Monthly Archives: October 2009
Happy Halloween!
Yay! My least favorite holiday actually turned out to be a great day visiting Lancaster, PA, and in less than ten minutes, it will be over for this year. Also, this year’s Halloween turned out to be more sweeter (not due to candy, rather baseball)…
Go Yankees!!
Distortions and Deceit a la Kaye Kory
The Democratic Party of Virginia recently sent out a misleading, deceitful mailer on behalf of Kaye Kory, who is running against Danny Smith in the 38th District. Smith’s campaign has called on Kory to denounce the mailer sent out by the DPVA that said Smith stated support for cutting a certain amount of education funding out of the general fund. Smith said,
The Danny Smith Campaign demands the Democratic Party of Virginia and the Kaye Kory Campaign apologize to the voters of the 38th District for sending out a piece that blatantly misconstrues the truth and misleads thousands of voters. Sending out a mailer with falsified information the Friday afternoon before the election is the kind of dirty campaign tactics that do not belong in Virginia. The voters of the 38th District deserve to be represented by a leader who will not use deceitful campaign tricks to win votes.
Here are the mailers:
Just another hint of desperation and a dirty display of the political process.
Stevens Miller Fumbles Tele-townhall
What in the world was he thinking? Stevens Miller, who is running against Tom Rust in the 86th District held a tele-townhall meeting tonight. This is one of the most important sports watching nights of the year (outside of the Super Bowl): the World Series game 2 (where the Yankees will handily defeat the Phillies) and the UNC vs. Virginia Tech football game (Go Hokies).
Miller rambled on about his brilliant ideas from the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, which is odd considering that he has made no accomplishments.
Words can come back to haunt you…
Words can come back to haunt you, especially when you are placed on the record for supporting bringing the Redskins Hall of Fame to Loudoun County. The Hall of Fame would have made Loudoun County, the corporate headquarters of the Redskins franchise and would have provided over $100,000 to promote the county. Who voted against it? None other than Stevens Miller, who is the Dulles District Supervisor running for Delegate in the 86th District…(Funny, he actually had to move into the district to run for Delegate).
At a recent debate, Miller decided to take credit for something he didn’t do. He claimed that he supported the Redskins Hall of Fame. It’s kind of hard to be against something, then turn around a year later to say you supported the measure. Flip-flop-itis has struck again!
Poll Numbers Showing GOP Victory
Yesterday, both Survey USA and Public Policy Polling released polls showing Bob McDonnell, Bill Bolling, and Ken Cuccinelli all leading their opponents in double digit margins.
McDonnell leads Democrat Creigh Deeds, 58-41% (Survey USA) and 55-40% (PPP).
Bolling leads Democrat Jody Wagner, 56-42% (Survey USA) and 50-38% (PPP).
Cuccinelli leads Democrat Steve Shannon, 57-41% (Survey USA) and 52-36% (PPP).
Are you a Hybrid Owner? Beware!
If you are a hybrid owner and live in Virginia’s 86th District, there could be another tax on your car shortly. Stevens Miller, who is running against Tom Rust, has proposed wanting to raise taxes on hybrid vehicles and aircraft.
Just last year, when the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors was considering raising taxes on both hybrid vehicles and aircraft that flew out of the Loudoun airport, Miller (who serves Dulles District supervisor) was enthusiastic about this idea. According to Loudoun Extra, Miller said,
“The incentive is no longer necessary,” Miller said. “Although I’m a big proponent of the technology, the harsh reality is that we’re giving tax breaks to drivers of luxury hybrid SUVs that get fewer miles per gallon than fuel-efficient cars.”
Miller said he believes that rather than eliminating the tax incentive, the board should “move it forward” and focus on the next technology, all-electric vehicles, by offering owners of those kinds of vehicles a tax cut.
Hybrid vehicles are designed to be fuel efficient, and in fact, purchasing hybrids have been encouraged by Congress, etc. for their fuel standards, etc. Adding an additional tax to a vehicle that is already expensive and to a vehicle with excellent fuel standards (especially when environmental reforms are being debated at the Federal level) does not make sense. Considering that there are many hybrid owners in the 86th District, I wonder how this proposal will impact their views of Miller.
Distortions = Signs of Desperation
Jody Wagner still can’t get the facts right, as she continues to attack Bill Bolling for being a health insurance executive and on the meeting attendance issue. These attacks are nothing but desperation from Wagner in the days up to the election and need to be dispelled. Enter the truth squad.
Wagner was asked about the public option by Not Larry Sabato and whether or not, she supports the measure. Wagner supports public option, but then attacks Bolling for being a health insurance executive.
Jody then took the opportunity to draw a sharp contrast with the record of incumbent Lt. Governor Bill Bolling. It’s worth noting that Virginia Lt. Governor is a part time position- and Bolling also serves as an insurance company executive by day.
Here’s some clarification for Wagner:
Bolling is not a health care insurance executive, and he is not employed by a health insurance company. Rather, Bolling sells property and casualty insurance. He represents his clients and protects their interests, not insurance companies.
