Gov. Glenn Youngkin is taking the pending federal job cuts that threaten to put 675,000 Virginians out of work like a good welfare-stater – touting how federal employees about to head to the bread lines can file for unemployment insurance and Obamacare, or apply for a job with the state.
U.S. Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., one of Youngkin’s predecessors as governor of Virginia, is suggesting a more robust plan of action from the MAGA pol.
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“I would just suggest to the governor and others in the legislature, please stand up for Virginians in this moment, please stand up,” Kaine told reporters on a conference call last week. “If you’ve got a relationship with President Trump, use it. When I was governor, if the federal government did something that was bad for Virginia, I got on the phone to Jim Webb and John Warner immediately. I didn’t care who the president was. I didn’t care whether it was George W. Bush, Barack Obama, I didn’t care who was in majority in either house of Congress. If it hurt Virginia, I was loud until we got an answer.”
I mean, this would be … something.
Just an idea, but maybe you fight for your constituents, and for your state – we’re talking about 15 percent of the labor force in Virginia that could end up on the unemployment line.
Youngkin may not care about Northern Virginia, which is supermajority Democrat, but if the NoVa economy tanks, let’s face it, the MAGA vote-rich areas in the Shenandoah Valley, the Route 29 corridor south of Charlottesville, Southwest Virginia and the I-85 and I-95 corridors south of Richmond are pretty much West Virginia economically.
Youngkin is said to be mulling over a run for Mark Warner’s U.S. Senate seat in the 2026 midterms cycle.
It’s not going to serve him well to that end if he’s running against an economic depression that he helped facilitate politically.
This is why Kaine is advising Youngkin to “be loud,” not because of politics, but because it helps us all – Democrats in NoVa, and Republicans south of the Crescent.
“That’s what we need right now from everybody at the state level, the governor, attorney general, lieutenant governor, as well as our two Democratic houses in the General Assembly, please help protect Virginians from the indiscriminate, and in many cases illegal, activities that are going on,” Kaine said.