Where ABC Privatization Went Wrong

Noted political scholar Rowdy Roddy Piper said it all the time. “Just when they think they have all the answers, I change the questions.”

That’s exactly what has happened to Gov. McDonnell’s proposal to privatize the Alcoholic Beverage Control. McDonnell let the opponents change the questions, and actually tried to answer them.

Now privatizing ABC, despite being a great idea, looks to be headed to the barren wasteland of debate and study where all good ideas go to die.

McDonnell’s first mistake was kowtowing to the government-first crowd by touting how it would be at least revenue neutral.

Nice thought, but it then set the bar so high that anything short of revenue neutrality and Democrats get to blow the dust off their “you’re hurting children, ruining lives, creating mass hysteria” and whatever other talking points they have for the notion that government might not deserve every last penny we earn.

I’ve long held that revenue neutrality should never have been a goal for ABC privatization. We don’t privatize things in government so that government can make more money. That’s not the goal. If it’s a coincidental result, well that’s just skippy! But it isn’t the point.

The point is to get government out of businesses that rightfully belong in the domain of the private sector.

The talking point should’ve been, “Yes, government will make less, but private business will make more, hire more, invest more and in this economy, don’t we want more activity in the private sector than in government?”

But it wasn’t, and striving for revenue neutrality ticked off conservatives for adding some fees, optional or not, and ticked off liberals – basically because that’s what liberals do when they aren’t painting protest signs, eating vegan burgers or passing legislation no one can read until after it passes.

Mistake number two was tying ABC privatization to transportation. Learn this about liberals. They are never happy. They spend their lives waiting for global warming to drown them while expecting to be fired for racism/sexism/tallism/shortism/Maoism or whatever ‘ism is in vogue today.

They have a Pavlovian response ready for anything that helps transportation: “It’s not enough. We need to raise the gas tax.” Transportation isn’t about transportation. It’s about taxes. If it was about transportation, we’d have real regulatory reform which would lower the cost of major transportation projects to the level where people might actually want to pay for them.

Let’s face it, if we didn’t have an Interstate Highway system already, today’s government would make it impossible to build one.

McDonnell can find a billion dollars by auditing VDOT. Dems: “It’s not enough.” McDonnell can sell private ABC licenses. Dems: “It’s not enough.” Mark Warner can raise taxes through the roof in 2004 and Dems complain about how they need more taxes.

Ever notice how no tax increase is ever enough?

But I digress.

By tying ABC to revenue neutrality and transportation, he made the conversation about ABC privatization about everything but ABC privatization. It became about roads and schools and Sen. Dick Saslaw thinking his mussy hair is just so manly (ok, I added that).

Who but Saslaw would stand on the Senate floor talking about taxes and say “You can’t give me enough money to satisfy me.”

And it’s the truth. You can’t satisfy Democrats. Their whining wants never end. McDonnell was ambitiously idealistic in reaching out to try, but like most who do, he’s realized it was just an exercise in feeding fingers to snapping jaws.

ABC should be privatized, but not to help government, and not to fund transportation, but just because the private sector will do it better and economic activity belongs in the walls of private businesses rather than in the halls of State capitols.

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