Questions for Messrs. Northam and Perriello

Please note: the issues I raise below can also be addressed by the four Republican candidates for Governor. However, I address the Democratic candidates particularly due to my interest in the opposition party’s willingness to use their time in the wilderness to rethink their narrative – or, to be more precise, my concern for the lack thereof so far.

Today is one month since Donald Trump became President of the United States, and the Democrats have largely responded by opposing whatever he does. Fortunately, it has made the party more receptive to arguments for freer trade and for resisting Putinist agression abroad. Whether that will lead to a greater willingness to reach out to conservatives on economic and international issues remains to be seen.

Meanwhile, here in the Commonwealth, the race for Governor is on, including what is sure to be a spirited contest for the Democratic nomination. So far, neither candidate (Lt. Gov. Ralph Northam and Ex-Congressmen Tom Perriello) has cast their eye rightward for votes. Then again, this may be the first time someone to their right has asked about that this year. Given that foreign affairs is usually not an issue for Richmond, my queries are in the realm of domestic policy.

So, without further ado…

Regarding health care: Under the previous president (Barack Obama), the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission declared Certificate of Public Need regimes (which include the Commonwealth) “can prevent the efficient functioning of health care markets in several ways”, and thus can actually undermine (in fact, that was the word they used, too) “the laudable goals of reducing health care costs and improving access to care.” Yet Democrats in the General Assembly have been largely unwilling to “consider repeal or retrenchment” of COPN, despite the advice of the Administration they helped elect twice. Are you willing to follow Obama’s lead and push for significant COPN reform, or even outright repeal, to help improve quality of care and reduce health care prices?

Regarding climate change policy: While I’ll acknowledge to a greater degree of skepticism over global warming than most Democrats, I am also aware that there is a policy to address it that can also be economically beneficial (namely: British Columbia’s tax shift from income to carbon consumption). Are you willing to leave behind the failed “cap and trade” fiasco in favor of a tax shift – say, replacing Virginia’s corporate tax with a carbon consumption tax?

Regarding education: Contrary to what many Republicans would have us believe, some of the most effective voices for genuine education reform are Democrats: Michele Rhee in Washington, DC, and Eva Moskowitz in New York, for example. Efforts at education reform have been halting in Virginia. Are you willing to make a concerted effort to allow middle-class and working-class Virginians alternatives – such as charter schools or tuition tax credits – to the local government mini-monopolies that have failed them?

Regarding welfare: Many on the left are discussing a Minimum Basic Income policy, which in fact is a version of Milton Friedman’s Negative Income Tax. Would you request a waiver from Washington to try replacing the Commonwealth’s welfare system with a more efficient and less intrusive MBI/NIT?

Regarding civil asset forfeiture: Will you support requiring a criminal conviction before assets are allowed to be taken from a Virginian?

Regarding preborn children: Nearly all Democrats have an aversion to legally protecting preborn children, due to the policy’s cost burdening almost exclusively women of child-bearing age. While this is understandable, it is also addressable. Are you willing to support extending child support responsibilities to include prenatal cost so as to help spread that burden more equitably?

In short (save for the last inquiry), I am looking to see if either major Democratic candidate for Governor is willing to look beyond a government-first solution to Virginia’s problems, and consider policies that are more liberty-friendly, market-friendly, and/or supply-side-friendly in nature. Are the Democrats looking to lead Virginia into the next decade ready to consider a new paradigm for their state and their party?

Or are they, like too many Democrats right now, too busy relitigating the past to consider the future?

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