As the General Assembly reconvenes today, much chatter is going on across the blogs about 1st Congressional District GOP Chiar Tom Foley’s letter (which advances nothing, by the way) and how Republicans must now make a principled stand to block what has been called “the son of Frankenstein“.
While I would love to agree with my conservative blogger colleagues on this effort, the realities of “now” impede such a short-sighted and narrow view of our regional, which translate to commonwealth-wide, transportation needs.
Republicans had a chance this past General Assembly to make a principled stand on spending when Gov. Kaine was giving away the treasury to Pre-K to say, “no!” Instead, they screwed us all by passing the bill and failing to allocate the necessary funding for transportation — a truly vital government service for our national security, public safety and economy.
The time to draw a line in the sand was then, not now.
The only thing difference from the bill (HB3202) that passed and the bill that exists now (HB6055) is that it now complies with the Virginia constitution. There is no reason it shouldn’t be passed.
What we, as conservatives, should be angry about is not a bill that is proposed to meet the obligations of government, but the ones that unnecessarily expand it.
