A Spending Revolt in Virginia Beach
By Brian Kirwin | Friday, October 1st, 2010 | PolicyAttacking a mountain of debt is no small feat, especially when that mountain is $13.5 trillion and growing, with a trillion added in the last six months. Federal Spending is almost 25% of our economy with a deficit of 10% of GDP.
What to do?
Revolt!
That’s what the folks at Spending Revolt are doing as they crisscross Virginia these few days.
They’ve been traveling state to state or two months now, carrying their message of fiscal discipline. They were in Virginia Beach Thursday, just in from North Carolina. Their Virginia itinerary lists Danville, Martinsville, Bristol, Floyd, Richmond, Fairfax and others.
The bus was covered with signatures of supporters added along the way.
Virginia Beach Councilman Bill DeSteph was at the Virginia Beach stop and minced no words when it came to government spending.
“It’s time we go back to the core roles and responsibilities of government: Safety and security of our citizens, education, and infrastructure and cut the size, scope and cost of government,” said DeSteph.
You can learn more about the tour and the revolt at www.spendingrevolt.com
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About the author
The right wants to jeer him. The left wants to censor him. Moderates usually want both. Brian Kirwin is a political consultant and public relations strategist in Virginia Beach with a lightning-rod flair. Brian also serves on the VB Arts & Humanities Commission and frequently appears on Hampton Roads theatrical stages, if only to prove that all actors aren’t liberals. Kirwin’s columns stir up debate and hit the political scene with no punches pulled.
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25 Responses to "A Spending Revolt in Virginia Beach"
I wonder who pays for this spending revolt.
Mike Barret’s evil doppleganger.
Yes, DeSteph has adopted the VBATA manifesto which includes such proposals as firing all city and school blue collar workers and replacing them with contractors, closing museums, recreation centers, and libraries, withdrawing from all regional service providers (where will our trash go, Centerville?), contracting out economic and tourism development, eliminate the Patriotic Festival, reduce fire and safety inspections, stop funding the Sheriff, the Commissioner of Revenue, and the Commonwealth’s Attorney. It is no surprise that DeSteph would sign; when you are a millionaire, public services really aren’t that important to him, as the above agenda clearly shows.
I need a graphic design expert to explain to me – why the backward R? Are we revolting by refusing to write our letters correctly?
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Bearing Drift and The Window Man, Virginia Harlow. Virginia Harlow said: RT @bearingdrift: Web: A Spending Revolt in Virginia Beach http://bit.ly/9WSq0X [...]
I nominate Mike Barrett to reach deeper into his pocket. There are a ton of great things that are done at taxpayer expense that I would prefer to go without but the problem is that government is not efficient. Garbage collection can be subbed out, Public schools are a mixed bag.. we all pay but dont all use them so offer people vouchers if they want to send their kids to a parochila school or better yet offer a tax refund if married couples homeschool. Stop wasting money by creating inefficient government jobs that are not staffed and managed by people who are driven to compete and excel.
Mike: If the free market shows a need for someone to run a jail or prosecute felons, the private sector will provide. Don’t you know anything?
turbo, I am with you on the vouchers and tax refunds. If people choose not to burden others with the care and education of their children, it should be rewarded and encouraged. For many, even if they get all back that they pay in taxes, they still will reduce the burden on others. And of course that policy will enable more to do so as well.
Yes, the selfishness of those who have received what they need, paid for by all of us, and now want those who follow to pay their own way. Our system of public education has been the model the world has followed in order to create modern society, and yet anti tax republicans are advocates for the destruction of the core functions of government so they can save a dime. We pioneered a national railway system, yet lacked the will to maintain and sustain it. In Virginia, we are in the process of destroying a once proud and functioning network or roads, bridges, and tunnels, yet the anti tax Delegates are bent on ensuring some day it will be abandoned due to lack of maintenance. The wealthy, rich, anti tax republicans, defenders of the priviledged, want more tax breaks so they can drink better wine and take longer European vacations. Down right sickening.
Mike, please tell us how you as CEO of your commercial real estate business will benefit from a “proud and functioning network or roads, bridges” in Hampton Roads in a context of “drink better wine and take longer European vacations”.
Your a liberal pick pocket who is whining because you found closed zippers on our back pockets and now you can’t figure out how to get to our wallets.
Mike…You’re a commercial realtor?
Just this week, the liberal-left MSNBC is waving the surrender flag for our failing education system. They call it “Education Nation.” They spew the same arguments the CATO institute refuted liberal arguments 20 years ago, more money, more teachers and those damn Republican obstructionists.
Attached is a link to the CATO research from 1990. Back then the argument was about the previous three decades (which takes us back to the 60s). At what point will liberals realize that a failing education system cannot fix by going back to the same ole policies of the past.
