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Whose
Side is That Guy On? U.S.
Sen. John Warner undercut the Republican Party --
again -- with remarks last week that Gov. Mark
Warner construed as endorsing his tax-hike plans.
"Politics
be damned!" So said U.S. Sen. John Warner as he
offered his views on proposed tax increases at a
Feb. 6 press conference at the state Capitol. But
his appearance and comments were transparently
political.
The senior U.S. senator, who has no peer when it
comes to speaking in political platitudes, didn't
actually endorse the proposed tax increases of
either Gov. Mark Warner or state Senate Finance
Committee Chairman John Chichester. In his
meandering remarks, John Warner recommended tax
hikes, fee increases and spending cuts or a
combination of those options; nevertheless, the Mark
Warner spin machine touted the remarks as an
implicit endorsement of the governor's tax hike
proposal.
This was not the unequivocal support for a tax
increase that John Warner provided former Gov.
Gerald L. Baliles in 1986 or Mark Warner in 2002. It
may reflect his lack of grounding in matters of
state finance, which is obvious and understandable.
It wasn't a careful study of the commonwealth's
budget situation that prompted his trip to Richmond.
Unlike his colleague, Sen. George Allen, Warner has
no prior experience in preparing a state budget.
There were no thoughtful conversations on the
subject between Sen. Warner and House Speaker
William Howell, House Appropriations Committee
Chairman Vince Callahan or Republican Party leaders
before his press conference. As he has done
repeatedly for decades, our senior senator
bushwhacked his nominal party without bothering to
consult in advance.
His appearance at the state Capitol came at the
insistence of his principal political supporters and
campaign contributors, who strongly back a massive
state tax increase. He long ago burned his bridges
to the GOP grassroots through a series of
stick-in-the-eye actions, including twice
undermining GOP candidates for statewide office,
helping to form a third party in 1994, voting
against a Republican president's Supreme Court
nominee, and similar apostasies too numerous to list
here.
In pressing state legislators to consider a tax
hike, Sen. Warner was not only going against the
official position of the Republican Party of
Virginia, he was also undercutting the Bush tax-cut
strategy. Massive tax hikes at the state level will
effectively neutralize the positive economic impact
of recent cuts in federal taxes, which have begun to
stimulate a lagging national economy.
Sen. Warner's principal justification for supporting
a tax hike was that Virginia might risk the closing
of some military bases if schools, hospitals, roads
and other infrastructure and services aren't
properly maintained. He suggested that
quality-of-life issues will factor into decisions as
to which bases should be closed.
That argument is essentially the one he advanced in
1986 when the General Assembly agreed to the Baliles
tax increase for roads. The resulting revenue
infusion didn't relieve gridlock and, in the view of
many, actually worsened Virginia's urban
transportation problems. In 2002, voters in Northern
Virginia and Hampton Roads soundly rejected a
similar argument after the two Warners, John and
Mark, campaigned together urging support for sales
tax hikes.
The more we listen to Sen. Warner, the more we come
to understand the prevailing thought patterns in
Washington. Too many in Congress assume that simply
spending more money will improve the quality of
life. A majority of Virginians don't share that
view.
Fortunately, most of the members of the Virginia
House of Delegates reflect the prevailing wisdom in
this state. Quality of life also means restraining
the hand of government, not letting it feed itself
by constantly reaching deeper into the pockets of
the people.
--
February 16, 2004
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