has tried to make Pat Robertson's view of government a reality. That in and of itself ought to terrify thinking Virginians. Worse yet, McDonnell has no fact based viable plans on how to address Virginia's critical problem of inadequate roads and interstate highways and policies that will make the state attractive to business beyong low taxes. Employers and employees will not come to a state that has a legal framework akin to something out of Sharia law out of the Middle East - McDonnell's real agenda. In its endorsement of Deeds, the Washington Post looks at why Deeds is the better choice for Virginia:
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[T]he commonwealth [of Virginia] faces a daunting crisis in the form of a drastic shortfall in transportation funding, measured in the tens of billions of dollars, that threatens future prosperity. If the current campaign for governor has clarified anything, it is that state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds, the Democratic nominee, has the good sense and political courage to maintain the forward-looking policies of the past while addressing the looming challenge of fixing the state's dangerously inadequate roads. The Republican candidate, former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell, offers something different: a blizzard of bogus, unworkable, chimerical proposals, repackaged as new ideas, that crumble on contact with reality.

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There are plenty of reasons why Mr. Deeds is the better choice for governor in the Nov. 3 election. He has stood with Gov. Timothy M. Kaine, the incumbent, and his predecessor, now-Sen. Mark R. Warner, in support of the sane fiscal and budgetary choices that have made the state one of the best-governed and most business-friendly in the nation. Mr. McDonnell has generally spurned those policies. . .

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Mr. Deeds has compiled a moderate record on divisive social issues that reflects Virginia's status as a centrist swing state. Mr. McDonnell has staked out the intolerant terrain on his party's right wing, fighting a culture war that seized his imagination as a law student in the Reagan era.

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But the central challenge facing Virginia and its next governor is the deficit in transportation funding projected at $100 billion over the next two decades -- and only Mr. Deeds offers hope for a solution. Following a road map used successfully in 1986, he would appoint a bipartisan commission to forge a consensus on transportation funding, with the full expectation that new taxes would be part of the mix. Mr. McDonnell, by contrast, proposes to pay for road improvements mainly by cannibalizing essential state services such as education, health and public safety -- a political non-starter.

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And rather than leveling with Virginians about the cost of his approach, as Mr. Deeds has done, Mr. McDonnell lacks the political spine to say what programs he would attempt to gut, or even reshape, in order to deal with transportation needs.

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It is fantasy to think that the transportation funding problem, a generation in the making, will be addressed without a tax increase. A recent manifesto from 17 major business groups in Northern Virginia, calling for new taxes dedicated to transportation, attests to that reality. . . . Yet Mr. McDonnell, champion of a revenue-starved status quo, remains in denial. He professes to feel the pain of Virginians struggling with financial hard times. In fact his transportation policy, a blueprint for stagnation and continuing deterioration. .

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Despite his rural roots, Mr. Deeds has been ideologically flexible enough to support abortion rights; press for background checks on firearms buyers at gun shows; oppose displaying the Confederate flag on state license plates; and warm to equal rights for homosexuals.

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Based on his 14-year record as a lawmaker -- a record dominated by his focus on incendiary wedge issues -- we worry that Mr. McDonnell's Virginia would be one where abortion rights would be curtailed; where homosexuals would be treated as second-class citizens; where information about birth control would be hidden; and where the line between church and state could get awfully porous. That is a prescription for yesterday's Virginia, not tomorrow's.

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Mr. Deeds, lagging in the polls, lacks Mr. McDonnell's knack for crisp articulation. But if he has not always been the most adroit advocate for astute policies, that is preferable to Mr. McDonnell's silver-tongued embrace of ideas that would mire Virginia in a traffic-clogged, backward-looking past. Virginians should not confuse Mr. McDonnell's adept oratory for wisdom, nor Mr. Deeds's plain speech for indirection. In fact, it is Mr. Deeds whose ideas hold the promise of a prosperous future.

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This election comes down to whether Virginia will continue to move forward and become an increasingly moderate and prosperous state or instead lurch backwards in time and place provincial thinking, religious extremism, racism and bigotry as its top agenda. I pray that Virginian's wake up to the disaster that Taliban Bob would be as governor.