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa126.html
Enjoy your reading…
The railroad system went obsolete more than 30 years ago. And the left is trying to bring it back. Yeah, how’s that putting the car in Drive when your trying to bring back obsolete technology and assumptions conservatives came up with decades ago.
Of course we ask who’s paying for this, or what’s the purpose when it comes to conservative movements. When liberals spend money…they’re doing good for all but it’s usually drowning in self-guilt.
The fact that I have to explain it to you says volumes. We compete internationally for corporations. Neither Hampton Roads, nor the owners of commercial property, will be able to compete unless we have a functioning and efficient transportation network. Today, we have neither. In regard to tax policy, tax cuts for the middle class are immediately spent to stimulate consumption; tax cuts for the wealthy allow them to buy better wine and longer vacations, neither of which do much for economic growth.
How about this from a self employed truck driver, retired Navy Veteran and resident of Virginia Beach.
Republicans are anti-business.
Republicans want to solve Virginia’s transportation problems with tolls on our highways.
The VTA (Virginia Trucking Association), ATA (American Trucking Association) and the OOIDA (Owner Operators Independent Drivers’ Association) all agree toll roads are a bloated and inefficient method of raising increased revenue to fund our transportation needs. Put 10 truckers together in a room and poll them and you’ll get 12 different opinions; but bring up tolls and you will suddenly find a strong majority.
The trucking industry does not want to shoot our customers in the foot. We want to protect the interests of our customers, who are the businesses who’s freight we haul and ultimately the consumers these businesses service. Our profits depend just as much on the volume of freight as the rate paid.
Truckers say the national average is for one third the cost of tolls goes towards the expense of collecting the tolls which is a needless drain on the American economy.
You’re the consumer, are you going to listen to the transportation experts or listen to the politicians? You as a consumer are going to end up paying the freight bill at the cash register, so it is your choice.
David, with all due respect, there are pro and anti business gop and dems.. DeSteph has clearly taken the pro business stance and hopefully more of his ilk come along to dislocate the rinos at supposedly non partisan city hall.
Right now David many of you dems don’t give a damn about gop demands, you care about dems being reelected. You people think the way to do it is by making the gop appear as obstructionist and cold hearted right wing big R republicans with “the party of No” title stamped on every one of their foreheads. It isnt working as well as it used to but in some areas its still effective I guess.
Obama takes the time to publicly scold republicans every chance he gets.. as he loses his house support he is certain to be scheduling mass beer summits for bipartisan rinos but he has cast his lot with true conservatives. This works at the local level as well. We need to improve transportation to build credibility with future industry and to maintain our working relationship with the military. Right now we are sub par and the answer may be EZ-Pass lanes or some other controversial per user revenue measure to pay for it.
Turbo,
EZ-pass lanes might help prevent some traffic backups but the costs of providing the express lanes are still expensive. Go ask Blagojevich over there in Illinois if you don’t believe me. He raised tolls to put the EZ-pass lanes in on Illinois toll roads. While these improvements certainly improved travel times for travelers who had the transponder, their costs actually went up.
James, in all due respect, you have a very short memory. Don’t you remember a few short years ago when the stock market lost 700 points in one day and your 401k was cut in half? Don’t you remember a few short years ago when the global financial system nearly collapsed? Don’t you remember a few short years ago when your house’s value plummeted? Don’t you remember a few short years ago when President Bush had to prop up major corporations or we would have had a depression? It is as if you advocates of tax cuts and trickle down economics and the change over from budget surpluses to budget deficits have totally forgotten what republican rule means. And if you still think republican policy favors any businesses except the international corporations, you are simply not paying attention.
Mike I also remember that when the Bush Administration tried to fix Freddie and Fannie the Dems on the House Banking Comm cried that it was racism because it was run by Harold Raines they were the problem and they still are a problem. None of the changes that have been made by the current Admin. and Congress has done anything about them. So I think you need to look at who has been in power for the last four years in Congress before you start saying that this mess is completely caused by the GOP.
Mike, come on. As President Obama has said repeatedly, these problems did not happen overnight and they won’t be solved overnight. No one party can be blamed for what happened to the economy – it was a perfect storm of a variety of different issue, and both sides deserve their fair share. Bush, Clinton, Gingrich, Hastert, Pelosi, etc. – bad things happened on all of their watches and it doesn’t make a lot of sense in blaming one side over the other.
Spending Revolt is paid for by four different organizations, including Citizens Against Government Waste and Americans For Prosperity. It’s all on the website.
Well Matt and Brain, for your to so easily overlook the disastrous effects of the policies of the Bush Administration, so aptly demonstrated by the financial collapse, the shift from budget surpluses to deficits, and the plethora of regulatory lapses, reveals that you have selcted vision and memory. There has been no better demonstration of the failure of an administration than the last one, yet republicans seem destined to repeat these mistakes again.
