Federal government need only to look to Virginia for fiscal responsibility
By JR Hoeft | Monday, July 19th, 2010 | Policy
Last week, Gov. Bob McDonnell announced that Virginia had finally caught up with revenue shortfalls and would have a budget surplus for the first time in years to the tune of $220 million.
Balancing the budget in Virginia certainly hasn’t been easy – especially doing so without raising taxes – but a commitment by the governor and House of Delegate Republicans to spending restraint and fiscal responsibility has set the commonwealth’s government up as an example to everyone in this tough financial environment: including the federal government.
The United States government currently owes more than $13 trillion. Roughly $5 trillion is owed to the government itself, such as the Social Security Trust Fund. Then, of the remaining $8 trillion owed, roughly half the debt is held by U.S. lenders and the other half is owed to lenders abroad. The three biggest holders of U.S. debt are Japan, China, and Saudi Arabia.
This year, President Barack Obama (D) has submitted to Congress a budget with a $1.6 trillion deficit. His budget anticipates only collecting $2.2. trillion in revenues, but spends $3.8 trillion. And, over the course of ten years, his smallest deficit is $1.2 trillion.
Even during the worst Bush years (which were bad), the deficit never topped $440 billion.
What is Congress’ response to the president’s budget? To not prepare one of their own.
For the first time since the Budget Act of 1974, Congress has abdicated their responsibility to be good stewards of taxpayer money.
“Good, well-managed budgeting by the General Assembly and the governor, resulted in Virginia having a surplus generated without any tax increases. And, that’s where the federal government needs to be pushed by the people,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte, who represents Virginia’s Sixth District. “Nancy Pelosi the Speaker of the House and Steny Hoyer, the Majority Leader, have decided not to even adopt a budget for the coming year. Most people think that’s because it would be so embarrassing that they don’t want to display that in a debate on the floor of the House before this upcoming election. Well, that’s, you know, a crime.”
In 1994, Goodlatte and a host of other fiscally minded Congressman included the Balanced Budget Amendment as a plank on the “Contract with America”.
They almost succeeded.
The amendment passed the House with ease in 1995 and fell just one vote shy of sending the amendment to the states from the Senate when six Democrats who voted for the amendment in 1994 voted against it.
Nevertheless, attempts are still made to propose the amendment for state ratification.
There are two bills right now that are stuck in John Conyer’s (D-MI14) House Judiciary subcommittee – one proposed by Republicans and the other by fiscally minded Democrats.
House Joint Resolution 1 and House Joint Resolution 78are currently languishing in Rep. Jerry Nadler’s (D-NY08) Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties – a committee on which Virginia’s Rep. Bobby Scott (D-VA03) serves in the majority.
H.J. Res. 1 is sponsored by Rep. Bob Goodlatte and co-sponsored by 179 members, including other members of the Virginia delegation: Reps. Randy Forbes (R-4th), Rob Wittman (R-1st), Frank Wolf (R-10th) and Eric Cantor (R-7th); in other words,the entire GOP Delegation from Virginia. H.J. Res. 78 is co-sponsored by 40 members, including Rep. Glenn Nye (D-2nd).
Neither bill is expected to make it out of committee this Congress.
Of the Virginia delegation not sponsoring in any way a balanced budget amendment: Scott, Tom Perriello (D-5th), Jim Moran (D-8th), Rick Boucher (D-9th), , and Gerry Connolly (D-11th) – in other words, nearly every Democrat.
Only Nye has the bravery and forsight to see balancing the budget on a yearly basis as a necessity.
Clearly this should offer some indicator of how most Democrats feel about fiscal responsiblity.
But that still doesn’t solve this year’s budget dilemma.
Republican Whip Eric Cantor, again, from Virginia, has begged the president, Pelosi and Hoyer to make even baby steps towards fiscal restraint.
To set the wheels in motion for effective deficit reduction, Republicans over the last five weeks have brought over $115 billion in spending cuts to the House floor. But the Democrats, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, rejected them.
