David Reynolds: The Virginia Reel
This is how it’s done. First, you take a short walk. Then you sashay, a step where the left moves off to the side, only to be chased by the right. Then you go in the opposite direction, with the right leading being chased by the left. Then you act like children, you do some skipping. First to the right, then left. This allows both sides to face one another, each backing off when one goes forward. Then everyone moves around in a big circle. Finally, both sides smile, join hands and return to their original position.
Ladies and Virginia gentlemen, this is how the Virginia Reel is conducted. It is also how the Virginia General Assembly conducts its own dance of legislation. Continue reading “David Reynolds: The Virginia Reel” »
David Reynolds: Poverty-A moving target
Why does society’s well intended aim keeps missing the poverty mark? Because folks move in and out of poverty far more than we realize.
Yet, whenever we hear the word “poverty” we picture a permanent underclass, a group of victims with a crippling disease. So we crank up our personal quilt machine and donate time and money to help the poor to live better — while making us feel better.
Now there is a new campaign being cranked up. We call it the politics of envy. On November 7, we’ll know if it works. It infers that this nation is socially unjust, that we should be more like the Old World. Our New World’s grand experiment of social mobility has failed. Why not just redistribute more income and create a single middle class? Forget equal opportunity. Go directly for equal results. Continue reading “David Reynolds: Poverty-A moving target” »
David Reynolds: The Holy Darkness
Sorry for being sentimental in this piece. But I’m sure you will give me a pass. After all, it is that time of the year when we look within ourselves and find our families. And we wrap our gifts with smiles. It’s Christmas.
Foolishly, some try to see more. They try to look inside the gift that was given to all of us. They try to unravel the great mystery of life. They try to explain the inexplicable.
It can’t be done. At least not by adults. We start down all sorts of theological paths and then we get confused and lose our way. We get lost because we are not children. We don’t accept simple, one word answers to the big question. However, children do. They accept Christmas. Continue reading “David Reynolds: The Holy Darkness” »
David Reynolds: The Electoral Mirror
Elections are not just about winners and losers. They are about you and me, the electorate who voted for those who won and lost. Thus, an election is a mirror of ourselves.
So, what did we say about ourselves? We laid out a comfort zone. If a candidate was outside of it, he or she was not able to catch the brass ring. We said that how we feel about a candidate is how we like to feel about ourselves. We prefer to speak and live softly. If you want to win, we tell our candidates don’t come on too strong, find a quiet, friendly spot off a back road and we will likely vote for you. In-your-face controversy is out, but experience is in. No experience, no trust, no vote. It’s all good. Here in the valley, our physical comfort zone, our neighbors are free and friendly.
There are other comfort zones. We call them academic communities. I have finally come to the conclusion that it would be a mistake for such communities, usually independent cities, to be swallowed up by the surrounding county. Blurring city lines makes no sense. If you doubt this, examine the election results for any recent year, including this November. And while you’re at it, check out the Alleghany County/City of Covington merger vote. Both jurisdictions have decided to allow their citizens to continue their separate ways. Isn’t federalism wonderful? We can live as we vote. Yes, but it’s expensive.
What about the newly elected? Allow me to answer this way: Does putting wine from old bottles change its taste?
Did you notice that the Democratic Party in the Rockbridge area has proven once again how to play the great game of politics? Simple — forget local endorsements. When will Republicans learn that backing candidates falls under the Law of Unintended Consequences?
And how about the man who lost the governorship by a landslide (20 percentage points) keeping his state senate seat by another landslide, winning 64-36. His GOP opponent can now go back to helping clients decipher the tax code. Welcome home, Creigh.
Besides personalities, you might be wondering how the issues fared in the past election? What issues?
One last point on the importance of voting. Two hundred and twenty-four voters in the 17th Senate District determined the legislative agenda for over 8 million Virginians. The GOP now controls both houses of Virginia’s General Assembly.
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: Shop and vote local
Haven’t you had enough of that pollution coming out of an old river swamp that we call Washington, D.C.? I have. That’s why I moved to the Valley. One size doesn’t fit the entire country. It’s too big.