Would you agree that some of those lapses have come from Freddie and Fannie but in this latest Banking Reform Bill they were not touched. Maybe because they have given a ton of money to the Ds but they kept buying the horrible loans and then they were backed by the fed gov’t. So if Freddie and Fannie were reformed earlier then maybe some of the housing boom could have been averted.
Off Topic Mike are you going to endorse BK for Congress?
Actually yes; both parties were complicit in failing to insist upon strict regulation in the mortgage arena. Wall Street’s greed for more “product” to securitize and sell to international investors, and the ratings agencies’ abject failure to understand the risk that was created was part of the financial debacle. That said, the Bush administraton was solely responsible for restoring deficit spending, for embarking on a war against Iraq, the reasons for which were created by the administration, for repealing financial regulation, etc., and for continued worshipping at the alter of trickle down economics and tax cuts. I would never mention any of this again if there was any indication that Party leaders have learned anything about their failure. Regretfully, they want to do exactly the same thing over again at our peril.
Mike, you sure tell it like it isn’t. I’m sure that you know that Sheriff Ken Stolle and Deputy-Sheriff Dennis Free actually endorse Bill DeSteph. Now why would Stolle endorse someone who is trying to de-fund their own department?
He wouldn’t. The fact of the matter is, since Stolle ENDORSED DeSteph for Council, that pretty much makes you out to be a bold-faced liar, doesn’t it?
As for you, Mr. Barrett-I sat in the back of the Council Chamber and watched you applaud the ENTIRE council for voting to buy the east-west rail corridore, now you want to throw DeSteph under the bus? I wonder why that is? Could it be because he’s a SELF-MADE millionaire and doesn’t have to go on bended knee to anyone in order to do just about anything he wants to do or, is it because he isn’t in the pocket of people like you and your buddy Will Sessoms?
DeSteph is HIS OWN MAN and unlike you, looks at government as something that is there to serve the people and not as you seem to believe, something to use the people to serve your own ends.
The man donates his ENTIRE CITY COUNCIL PAYCHECK to CHARITY-He does the job basically free of charge and I CHALLENGE YOU sir, back up your accusations with those pesky things the rest of the world calls FACTS-which are things you never seem to have at your disposal.
I’ll take one Bill DeSteph over a dozen of you any day.
Mike, you know darn well that deficit spending and the war in Iraq both occured with Congress agreeing with the Bush Administration. Many leading congressional Democrats joined Republicans in abdicating their Constitutional duty in “allowing” the Iraq war. And if Democrats wanted to stop either, they could have, since they had control of the House and the Senate for 2 years “under” Bush. Oh, I also recall Bush (too late) in 2007 tried to reign in Freddie and Fannie…hmmmm, I wonder who stopped him? But yes, both parties are at fault.
Mike, google this.. “550 tons of yellowcake” Report back
http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/07/the_550_tons_of_yellowcake.html
@Jimmy Frost – Well Said!
@Mike Barrett stated “The fact that I have to explain it to you says volumes. We compete internationally for corporations. Neither Hampton Roads, nor the owners of commercial property, will be able to compete unless we have a functioning and efficient transportation network.”
- The number of potholes in the road is not the reason corporations are not coming to Hampton Roads.
…and Keynesian (consumption based) economics does not work, it props bad business practices and develops false demands.
@LittleDavid
“Put 10 truckers together in a room and poll them and you’ll get 12 different opinions; but bring up tolls and you will suddenly find a strong majority.”
When your truck driving think tank get together to discuss world problems, add some diversity.
- Actually, I’m against tolls but I’m more against raising taxes to fix roads. Especially while Virginia Beach is spending millions on Light Rail—there’s your road money. Sounds like a spending problem to me.
“…are you going to listen to the transportation experts or listen to the politicians? You as a consumer are going to end up paying the freight bill at the cash register, so it is your choice.”
- Actually, I find both self-serving so I don’t listen to either. …and at the cash register, I have the choice NOT TO PURCHASE. That’s always a strong choice.
@Brian
The perfect storm…the CRA signed by Jimmy Carter pressured banks to provide loans and would be the beginning of the perfect storm. There always need to be the right elements working together to make that perfect storm. The question is…what are those elements and are they fixed? They are definitely not fixed, so we’ll continue to have a unstable housing market.
@King
The Republicans attempted to reign in the GSE (Fannie and Freddie) in 2005 but the Democrats were screaming foul. As they normally do, obstruct then blame. They pass a $1 trillion stimulus bill and then want jobs bill every other month and it’s the Republicans fault.
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