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  • Democrats in a slump. But so is the GOP

    Number of comments: 1
    The new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll finds the Democratic party in a slide, one that has Peter Hart raising red flags:"For Democrats, the red flags are flying at full mast," said Democratic pollster Peter Hart, who conducts the survey with Republican pollster Bill McInturff. "What we don't know for'" [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 7:20pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • How they voted on the debt ceiling

    Number of comments: 0
    The House of Representatives voted 218-214 to raise the nation's debt ceiling to... ...$12,394,000,000,000.Yipes. How did Virginia's worthies vote?"Yes" -- Boucher, Connolly, Moran, Scott"No" -- Cantor, Forbes, Goodlatte, Perriello, Nye, Wittman, WolfThe Republicans had a free vote and the Democrats had to choose on what side of this ready-made campaign [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 6:38pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • How to Fix County Budget Problems

    Number of comments: 0
    I’m wrapping up a paper on the real cost of public education, the total price tag per student, not just the stripped down version they typically trot out to show voters. One of the districts is Arlington, VA, which is the one I happen to live in. Though the district [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 4:27pm EST
    by Adam Schaeffer

  • Reading is fundamental. Except in the Senate

    Number of comments: 0
    An extraordinary exchange between Tom Coburn and Max Baucus on whether the Reid health insurance bill ought to be read before the members vote on it. In the back-and-forth between the two, Baucus admits that many of his colleagues are what some have long suspected them to be...dullards: [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 3:03pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • How to hide a trillion dollars

    Number of comments: 0
    How does official Washington manage to hide a trillion in spending? If you're Congress, and you have a health insurance bill you really, really want to hide the full cost, youdo a lot of fudging...the kind that would get mere mortals thrown in the slammer:...Democrats have been submitting proposals to' [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 1:33pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • F&P Radio with Bob Marshall

    Number of comments: 0
    On this episode of Freedom and Prosperity Radio...Delegate Bob Marshall is introducing the Virginia Health Care Freedom Act in the General Assembly in January, which would guarantee that every Virginian has a right to (as well as a right not to) purchase health insurance and medical services from whatever provider [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 12:16pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • George Allen's rehabilitation continues

    Number of comments: 1
    Another instance of former Sen. George Allen raising his profile, this time against the Democratic health insurance bill under debate in his former stomping grounds. Does all of this add up to a return to electoral politics for Allen?"That's not necessarily a relevant question for this," he said with a [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 10:37am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Air Congress and shades of '94

    Number of comments: 0
    The last time I saw lengthy articles like this one on congressional travel was 1994...right before the wheels came off the Democratic machine. What's fun about this look inside congressional wanderings is who is doing the freeloading...it's the deficit-fighting Blue Dogs:In Edinburgh, the lawmakers stayed at the Sheraton Grand Hotel [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 9:31am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Kaine's money hunt

    Number of comments: 0
    Tim Kaine does not intend to go quietly into that good night. He's looking for new sources of revenue to close the budget gap, and seems to have had his fill of cutting.So where might he find new revenues?In the days leading up to Friday's budget announcement, Kaine already has [...]
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    Posted: December 16, 2009, 8:31am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • High Noon for Health Care

    Number of comments: 1
    Just returned from the latest rally against ObamaCare in Washington, D.C. Upper Senate Park was packed full of rowdy protesters wearing (and seeing) red.There were some media personalities present, like Laura Ingram and Dick Armey, as well as a few of the better D.C. pols like Sen. Jim DeMint.During lobbying [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 4:17pm EST
    by Josh Eboch

  • Howard Dean wants the health bill killed

    Number of comments: 2
    The former DNC chairman thinks the Reid bill isn't worth saving now that a Medicare buy-in has been dropped and the whole process should begin again...using reconciliation:“This is essentially the collapse of health care reform in the United States Senate. Honestly the best thing to do right now is kill' [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 3:04pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • The dark heart of health insurance: the mandates

    Number of comments: 0
    With Joe Lieberman having effectively blocked a public option in the Reid health insurance bill, we can now focus on the real evil within the bill: the mandates. Here's how Cato's Michael Cannon puts it:...an individual mandate gives government more (and more immediate) control over Americans’ health care than even [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 2:19pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • What a difference a day, and $500 million in honest graft, can make...