McDonnell Ahead In Virginia Governor's Race

A new Washington Post-ABC News Poll shows Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell still leading in the race for governor of Virginia. As I have opined before, the biggest problem for the state wide Democrat slate is the lack of enthusiasm among Virginia Democrats. While I will vote for Deeds simply because he is not Bob McDonnell, neither he nor the national Democrats have done anything to make me feel the least bit excited. For gays, the Obama and the Congressional Democrats have delivered ZERO so far and it increasingly looks like the Democrats will roll over on serious health care reform due to the delusional desire for a "bipartisan" approach. Other than in someones dreams, the GOP is not going to do a single thing to work on a bipartisan basis - why Obama and company haven't figured this out is more than a bit unsettling.

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As for Deeds, I have still not seen any out reach whatsoever to blacks, LGBT Virginians or the growing Hispanic population. It's almost as if the man is trying to lose the election from my vantage point. Yes, things could still change, but for that to happen Deeds needs to get off his folksy country routine and get to work. If McDonnell is elected, Virginia will be dragged backwards a decade or two or more in terms of progressive thinking. Here are some highlights from the Washington Post:

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Republican Robert F. McDonnell has claimed a clear early lead over Democrat R. Creigh Deeds in the race for Virginia governor, according to a new Washington Post poll. Widespread criticism of the direction of a state run for the past eight years by Democrats and an increasingly GOP-friendly electorate have propelled McDonnell, who runs competitively even in the Democratic strongholds of Northern Virginia.
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Less than three months before Election Day, the poll shows that relatively few Virginia voters are following the race closely, signaling that it could fluctuate considerably between now and November. Even fewer claim deep knowledge of McDonnell, the former attorney general, or Deeds, a state senator, who are vying to succeed Gov. Timothy M. Kaine (D). Most voters have not formed an opinion or say they are apt to change their minds.

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McDonnell's advantage in a race being watched nationally as an early electoral test for Obama serves as a warning sign for Democrats, who are eager to hold on to the governor's mansion in what has become a crucial swing state. Obama, who recently visited McLean to campaign with Deeds, won the state last year by seven points, becoming the first Democrat to carry Virginia since 1964. But while 75 percent of Virginia voters who backed Obama said they would vote for Deeds, 13 percent said they would vote for McDonnell.

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The economy is issue No. 1 in the campaign, with voters about evenly split between Deeds and McDonnell on dealing with it. Health care, which has dominated national politics for the past month, is the second most-frequently mentioned issue in the governor's race, followed by education, transportation and taxes.

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The poll shows that Virginians are split on which candidate would best handle the economy and other top issues, with large numbers undecided on who has the edge in dealing with transportation and abortion. McDonnell has an advantage on taxes and guns.

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Deeds needs to give voters a reason to vote for him and to date he just has not done that. If activistslike myself are feeling apathetic about his campaign - in large part because of the failure of Democrats at the national level and in the White House - just imagine what rank and file voters are feeling.

Bob McDonnell Cluelessness on Transportation

The flooding of the west bound lanes of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel the day before the 4th of July weekend has highlighted the incompetence of VDOT and the terrible lack of funding for transportation projects in Virginia. In fact, it has come to light that needed maintenance to the region's tunnels is 4 to 5 years behind what is needed. The difficulty is that each year the Republican controlled Virginia House of Delegates blocks meaningful financing for transportation and adds to the slow strangulation of economic growth as highways become more and more obsolete. Enter GOP candidate for Governor, Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell. McDonnell is the epitome of the no tax/Bible thumping Republican notwithstanding his current campaign attempt to pretend he's a moderate. An op-ed in the Roanoke Times looks at McDonnell's antiquated views on transportation funding:

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Most Virginians look at VDOT and see an agency so fiscally emaciated that it can't even afford to keep rest areas open or medians mowed. Republican gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell looks at the Virginia Department of Transportation and sees ... flab. He told The Washington Times that if he's elected governor, he'll seek budget cuts for the transportation agency, along with Virginia's chintzy Medicaid program. McDonnell followed up a pledge to cut two crucial and severely underfunded programs with this bit of positive, happy nonsense:

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"I'm trying during this campaign to help to rebrand our party as the party of positive, happy, friendly, conservative leadership that's pro-growth, pro-free enterprise, pro-economic development. And that's really what we stand for."