We’re not going to give up. In fact, I challenge the president, Pelosi and Hoyer to work together with us to cut spending now:
* Start by scheduling a clean up-or-down vote on each of the program terminations that Obama recommended in his budget this year. Not every member will agree with each proposal, but they each deserve a fair debate and a fair vote. Can’t a Democratic Congress even give fair consideration to spending cuts proposed by a Democratic president?
* Second, announce a bipartisan agreement that we will not proceed with any new “stimulus” spending that is not paid for with spending cuts somewhere else. For example, rather than just spending another $34 billion on unemployment benefits, let’s pay for it by cutting other, less important, spending. (It’s the refusal of congressional Democrats to find offsetting cuts that is now preventing the extension of jobless benefits.)
* Third, freeze the pay of federal civilian employees for one year. Millions of private-sector workers have taken pay cuts; there’s no reason why the government can’t impose its own measure of austerity. This proposal already has bipartisan support: 18 House Democrats recently supported a similar measure offered by Republicans.
I can already hear the critics saying that all this would have only a small impact on our deficit. But that’s just the thinking that got us into this mess. Yes, these are small steps toward getting our fiscal house in order — but each is long overdue, and it’s a start.
It would appear that Democrats in Congress are stifling the protests of those who are aware that the federal budget is out of control, but will Republicans running for Congress be much better?
Keith Fimian in the 11th is very clear on the issue:
“Congress is driving the United States closer to fiscal ruin with every passing day. Moving forward on a balanced budget amendment is critical to saving our economy and forcing Congress to examine its spending,” said the Fimian campaign.
And that’s just fine according to Goodlatte.
“We need to be spending as much time as possible talking about the debt and government spending and the relation between the two,” he said. “Somehow the federal government and its leaders has seem fit to exempt themselves from economic reality.”
Hopefully the news of Virginia’s success at balancing its budget on a year-to-year basis – despite its challenges and objections from Democrats – will be an example to others at the Federal level that they too have the responsibility to safeguard taxpayer money and not bankrupt our nation.
And it’s, for the most part, Virginia Republicans leading the charge to make that a reality.
(Image credit: Governor of Virginia)
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About the author
Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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Comments
33 Responses to "Federal government need only to look to Virginia for fiscal responsibility"
JR: Are you kidding? The McD Virginia adminestration passed on paying 620 million into VRS and left the bill to be paid on a later date starting in 2013. IMO: Not paying the bills is not conservative, responcible or real leadership. How is avoiding their responcibility an example to follow? All they did was move the bills to a later date to claim success… It is exactly what is happening in Washington…
Frankly your message is just enabling these folks accounting slight of hand. I am disapointed.
I agree with William. I thought you would have at least mentioned the deferred payments to VRS as an accounting maneuver used to “balance” the budget and show a “surplus”… after all, even McDonnell himself will admit to this.
Oh…VRS? The pension payments for the members of the public employees unions that endorse whatever warm bodies the Dems nominate?
Were we suppose to actually care?
The fiscal integrity of Bob McDonnell and the House GOP important in balancing the budget? Hmmmm, I guess so. But, J.R., up to this point, which governor do you think has made the deeper cuts to Virginia’s budget, McDonnell or Kaine. I think if you look back over the past three to four years you’ll find that Kaine cut far more.
Others have pointed out the fiscal irresponsibility of the adminsitration so far. Let me add the slow and steady destruction of our transportation system, made possible by the Speaker of the House, Bill Howell, in concert with his ally, Bob McDonnell. As a landlord, I know how to make the operating budget look great; fail to maintain and sustain the company’s real estate, and use the money “saved” as profit. That is what Howell has done; he has stolen from the state’s infrastructure; that is, by “saving” that money, and hiding the true condition of the state’s infrastructure, they have played a shell game,transferring the obligation to future taxpayers. And JR wants to praise him for failing to conserve the state’s assets? What does being a conservative mean these days?
JR, instead of blowing off the comments by others, what is your response to the legitimate challenges to your post? Do you deny the failure of the administration in regard to VRS. Do you deny the failure to invest in state infrastructure? If you want credibility, you need to deal with the issues.