    Number of comments: 0
    Today it appears Senate Democrats are closer than ever to a health insurance deal after dropping the Medicare expansion plan and the whole public option concept, thus bringing Joe Lieberman that much close to "yes" on the rest of the package.That still leaves Nebraska's Ben Nelson as a potential snag, [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 12:09pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Marshall's anti-mugging bill

    Number of comments: 2
    In this case, the mugger is the federal government and the object isn't just your money, but your liberty. Del. Bob Marshall's proposal to prevent this crime rests on a number of constitutional principles, but there's one argument that deserves a bit more explanation. Advocates of a health insurance mandate' [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 9:16am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Kos wants the Reid bill to die

    Number of comments: 0
    The Daily Kos founder writes in his Twitter feed:Insurance companies win. Time to kill this monstrosity coming out of the Senate.Interesting. [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 9:01am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Is Joe Leiberman advocating the death of thousands?

    Number of comments: 1
    Ezra Klein says "yes", and all because the Senator prefers to settle political scores rather than plump for universal health insurance coverage.Cato's Michael Cannon says Klein is full of it:Economists Helen Levy of the University of Michigan and David Meltzer of the University of Chicago surveyed the entire economics literature [...]
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    Posted: December 15, 2009, 8:30am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Mark Warner, the spend-happy pol

    Number of comments: 3
    Sen. Mark Warner likes to remind people that's he's concerned -- deeply concerned -- about how health care costs may bankrupt the nation. He won't vote for anything that doesn't bend the cost curve down and save the economy from ruin.Maybe so. But after reading things like this, I'm reminded' [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 6:30pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Why is the Democratic health insurance scheme foundering?

    Number of comments: 3
    It now appears as though Senate Democrats are getting father from, rather than closer to, passage of any sort of health insurance bill by Christmas. Why is that? Cato's David Boaz believes it's all rather simple:The basic problem is that the more people learn about the bill, the less they [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 1:47pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • A Democratic vision of 2010

    Number of comments: 0
    While there aren't a lot a lot of named sources in this story, there are some strong comments on what the Democrats will face in the 2010 elections:After a national election swept Obama into office, panicked Dems will try to localize their elections, though that may not work either."Localizing campaigns'" [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 12:24pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Getting beyond the gas tax

    Number of comments: 1
    the RTD makes another plea to hike the gas tax as a way of providing a "comprehensive solution" to the state's transportation problems.That's looking backwards. Here's how the McDonnell camp will approach the matter:Reliance primarily on declining gasoline taxes is not a long-term strategy if we want to have a [...]
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    Posted: December 14, 2009, 8:26am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Score a big one for Hurt. Maybe.

    Number of comments: 6
    Fifth District Republicans will choose their congressional nominee via primary, rather than convention. This is a short-term win for Sen. Robert Hurt, the only one of a gaggle of candidates who favored a primary.I'm not completely convinced this helps Hurt more than anyone else, but it does put a higher' [...]
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    Posted: December 13, 2009, 10:15am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • It's not just a job, it's a pension

    Number of comments: 4
    Appropriate reading for a cold and rainy Sunday is this Pilot piece on Virginia pols reaching for the pension gold. The focus is former Senator, and now Virginia Beach sheriff, Ken Stolle. Why would Stolle leave the Senate to become sheriff? Nostalgia, a sense of duty, and the pay-out:Stolle said [...]
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    Posted: December 13, 2009, 9:15am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Sarah Palin, William Shater, Mass Hysteria

    Number of comments: 2
    This is brilliant... [...]
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    Posted: December 12, 2009, 9:24am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Kaine to lawmakers: talk to the hand

    Number of comments: 2
    In response to a letter from Bill Bolling, Bill Howell, Tommy Norment and others urging the Governor to not put taxes into his mix of budget fixes, His Excellency tells the Republican worthies they don't have a clue:"While I appreciate your thoughts regarding the burdens faced by our citizens and'" [...]
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    Posted: December 12, 2009, 8:28am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • What about George?