So we carved it up by inventing federalism – state and local governments. Now we don’t always have to listen to Washington. Thank James Madison, the Sage of Montpelier, for allowing us the freedom to occasionally turn off DC.
You know what the polls say. Congress is near the bottom of the barrel in approval ratings. And the president is in a free fall, down to 41 percent.
Here’s my answer to the polls. Ignore them! Shop for local candidates. You may not agree, but most are as good as our tomatoes and corn are in August.
But selecting them is slightly different. There is only one shopping day for candidates. It is this Tuesday, Nov. 8. Be there! And be early to select the best buys.
In politics there is a theory that voters may not select the best person, but they weed out the worst candidates. When you vote on Tuesday you will do some weeding. And not buy bad tomatoes.
Here’s a ripe choice. For state senate, Creigh Deeds is still our man. Until the GOP gets serious about selecting a candidate for the 25th District there will be no contest. Creigh did not make governor because (a) his timing was terrible and (b) his national party let him down. (Translation: He ran the worst possible campaign a year after Mr. Obama was elected.)
There are many choices for board of supervisors and city council seats. Some believe in regional cooperation. Others pay lip service. Separate the two. But the real problem in local politics is that too many council members and supervisors keep going off in different directions. And therefore little gets accomplished. If not political parties, what’s wrong with slates, such as a smart-growth slate to determine what the land will look like for our children? Parties and slates would help to wean us away from the beauty contests we now conduct. And maybe more good ideas would surface. Is that so wild a dream?
Speaking of dreams, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. once said,”Our lives begin to end the day we remain silent about the things that matter.” What happens in the Valley of Virginia matters to me. And I don’t wish to die.
Do yourself a favor. Follow Nike as well as Madison, “Just do it.” Vote on Tuesday! Or this being a free country, you are free to continue to do what we do all too well – complain.
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: Senator for Life
If you live in the 25th Virginia Senatorial District, Creigh Deeds has earned your support for another term. We all know that Creigh fell a little short wishing to be our governor. But please do not judge our man by that miserable gubernatorial campaign that was run for him out of a temporary White House office in Alexandria. The children who ran it believed only in themselves and knew only of a Virginia with endless townhouses, gridlocked roads and the Washington Post.
There is also the state where we live, ReVa, the Real Virginia. Combined with NoVa, the White House whiz kids managed to lose the governorship by 20 percentage points.
But that’s ancient history. Creigh, like Dolly in her musical, is back where he belongs, as a state senator – for as long as he wants the job. He knows his territory and he knows the issues. Mr. Deeds was never an Obama Democrat. He is a Virginia Democrat, a reasonable politician who works well with Republicans. He is always willing to meet the opposition more than half way – if it is for a better whole.
Nevertheless, our man from Millboro has an opponent from Charlottesville, a young tax lawyer, T. J. Aldous. (No relation to that other TJ from C’ville.) I know that Republicans need only to pick up three seats in order to wrestle control of the forty-seat Virginia Senate from the Democrats. But, come on, out of the nearly 200,000 people living in Virginia’s 25th Senatorial District, could not the Grand Old Party of the Old Dominion come up with a better candidate? I guess not.
Therefore I presume that the GOP is conceding defeat in the 25th. That’s smart. It is also a smart move for Mr. Aldous and his tax law practice. A true story. In 1964 following the Goldwater-Miller landslide loss (61-39) to President Johnson, a reporter asked the previously little known VP candidate, William E. Miller, what he had learned. He said that he learned that his law practice in Lockport, New York was now doing very well, thank you.
Smart business move,TJ. And welcome back to where you belong, my good Deeds friend.
A personal note: Now that NJ Gov. Christie has told the world for the umpteenth time that he is not running for president, I have decided to establish an exploratory committee to determine whether I should throw my hat into the big ring. The committee’s first meeting will be held next Sunday at 3:00 am at an undisclosed valley location in the last remaining telephone booth in America. If you can’t make it, I’ll understand.