Sorry, Mike. Guess you saw my snark before I had the chance to delete it.
Sure, I’ll take on the rest of the comments, after I give others the chance to chime in. If noboody else does, I’ll defend myself.
I’m of the mindset regarding blogging that if you have to go beyond your original post, you didn’t do a very good job of justifying your position in the first place.
I also see the comments section as mainly a forum for others and not for the author.
Calling Cantor fiscally responsible is laughable. Besides his lobbying for and support of the 03 Medicare Bill and he won’t even listen to his own GOP brethren who want to save millions of taxpayer dollars and abolish the House Republican Policy Committee. Cantor’s a fiscal conservative until he’s in power.
And I should hope Goodlatte wouldn’t bring up the Contract for America, seeing as how he violated the term limits pledge and broke his word.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Project Virginia, bearingdrift and John Brodigan, Jen. Jen said: RT @projectvirginia: Federal gov't need only to look to VA for fiscal responsibility http://ow.ly/2duDn #gop #tcot @bearingdrift #vagop [...]
Thanks JR; I will stand by for our post.
Mike is accusing people of stealing for not raising taxes and spending it on his pet projects.
Bailey is still whining about government benefits.
Y’all are sad…
Why do I have the suspicion that the commenters so far are the same bunch who whined at Steve Jobs because the new iPhone’s antenna design isn’t PERFECT IN EVERY WAY!?
Come on people, the reality is that with the tide of government spending against them, McDonnell and Cantor are doing way better than any Democrat would do.
Don’t call them “as bad as the Democrats” just because they don’t match some unreal standard of perfection.
Gee Brian, I actually thought that conservatives believed in, well, conserving. Sorry you think that is wrong. So I guess you would imply that conservatives are really spendthrifts; that is, they squander money by being penny wise and pound foolish. Ironic that the republicans I know do believe in conservation; but of course, now they are labelled as RINOs. My has the party changed.
Mike, only you would think that taking more taxes from people was conserving.
It’s not conserving. It’s preserving…preserving your incessant need for government.
Brian, I can’t believe I have to explain this basic concept to you. Can’t you at least act like your understand capitalism? Invest, preserve, profit. Try harder.
Mike, instead of blowing off the comments by others, what is your response to the legitimate challenges to your posts by others as well as myself. Do you deny the failure of the Obama administration in regard to (fill in the blank). Do you deny the failure to invest in anything that would grow the economy at the expense of the Dem plutocrats?? If you want credibility, you need to deal with the issues. BTW You said this about yourself just now: “As a landlord, I know how to make the operating budget look great; fail to maintain and sustain the company’s real estate, and use the money “saved” as profit” What a good liberal.
Oh my, you are as dense as Brian. No, as a property manager, I do not do as the Commonwealth has done; that is, we do invest to maintain and sustain our assets so these assets will produce profit every year. The General Assembly, by failing to maintain our transportation infrastructure, ie, by failing to conserve, has simply transferred cost to those who follow. I thought conservatives actually believed in conservation. Silly me.
The notion that governments derive their only just authority from the consent of the governed is a foundational principle of the American experiment.
However, a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 23% of voters nationwide believe the federal government today has the consent of the governed. Sixty-two percent (62%) say it does not, and 15% are not sure.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/july_2010/23_say_u_s_government_has_the_consent_of_the_governed
Yes, as a property manager, Mike has managed to invest our tax money in his company when he applied for and received an “incentive” for his building after he already built it.
JR: I did not expect you to respond or justify a response to my post. It was a stand alone view from my prospective.
And for Brian and Henry: I understand you all do not understand the need for the state to pay their bills ontime and be accountable/responcible. I as an employeer can not defer the salary, benefits and vacation benefits payments to my employees until 2013 like McD and his folks have done with the 620 million VRS bill and then claim “success.” The rest of us have to pay when the bill comes due. You might enjoy not paying that 620 million dollar bill today but you will pay in 2013. Better start saving your money… LOL
Actually, we applied to be reimbursed for moving public utilities in the ROW that allowed maximun development of the site. By doing so, the reimbursement was repaid in real estate tax in the first year of the project which increased the value of the property by 10 times. Great investment by the City and by us; that is what incentives do, they benefit the public treasury. Only you and the VBTA could be against that.
