Home Buying your vote? | Youngkin announces ‘tax rebates,’ as MAGAs flailing at polls
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Buying your vote? | Youngkin announces ‘tax rebates,’ as MAGAs flailing at polls

Chris Graham
glenn youngkin winsome earle-sears
Glenn Youngkin: © lev radin/Shutterstock, Winsome Earle-Sears: © Eli Wilson/Shutterstock

My political radar, admittedly on high alert, is looking at the announcement from MAGA Gov. Glenn Youngkin about tax rebates about to go in the mail, and its reading: he’s trying to buy your vote, with your money.

“This fall’s tax rebate reflects a simple truth: it’s your money, not the government’s. We have made record investments supporting teachers and students, law enforcement, and Virginians facing behavioral health crises, while also lowering costs for individuals, families, veterans and small businesses,” Youngkin said in a statement highlighted in a press release – that you paid for, incidentally – telling us that “eligible taxpayers will receive tax rebates of up to $200 this fall if they filed individually, and up to $400 if they filed jointly.”


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I’m not going to wait for the spin from his fellow MAGA, Winsome Earle-Sears, the sitting lieutenant governor, boasting about how the relative pittance is due to their management of state government.

At best, the MAGAs are partners with Democrats in charge of both houses of the Virginia General Assembly for the past two years.

It could be a bit irresponsible to write checks to buy votes in an election season with the full force of the Trump/MAGA Big Ugly Bill about to hit us.

We’ve already felt the hard kick to the seat of our pants out here in 70 percent-plus MAGA Augusta County, where the regional hospital, Augusta Health, announced last month that it was closing three local healthcare centers, citing the trillions being cut from Medicaid in the Trump/MAGA budget as the driver to that decision.


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We’re only beginning to be able to wrap our heads around how much of what was cut by the MAGAs in DC will have to be made up for at the state and local level.

And now Youngkin is authorizing checks to go out in the middle of a political campaign that you just know are going to be the focus of TV commercials from that side.

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Chris Graham

Chris Graham

Chris Graham is the founder and editor of Augusta Free Press. A 1994 alum of the University of Virginia, Chris is the author and co-author of seven books, including Poverty of Imagination, a memoir published in 2019. For his commentaries on news, sports and politics, go to his YouTube page, TikTok, BlueSky, or subscribe to Substack or his Street Knowledge podcast. Email Chris at [email protected].