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: The Virginia Plan
How have you been enjoying the 2012 presidential campaign so far? Just as I thought. Here’s more bad news: there are 13 months months left in the campaign. One suggestion: cancel 2012. Tell the Republicans to go ahead and hand four more years to the president. This should be easy. The GOP is very good at blowing presidential elections. (And for the losers the winters are not that bad in Canada.) In exchange, Americans will be so grateful that any 2016 GOP presidential nominee will sweep into office.
Now for what I wanted to say. Let’s start at the beginning. From Alex and Tom to Barack and John, from Hamilton and Jefferson to Obama and Boehner, there have been two grand philosophical highways. Now there are four byways requiring serious repair.
This should please the so-called independent political souls out there who are always wishing for a third major political party. I’ve just raised you one. Yes, my Republican and Democratic friends, splitsville has finally occurred. We have proof: last summer’s debt ceiling soap opera in gridlock DC. There are not only two different visions of America — there are two different ways of doing business.
Here are today’s four major political parties. You should be able to recognize each.
A. The Tax & Spend Party. The Great Depression made this party great. It spoke directly for those unable to speak for themselves. The party ran on a successful fiscal formula of redistribution of income to the lower classes. Then came Vietnam, the 1972 election and social issues. The party spoke from both coasts, but was seldom heard in America’s heartland.
B. The Spend & Tax Party. This new party came into power in 2008. Its timing could not have been worse. The housing bubble burst and the economy collapsed. The party’s strategy was that once the vast middle class enjoyed their new candy store, they would be willing to allow others to pay the tab later. After all, this strategy worked for decades in Europe. Why not in America? Meanwhile the financial crisis depressed growth and tax revenues. The people were not able to pay for their big new candy store, including the health care all day sucker sold to them. Its leader’s honeymoon ended.
C. The Don’t Tax/Don’t Spend Party. This is the party of “No.” Its roots go back to the Libertarian Party and are now spreading with the tea party movement. Its base does not care for today’s big government because it enjoys reading old musty documents, such as the Constitution. Therefore, it will always be out-of-date. They believe that two birds in the bush would have been better than two Bush’s. However, in order to grow and have influence, this party needs to buy a dictionary. In it they will find that “congress” means, “the act or fact of coming together.”
D. The Tax A Little/Spend A Little Party. This is currently the watered-down version of Party “A.” It tends to lose elections because voters are like Coke drinkers, they like “the real thing.” It is the party of “It all depends.” It sees most government programs as evil, but necessary. It has lasted since Lincoln by rationing out its sweets to those only in congressional districts. Then it discovered that everyone lives in a congressional district.
That’s it. Four parties, four speeds: fast; express; stop; and slow . We now know that it doesn’t work in government, politics or in railroading. There’s going to be a train wreck. There almost was.
Here’s my solution, call it “The Virginia Plan.” Go back to doing everything the way we’ve always done it. Tell Mr. Obama that his party is over. It was an exciting four-year run. But too exciting. Tell the tea drinkers to keep the faith, but join up with the GOP. Now dem Dems can return to what they do best: spreading social justice and raising money. The elephant will finally throw its full weight around. It will get smart and run on its ticket the governor of a key swing state and win the election. Governor McDonnell will be happy in his new DC home.
By the way, Bob, it is on Massachusetts Avenue, not Pennsylvania Avenue.
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: Waiting game
I spent a previous lifetime playing with budgets in Washington, so I should have known that the debt talks were a game, a waiting game, not unlike those played in Searchlight, Nevada, Senator Reid’s home town. Except in Searchlight they play with their own money.
Yes, that’s what they do in DC, take credit and give out blame, a place where partisan gamesmanship will always trump problem solving. And the players make sure that there are no knock out punches. Otherwise incumbents could not stand for reelection and the next game.
However, there are differences between the way games are played in Nevada and Washington, DC. In Nevada ESPN covers the World Series of Poker. The games at the White House and on Capitol Hill are covered by the other networks.