    Number of comments: 0
    Something to ponder from Barnie Day regarding the politics of Bill Bolling's higher profile:I think Bolling has a net in place, a net called in succession politics the “gennamum’s ‘greement.” It works like this: He and Cooch have already agreed that Cooch will seek a second term as AG, giving [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 3:02pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • What the "insiders" think

    Number of comments: 3
    Here's a somewhat revealing list of who congressional and political insiders think is impressive, not so great and just plain awful.Interesting on the GOP side is that Bob McDonnell has impressed the insiders (though not surprising when looking at the list "insider" names).But these same insiders really dislike independent voices:What [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 12:10pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Advising Bob

    Number of comments: 4
    Anita Kumar reprints the long list of folks advising Bob McDonnell during his transition.There are some good names, some bad names, some in-between. But under the "government reform" group, one stuck out as a real blast from McDonnell's past: Kevin Gentry.If the name doesn't ring any bells, Gentry was at' [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 10:37am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Richmond's storm water fees a job killer?

    Number of comments: 1
    Richmond businesses have been getting bills from the city for storm water run-off. But in some cases, the bills are so large, companies may have to lay-off workers in order to pay the fees.The power to tax is the power to destroy, and make no mistake, this "utility fee" is [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 8:58am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Raising Bolling's profile...now and for 2013

    Number of comments: 7
    That LTG Bill Bolling will be a member of Bob McDonnell's cabinet -- as a "jobs czar" is interesting...Bob Holsworth calls it "a major elevation of the lieutenant Governor's role in state government.Yes, it is.But it is also has political implications that go far beyond "creating jobs" (which government doesn't'" [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 8:27am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Mandating financial literacy

    Number of comments: 3
    Virginia's public high school students will be required to take a financial literary course in order to graduate. The new requirement has set some people on edge, as they wonder where the time/money/resources will come from to meet these requirements and whether, worst of all, the new mandate will cut [...]
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    Posted: December 11, 2009, 8:14am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • First 5th District Republican Debate

    Number of comments: 4
    It looks like the first debate between candidates in the crowded field for the Republican nomination in Virginia's 5th District is set for Jan. 22nd, 2010.The event is scheduled to take place in Charlottesville at Albemarle County's Lane Auditorium from 7 to 9 PM. Its format will be determined in [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 12:42pm EST
    by Josh Eboch

  • Dave Englin's "concerned"

    Number of comments: 0
    Democratic Del. Dave Englin is worried about Del. Bob Marshall's health care bill:"I'm concerned about it because we have a number of newly elected Republicans who came in on the shoulders of the tea party crowd," said Del. Dave Englin, D-Alexandria, referring to the conservative anti-tax movement. "I'm concerned that" [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 10:46am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Is a congressional health insurance mandate constitutional?

    Number of comments: 0
    This discussion is just over an hour long, but gives great play to both sides on whether the health insurance bills under debate in Congress are constitutional.Randy Barnett says "no" and makes a very convincing case. Eugene Volokh says "yes" and also makes an excellent case, using arguments I've alluded' [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 10:37am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • The ethics push in capitol square

    Number of comments: 0
    It looks like Sen. Ralph Smith just might be leading a charge on ethics reform in the next session:Virginia lawmakers would have to disclose income that they and their immediate families receive from state and local government agencies under legislation designed to strengthen the General Assembly's Conflicts of Interests Act.The [...]
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    Posted: December 10, 2009, 9:01am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Randy Barnett has some words for Bob Marshall

    Number of comments: 0
    Not specifically addressed to Marshall, but of great importance to the legislation he is proposing to counter the insurance mandates incorporated in the congressional health insurance bills. Here's a taste:...and for those who care about constitutional law: Raich involved an “as-applied” challenge wherein the Court refused to carve out a [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 7:16pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • The Unconventional 5th District?

    Number of comments: 5
    The 5th Congressional District Republican Committee meets this Saturday to decide the method by which 5th District Republicans will nominate a candidate to run against vulnerable Democrat incumbent Tom Perriello.They would do well to consider the results of a recent national poll that found generic "Tea Party" candidates beating Republicans [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 3:44pm EST
    by Josh Eboch

  • Regarding the Know Campaign's lawsuit...

