Sharp right turn - Is the GOP ticket is too extreme for Virginia?

Posted by: Sharp right turn ()

Date: June 07, 2013 06:35AM

Sharp right turn

Last week, just a few hours after Virginia Republicans finalized their ticket for governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, a couple of dissatisfied members of the party, including former McLean legislator Vince Callahan, the longest-serving Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates, scheduled a conference call to highlight “how the GOP ticket is too extreme for Virginia.”

We have to agree.

We are disturbed by the trio’s extreme social views but are equally uneasy about the economic plan that Ken Cuccinelli has put forward and on which he will do most of his campaigning. Even Cuccinelli apparently realizes that running on his record as a cultural warrior who doesn’t win too many battles is a little too dicey, so he is going to accentuate his economic views in the coming months.

The GOP gubernatorial candidate has said, if elected, he will reduce the individual income tax rate, eliminate or reduce the Business Professional Occupational License (BPOL) Tax, the Machine and Tool (M&T) Tax and the Merchants Capital (MC) Tax – all while maintaining local government revenue, which will be quite a feat – and reduce the corporate income tax.

All of this chopping and cutting and hewing will presumably so entice businesses looking for a place to hang a shingle that we will make up the missing funds in no time — no, our coffers will be running over with excess funds.

Not that we will invest them in any services, mind you, because Cuccinelli has promised that government spending will not rise more than is called for by population growth and inflation.

Additional investment in education? No way.

Health care? Social services? Not a chance.

Additional spending to improve transportation? Not on your life.

It’s hard to forget Cuccinelli’s initial opposition to the increase in transportation funding that the General Assembly recently passed and Gov. McDonnell signed into law.

Despite Cuccinelli’s lack of success in taking on President Obama, specifically over health care, the new attorney general candidate has gone as record as seeing his central job duty as continuing the fight to oppose the president.

“If the president is not going to be restrained by Congress, then it is up to the attorneys general to stand up and to take the fight to the administration,” Sen. Mark Obenshain said back in February.

Earlier this year, Obenshain supported the so-called Boneta Bill, which, in our estimation, represented a misguided attempt to take land-use decisions out of the hands of local government — and represented the same kind of government overreach with which President Obama is accused.

He opposed gun control efforts in the wake of last year’s mass killing in Newton, Conn., and similar shootings in other parts of the nation, efforts that he called a “misguided response to recent events.”

Obenshain has said he would take a very close look at law enforcement’s use of drones because “Our founding fathers would have never dreamed of the possibility of unmanned flying devices that could be used to somehow invade the privacy of their citizens,” he said.

Apparently, our founding fathers were able to envision automatic assault weapons, however, and put them under permanent protection by the Second Amendment.

As for the nomination of the Rev. E.W. Jackson for lieutenant governor, we are speechless.

Nevertheless, there is a silver lining. Jackson has demonstrated that hard work on the campaign trail can, indeed, make up for a slim treasure chest.

The Democrats are up next. Unfortunately, they don’t seem poised to make our hearts beat faster, either.