Another difference: The Washington game of playing fiscal chicken in also being played out in New York and Chicago. In New York, our financial capital, they don’t give a hoot about blame, only the color of money and credit ratings. And in Chicago there is a large building that houses Mr. Obama’s reelection headquarters. It calls the shots being fired from the White House grounds.
Then there are the Republicans, the Charlie Brown political party that never gets to kick the football and is constantly being shot at by the media. In the process to make government smaller (not necessarily better), the GOP seeks political cover. The balanced budget amendment is its latest blanket.
But this time Lucy and her fellow Dems may have outsmarted themselves. While scaring my generation over Medicare and Social Security is considered good Inside the Beltway politics, that is, until New York spoke up. Wall Street (Standard & Poors) said DC had gone too far and did something it hasn’t done since 1917 — downgrade Treasury bonds. Now Grandma, who owns a few of those bonds has a new worry, besides Medicare and Social Security.
What this all means is that the current battle over how to bring down the federal debt is the 2012 presidential election being held in 2011.
How about four questions for when Congress returns next month and the president leaves Martha’s Vineyard?
First, why do we get a daily feeding of wordy generalities when only the numbers count? As everyone knows by now, the devil is in the details. Let’s see the numbers! We can add.
Second, what about the Gallup Poll? The public showed a strong resistance to tax increases. Half said that the federal government should attempt to reduce its debt with spending cuts (20% only; 30% mostly), while only 11% said that it should be done with tax increases (4% only; 7% mostly). (The rest were fence sitters.) That’s a 4.5:1 ratio in favor of spending cuts!
Third, why doesn’t either side ever mention the big step already taken to solve this problem? In February 2010 the president (yes, the same one) established the 18-member bipartisan National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform. While separate reports were filed there was also considerable agreement, particularly between the co-chairs, former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson (R) and University of North Carolina President Erskine Bowles (D). Not surprising, their report also favors a wide margin in favor of cutting spending over new taxes.
Fourth, what is your game Mr. President?” In any negotiation there must be trust and credibility on both sides if a successful long term compromise is to be reached. That is lacking from our president. He has lost his credibility. In its place he gives us the budget or financial plan of the month. We are now waiting for September’s. As the song goes,
“It’s a long, long way from May to December
But the days grow short when you reach September
When the autumn weather turns the leaves to flame
And you ain’t got time for the waiting game”
Mr. President and Congress, we ain’t got time for the waiting game.
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: A taxing service
I am now like many of you. I am afraid of my own government. And that is not good.
Over recent months I have received not one, but two computer driven letters from the IRS. While both have been resolved in my favor with no additional taxes owed, nonetheless, the “Big Brother” scare remains.
Allow me to take you inside the federal agency we most love to hate — the Internal Revenue Service. The IRS has computers. Its workers feed them. Both are capable of making mistakes. Soon there may be over 100,000 employees on the payroll, plus who knows how many computers. So much for “tight budgets.” As for those countless computers, they have big appetites. While busy digesting data, they don’t always have the time or capacity to talk to other computers. For example, the computers with data from employers do not always converse with the computers with data from employees. And sometimes the computers just get fed the wrong data by IRS workers. Losses have been known to be entered as gains.
This is what I found out after countless prompts (I selected only the ones in English) and being placed on hold twice, once for 23 minutes, the second time for 19. The bottom line from the friendly IRS agent at the other end of the telephone line: “Sorry, Mr. Reynolds, it was human error.”
Wow! I got the IRS to admit to a mistake! It was worth the wait.
Yes, my friends, the IRS is capable of making mistakes. Naturally, the IRS geeks prefer to call them “computer errors.” But we know better. And we now know that the IRS sends out scary letters before they check their own work. Yet the true-blue American taxpayers are told to do otherwise.
But, wait a minute. Why should this be a problem? Half of all working Americans do not file an income tax return and of those who do, more than half pass off their mess of papers to someone else. They just sign the return, pay a fee and then have a cold one.
Wake up, Reynolds, get with it. Have someone else do your taxes. Or stop paying them all together!