Republican candidates now hold a nine-point lead over Democrats on the Generic Congressional Ballot for the week ending Sunday, July 18, the widest gap between the two parties in several weeks.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 45% of Likely Voters would vote for their district’s Republican congressional candidate, while 36% would opt for his or her Democratic opponent. Support for Republicans inched up a point from last week, while support for the Democrat fell two points.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/mood_of_america/generic_congressional_ballot
And your poll data has what to do with the budget? Nada…
The frustration that voters are expressing in 2010 goes much deeper than specific policies. At a more fundamental level, voters just don’t believe politicians are interested in the opinions of ordinary Americans.
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 68% believe the nation’s Political Class doesn’t “care what most Americans think.” Only 15% believe the Political Class is interested in the views of those they are supposed to serve. Another 17% are not sure.
Scott Rasmussen has often made the case that the Political Class debate over whether Americans want to be governed from the left or right misses the more fundamental point.
In his new book, In Search of Self-Governance , Rasmussen says, “Both perspectives are wrong. The American people don’t want to be governed from the left, the right or the center. The American people want to govern themselves.” He adds that “the gap between Americans who want to govern themselves and politicians who want to rule over them may be as big today as the gap between the colonies and England during the 18th century.”
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/general_politics/july_2010/68_say_political_class_doesn_t_care_what_most_americans_think
By the way, Mike and William, I notice you haven’t criticized the Obama and the Congressional Democrats for wanting to add over 30 billion dollars to the deficit by extending unemployment benefits without paying for them.
You are right Brian. It was a point I also made earlier in another thread in response to one of Mike’s diatribes – that of course he never responded to. I offered him a chance to respond here but like Obama or any good liberal he only took issue with a little joke of mine and ignored the issues.
Brian: Then I guess you noticed that I didn’t criticized the Bush and the Congressional Republicans for adding to the deficit by extending unemployment benefits without paying for them either. This isn’t the first vote for unemployment benefits.
If it were my choice I would let the Bush tax cuts on the wealthest Americans expire and use that 600+ billion to reduce the deficit… But I know you want the richest folks to pay less so you can keep complaining about adding to the deficit by the Dems…
No, William. I just dislike socialism. You lack that dislike.
Yes, I do support the extension of unemployment benefits until the economy improves more and new jobs are available. I thought that was what a safety net was for. And I support the expiration of the tax cuts on the rich; time to start paying their fair share, and time for deficit reduction. Sure, that expiration may hurt luxury boat sales and fine wine, but that is a sacrifice we’ll have to make.
Mike, the top 1% of income earners pay 40% of all income taxes.
The top 5% pay 61% of all income taxes.
The bottom 50% pay less than 3% of all income taxes.
Seems like “the rich” are paying a pretty fair share, doesn’t it?
In a progressive republic, that is the way it is supposed to work. And don’t worry Brian, you can get over the Stockholm Syndrom effect with careful reading of the right literature.
Ha Ha after half a dozen evasions Mike has answered the question – by returning to his original talking point: those valiant Democrats want to give unemployment benefits while dastardly Republicans stop them. No amount of coaxing is going to get him to admit the only issue was whether the benefits were to be paid for by using unspent stimulus funds as Repubs wanted or added to the very tiny deficit as those wonderful Dems want to. That might spoil the elegance of the talking point.
I’ll anticipate Mike’s objections at “wasting” stimulus funds by noting that his beloved Speaker says that unemployment checks are the best stimulus of all.
Yeah right. The republican position on unemployment benefits is very easy to understand. When we are in power, we are pleased to extend the benefits. When we are in the minority, we oppose them in order to embarrass the President. That is all you need to know.
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