Now, here’s another issue that Wagner keeps focusing on, just like a broken record, and that is Bolling’s meeting attendance record. Wagner continues to hit on the fact that Bolling has missed GACRE meetings. Bolling does not serve on this committee, thus meaning that he is not obligated to be at these meetings. In fact, Bolling has attended 219 of 281 meetings (78%) of his Boards and Commissions Meetings, State Senate sessions and meetings of the Attorney General’s Regulatory and Government Reform Task Force, Working Group on Infrastructure, and National Lieutenant Governor’s Association. Bolling has been an active Lieutenant Governor, who has received scores of pro-business endorsements, the NRA and VCDL endorsements, Fraternal Order of Police, the Virginia Police Benevolent Society, and others.
Just another sign of desperation from Lieutenant Governor’s Mansion Fantasyland.
The Health Insurance Mandate Troublesome to Families
With health care becoming a controversial and debated topic in Congress, there is definitely curiosity among small business owners and families throughout America about how the health insurance mandates, which are included in the House version of this bill, will impact their well being. This weekend, in the New York Times, there were two articles that focused on the impact that the insurance mandate will have both on Americans and small businesses, and one of those articles was written by George Mason University Economist Tyler Cowen. So, how will this mandate impact families and businesses?
According to the article by Cowen, the health insurance mandates could actually place detrimental economic impact on families by costing the average family $14,000 more per year in insurance costs. However, Cowen mentioned that along with the rising costs, there are also funding mandates included for programs, such as acupuncture, alcohol treatment, fertility services, and chiropractor services. Cowen looks at how these mandates have worked in the Netherlands and Switzerland.
There are now about 1,500 insurance mandates among the various states, and hundreds of others are under consideration. The dynamic at work here is that the affected groups have a big incentive to push for mandates, while most other people are unaware of the specific issues and don’t become involved.
Because mandates don’t stay modest for long, health insurance would become all the more expensive. The Obama administration’s cost estimates haven’t considered these longer-run “political economy” issues.
IF there is a problem with mandates, why do they seem to work in countries like Switzerland and the Netherlands? One answer is that mandates are more effective when health care cost inflation is under control, and both of those countries fare better at technocracy than the larger, less tightly ordered United States.
And mandates also fare better in those nations because of their greater equality of incomes. In other words, it’s less of a stretch to offer poorer people coverage that is roughly comparable to that of the wealthy.
If anything, however, European mandates will face growing problems, as health care cost inflation is spreading globally.
The other article addressed how the health care proposals will impact small businesses. Currently, small businesses are forced to pay almost 160 percent more in premiums to insure themselves and their employees. With the health care proposals in Congress, they will be forced to cover their employees, which will continue to drive costs up and hurt these businesses.
Small businesses, besides having less negotiating leverage than big employers, tend to pay more for the same coverage because they cannot spread the cost of expensive medical conditions or hospitalizations over large numbers of workers. Premiums can be especially high if they have sick or older workers.
Owners of small companies say the lack of options is why they have been paying increasingly higher premiums for less and less coverage — this year perhaps more than ever.
Health care coverage should be accessible to both families and small businesses, but it should be done by allowing these groups to have access to insurance companies from all over the country and decide whether these plans will be provide similar quality to their existing coverage at lower premiums. By forcing business and families under a government run program, you will inhibit choice and cause further economic detriment.
Guess who will be facing the Phillies in the World Series…
That’s right…the
NEW YORK YANKEES!!!!
AMERICAN LEAGUE CHAMPIONS!!
Now, it’s time to have some fun at the Phillies expense!
The Washington Post Endorses Eric Brescia, Aaron Ringel, and Tom Rust
The Washington Post released their endorsements of the House candidates starting on Friday. I’ll have more criticisms of their list in tomorrow’s edition regarding the candidates they should have endorsed, but in the meantime, I will praise their efforts for today’s endorsements.
As you have read several times on this blog, Del. Tom Rust is the better choice to his opponent, who is a carpetbagger (currently represents the Dulles District on the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors, owns a house in the Broadlands, and rents an apartment in Sterling). The Post agrees, and they endorsed Rust in his re-election bid.
District 86: Thomas D. Rust, the incumbent, is one of the more effective lawmakers in the General Assembly, a pro-business Republican who has also gained backing for some of his initiatives from environmentalists. Mr. Rust has enacted important legislation that will ease the way for more toll roads to be built, and he’s played a constructive, responsible role in securing funding for education and other priorities that many in his own party opposed.
In Arlington, two rising stars in the Republican party have also received the endorsements of the Post. Both Aaron Ringel (who is challenging Bob Brink) and Eric Brescia (who is running in the 47th District) are excellent candidates, who will bring refreshing change in Richmond for their respective districts.
By contrast, Mr. Brescia, an economist who’s just 24, is a relative newcomer. However, he is exactly what the Republicans need in Northern Virginia: an independent-minded thinker who has fresh and specific ideas for how to save money in health care and make government work better.
Robert H. Brink, the Democratic incumbent, has held this seat for a decade, and in that time he’s barely faced a serious challenge. This year he has one in the form of Republican Aaron Ringel, a bright young combat veteran of the war in Iraq who works for a defense contractor. Mr. Brink is a competent legislator but he has opposed widening Interstate 66. That wins points with some homeowners who’d be directly affected but does little for the tens of thousands of commuters who suffer that road daily. Mr. Ringel takes a broader regional view of that issue.
This is definitely good news and could add two more pickups for the Republicans in Arlington, which is typically a Democratic stronghold.