Okay, but let’s forget the second option. I believe that paying taxes is the price for having a nation able to defend itself and willing to provide basic needs for its citizens. While I will gladly (well, almost) pay the price, I need to know what it is. What is my share of the cost to provide for the common good? I can best get this answer by doing my own taxes.
Ask someone who pays a hired gun what they pay in taxes. They will most likely tell you their refund — which is on the average of $3,000 per household, a nice interest free loan to a rich uncle named Sam.
We think of the IRS as a dentist office. We don’t care what goes on as long as it is painless. And Internal Revenue makes its “service” as painless as possible through an invention that created big government: withholding. Just think how high our real estate and personal property taxes would go if localities had withholding.
So, what is the answer to stopping wasteful scary letters from the IRS? True story. A Congressman was once so frustrated with the unending growth of the U. S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that he proposed that the number of USDA employees could not exceed the number of American farmers.
Naturally, his bill never went anywhere. Here’s another proposal that will go nowhere in Washington: Those who collect and prepare taxes can never exceed the total number of Americans who pay them. Sounds reasonable to me. That’s the problem — in spite of trend lines showing that one day the number of watch dogs will meet the number of dogs being watched.
China knows what is destroying our economy. That’s why the Chinese stopped doing each other’s laundry. But we are not worried that possibly one day half of us will be employed doing the taxes of the other half.
Scary.
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: Inside Washington
Outside it was beautiful. It was one of those clear sunny days in summer. Tourists were on every street corner. From my table I could see yachts slowly moving into the Washington Channel to go sailing out on to the Potomac River and maybe down to the Chesapeake Bay. Our Nation’s Capital never looked better.
Inside Washington the scene was a bit different. Nothing was moving except the waiters in the restaurants and bars where the money brokers gather at midday. Inside Washington it is still winter.
Sorry to report such grim news from up North. But if anyone out there sees a flicker of light at the end of the fiscal tunnel — besides Mark Warner’s Gang of Six grand play, please let me know.
Be that as it may, the talk in river city is always about reducing government spending. But, as usual, it is just talk. Nonetheless, what better place to eavesdrop than at the semiannual luncheon meeting of the Bureau of the Budget In Exile Unrequited Marching and Chowder Society (BOBIEUMACS). That’s the full name of our small and dwindling group that at one time served as the president’s fire wall against all the evil spending forces the federal agencies and their many friends could muster.
On this fine day our group was down to thirty. Still it represented over 700 years of inside Washington knowledge, which is a few years more of understanding than the typical television pundit. At one time we were inclined to put our know-how, i.e., which government programs work and which do not, to put out fiscal fires and chase after runaway spending. But no more. Now our main focus is on the Channel Inn’s scallops and sole when we are not thinking about the empty chairs at the empty tables.
Yet, around town, few are truly engaged with the growing national debt — a debt that now about equals our annual GDP. Please note that “truly engaged” does not mean playing to the partisan peanut galleries in order to raise more peanuts, or do a Congressman Goodlatte — endorse an ineffective and foolish Balanced Budget Amendment for political cover. (How many blankets does Bob need in this hot weather?)
In the fall of 1985 we invited a reporter from the New York Times to our luncheon. He wrote, in part, “Not a word of serious discussion was heard about today’s $200 billion budget deficit, widely regarded as the nation’s No. 1 problem.”
Twenty-six years later only more zeros have been added. There seems to be no cure for Potomac fever. Cultures do not change. They have no need to tell it to you straight. But I do. Before, during and after our luncheon there were three instances which show how difficult it is to change Washington’s ways.
Before lunch I was engaged in light conversation with two former colleagues. So, I safely said, “Isn’t it wonderful that someone has finally proposed a healthcare plan as good as to one we (active and retired federal government workers) have where insurance companies compete for our business.” Apparently not! I received a lecture on the evils of the private insurance industry and why we need the power of government to defend our personal health needs. (I made a mental note to cancel my home, auto and life insurance policies when I got home.)
During the luncheon, our speaker, Professor Gordon Adams of The George Washington University, was asked questions concerning the budgets for defense and international affairs. Every question was in relation to the rest of the federal budget — not in relation to the nation! That is how Washington thinks — in a closed loop. All solutions must come from within. Don’t question the role; just question the numbers.