    Number of comments: 0
    The Roanoke Times argues that the Know Campaign, which sought to use individual voting histories in a statewide mailing effort to "shame" folks into voting in last month's elections, says the group has "civic righteousness on its side" and should press ahead in the name of open records for all:Maybe [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 3:17pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Why the Senate Health Insurance Deal is No Deal at All

    Number of comments: 1
    Cato's Michael Tanner explains why the deal Senate liberals and "moderates" have worked out is really no better, and in some ways worse, than Harry Reid's original plan: 1. In choosing the FEHBP [Federal Employees Health Benefit Program] for a model, Democrats have actually chosen an insurance plan whose costs [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 1:39pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Richmond pleads for federal rail money

    Number of comments: 0
    A group of civic "leaders" plead with the feds to spend billions more on high speed rail. The litany is familiar:Such train service would reduce congestion, aid economic development, create jobs and cut pollution, said Daniel L. Plaugher of Virginians for High Speed Rail.Except reality just doesn't work that way.' [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 12:36pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Bob Marshall's proposed antidote to Obamacare

    Number of comments: 4
    Del. Bob Marshall addressed the Tuesday Morning Group yesterday on his proposed legislation - House Bill 10 -- that would guarantee Virginia residents the right to choose their own private health care plan and avoid federal mandates and fines for carrying the "wrong" coverage or for not having any coverage [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 10:11am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • The health insurance bill takes a big step forward

    Number of comments: 1
    Senate Democrats have jettisoned the public option in favor of...well, let's let the Journal explain it:Senior Senate Democrats reached tentative agreement Tuesday night to abandon the government-run insurance plan in their health-overhaul bill and to expand Medicare coverage to some people ages 55 to 64, clearing the most significant hurdle [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 8:46am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • About those jobs...

    Number of comments: 0
    Mark Warner finds work as a comic foil in this Daily Show clip...not because he's a radical centrist, former business guy who's all concerned about bending cost curves and more transparency...but because he's just another money-grabbing pol: The Daily Show With Jon StewartMon - Thurs 11p / 10cAmerican Idlewww.thedailyshow.comDaily Show Full [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 8:39am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Taking up sides on the car tax

    Number of comments: 3
    Bob Holsworth doesn't see the "upside" of Tim Kaine restoring the car tax, and certainly, the GOP is dead-set against the idea. But my sources speculate that the Governor fully intends to restore the car tax under the rationale that it's fiscally prudent for the state to do so as' [...]
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    Posted: December 09, 2009, 8:15am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • The stimulus at work

    Number of comments: 0
    Senators Tom Coburn and John McCain have compiled a stimulus checkup that looks at 100 dubious projects upon which (borrowed) federal stimulus dollars have or will be spent. It's a sad list. But there are moments of genuine humor. For example, take this study:Researchers at the State University of New [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 7:00pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Dear Tim...Please Leave the Car Tax Alone

    Number of comments: 0
    Bob McDonnell makes something of a plea to outgoing Gov. Tim Kaine not to inject tax hikes into the budget...including reviving the car tax:A tax increase, he said, is not on the table, and he said he has requested that Kaine not include one in the budget he will submit [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 4:44pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Kaine's farewell gift

    Number of comments: 1
    There's a lot of speculation on just what sort of parting gifts Gov. Kaine will leave for lawmakers and Bob McDonnell in the state budget. The idea that the car tax might return has been floating out there for a while, and we already know the Governor wants to eliminate [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 4:01pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Maybe we should just stop exhaling

    Number of comments: 2
    The EPA has issued a ruling that carbon dioxide -- the odorless, colorless gas you create every time you exhale -- is a threat to creation, civilization and more. But the ruling could also be a useful tool for getting cap and trade out of the Senate:This reckless "endangerment finding" [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 8:33am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Virginia's charter school law gets an "F"

    Number of comments: 1
    The ranking hasn't changed, really, but given Bob McDonnell's embrace of charter schools, exposing the weakness of the existing charter law shows just how far behind the curve Virginia is:Charter school proponents say one of the reasons for Virginia's small number -- the new report says Washington D.C. has 100' [...]
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    Posted: December 08, 2009, 8:08am EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • "Twas the Night Before Session"

    Number of comments: 0
    Barnie Day gives Virginia's political scene the Clement Moore treatment. Snip:Twas the night before Session, and all through the HouseDemocrats were as nervous as the most timid mouse.The R stockings were hung by the dais with careAll knew the lobbyists soon would be there.Mere minions were in hiding, under their [...]
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    Posted: December 07, 2009, 4:22pm EST
    by Norman Leahy

  • Ethanol producers demand bigger mandates

    Number of comments: 1
    The governors of ethanol producing states want the federal government to increase the amount of the product in gasoline sooner rather than later. Currently, the feds mandate a 10 percent ethanol blend. The governors want to raise that to 15 or 20 percent right away. It's all for jobs/energy independence/mom [...]
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    Posted: December 07, 2009, 3:52pm EST
    by Norman Leahy
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