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There's nothing pro-growth about starving Virginia's transportation program -- which is why the Virginia Chamber of Commerce understands the need for "dedicated, stable and permanent revenue sources" to fund transportation, even as McDonnell's party remains reflexively opposed to any solution involving tax increases.
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Sadly, McDonnell believes the state GOP's problems are about image, not substance -- and mainly a reflection of the failures of the national party. For instance, in Wednesday's Washington Post, state Republicans had the absolute gall to complain that Virginia was the last state to complete its application for highway funds from the federal stimulus package. "Of everything Virginia receives in its package, the one item that would stimulate the economy is the money for transportation," Sen. Ryan T. McDougle, R-Hanover, told The Post. "It's difficult to understand why we would not be moving faster."

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Really? Is it so difficult? Since he took office, Gov. Tim Kaine has been wrestling with the House GOP over funding for transportation. VDOT has had to slash billions of dollars in projects as its funding has, as predicted, dried up. . . . That McDonnell can look at a budget that has absorbed billions of dollars in cuts due to the recession and spout the same tired lines about government waste is incredible, and hardly a recipe for rebranding the state Republican Party. The people of Virginia seem to be catching on to the fact that, even in state government, you get what you pay for.

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The GOP in Virginia seems dead set to drag Virginia back into the 1950's or early 1960's while the rest of the nation struggles to move further on into the 21st century. Bob McDonnell's vision of Virginia and the reactionary agenda of the Republican Party of Virginia should be rejected by all thinking Virginians.

Bob McDonnell and "No Tax" GOP Behind Traffic Woes

Yesterday this area experienced a major clusterf*ck traffic wise because a simple pump failure in the west bound tube of the Hampton Roads Bridge Tunnel - one of the two main connectors between south side Hampton Roads and the Peninsula and Richmond to the west. Virginia increasingly needs major injections of transportation spending to improve its overburdened interstate highways and other main routes. Unfortunately, the GOP and its standard bearer Bob "Taliban Bob" McDonnell chant only one mantra: no tax increases. Highways do not build themselves without funding and a poor transportation system will ultimately strangle economic growth. But then, the Virginia GOP still has a 19th century mindset both in terms of social values - i.e., blacks and women new their place and gays were closeted or prosecuted for "crimes against nature" - and taxation. Here are some highlights from the Virginian Pilot:

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A broken water pump inside the Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel set off a chain reaction of congestion. On the surface, the broken pump seemed like a tiny cog in the area’s complex interstate bridge and tunnel system, but what happened next was more than anyone had bargained for.

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While Virginia Department of Transportation crews pumped water out of the tunnel, detouring vehicles spilled onto alternate routes. Traffic at the Monitor Merrimac Memorial Bridge-Tunnel backed up more than 20 miles into Chesapeake. The Midtown and Downtown tunnel traffic was stacked up three to four miles into Norfolk, clogging city thoroughfares. The closures of some downtown streets for Harborfest compounded the fiasco.

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Local leaders and others expressed outrage over the way VDOT handled the crisis and called the gridlock a harbinger of what could happen during a major evacuation. They cited Thursday’s events as an example of a limited highway system and inadequate harbor crossings. “The entire region shut down for most of the day because of one pump,” Norfolk Mayor Paul Fraim said .

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Transportation, city and business leaders have pushed since the 1990s for transportation improvements to provide additional access to the region and better hurricane evacuation routes. Those projects include another crossing of the Hampton Roads harbor, expanding the Midtown Tunnel and upgrading U.S. 460 to interstate quality.

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But they will cost billions of dollars that current funding sources cannot cover. The General Assembly repeatedly has rejected proposals to raise taxes and fees for transportation funding. “We have listened to the members of the General Assembly long enough,” Fraim said. “The consequences of what has occurred is a direct result of their inaction to provide adequate funding for transportation.

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Fraim said the incident was reminiscent of Hurricane Isabel in September 2003, when the Midtown Tunnel flooded because of malfunctioning floodgates. “Had this occurred during an evacuation caused by an impending hurricane or major storm, I shudder to think of the consequences,” Fraim said.

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Virginia does not need the antiquated thinking of Bob McDonnell and the Virginia Republican Party. He and the other GOP candidates must be defeated in the November elections.