After the luncheon I returned home via Amtrak. As usual, the train was late arriving in Staunton. Not because there is a lack of funding to modernize the equipment or improve the roadbed. No, it was because twice we had to go off on a siding in order for a freight train to pass! You see, government knows how to solve problems by throwing money at them — seldom by changing the rules of the game, such as telling the railroads that passengers are more important than freight.
And so it goes. What will happen next inside Washington? Stay tuned. That’s why we have a 24/7 news cycle.
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: What an idea!
Two young boys were playing marbles near the village green. Watching the boys play was a tired soldier in a red coat. He was captivated by their dog-eat-dog competitiveness. Both boys wanted to win their game very badly.
Being kids they had nicknames. One was called Peace. The other was known to his friends as Freedom. The soldier made a bet with himself. He bet that Peace would get the better of Freedom. His boss, the king, did the same.
Both lost. For a far bigger game was brewing beyond the green. And who else won that day not so many years ago? You and I. Everyone wins when freedom wins.
And so it has been in the short history of this great land that God has blessed. Every day is filled with events, both big and small, which shape our nation. And every day the same freedom or peace question is raised: How much peace are we willing to sacrifice in order to maintain our nation’s freedom?
Peace was a pleasant boy, but he had his limits. That is why he lost the game. Freedom has no limits. Yet, too many of us can not distinguish between Peace and Freedom. They see the two as one. Pray for those who are nearly blind.
Sure, Peace has a good selling point. But only one. It is the opposite of war. Peace keeps telling us that If we would only love one another this would be a perfect world. His game is to tap into his goodwill and have everyone share in the world’s riches. World peace is his goal. How he gets there is of lesser importance.
But Freedom will always win because he is willing to pay any price. Freedom is highly contagious. It’s the common cold. One day the entire world will all get it. Freedom is also a journey, albeit a difficult one. Yet Freedom reaches out and invites us to travel his hard road. His fuel? The human spirit. That is his secret weapon.
On Monday, on a day known simply by its date, we will take the time to appreciate the peace we currently enjoy. But the real meaning of the day is a celebration of freedom.
Our celebration of the Fourth brings us together. We don’t care about your religion, how you spell your name, what’s in your bank account or how you vote. But we do ask, “Do you believe in freedom?”
Freedom is the unifying force behind the Fourth. It is what draws together a heterogeneous country of over 310 million individuals. Maybe that is all we have in common. Maybe that is enough. Maybe that is why there will be no strangers in the crowd on Monday when the sun goes down and the fireworks go up. Because we are family.
However, families do not always stay together. They have a habit of breaking up. The American family is breaking up because securing the immigrant vote is more important to the Republican and the Democratic parties than uniting a nation. This nation does not have an immigration problem, at least not on the Fourth — it has a serious assimilation problem. The old melting pot that has served has so well has turned cold. We need to put a firecracker under it.
What else do we need to do on the Fourth? Oh yes, every Fourth of July we need to ask ourselves if the rest of the world is better or worse off because of us. Did those words signed by 56 men on a hot July day in Philadelphia change anything for the rest of the planet? Remember, they were no-nonsense folks. They “mutually pledged to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.”
If you need to think for more than a nanosecond whether our world role is positive or negative I will include you in my prayers, along with those who can’t distinguish freedom from peace.
None of the above is a slap in the face at our British cousins. They, too, enjoy freedom. They, too, have a positive balance of trade by exporting democracy, capitalism, the rule of law and personal responsibility. But Britannia no longer rules the waves. We do. Whether we like it or not, the United States of America has grown to become a world power. And we are a role model for the rest of the world. There is no need to apologize that the great experiment has been a success.
That’s it. Wrap everything up after the fireworks and tie it together. Carry it home. It’s easy. You can put it all in your head. For America is no more than an idea. But what a idea!
Column by David Reynolds
David Reynolds: Our next governor
Posted by afp on February 21, 2012 · Leave a Comment
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