Another major bill had a less thrilling outcome today, setting the stage for a showdown in Senate Finance Wednesday. The Senate Courts of Justice Committee referred HB 652, the property rights bill, to the Senate Finance Committee on a 15-0 vote. It will be heard there Wednesday morning.
Here’s what we do know: Big government forces continue to lobby against it and pressure senators (see video here). Their lobbyists have been in every committee room HB 652 has been heard in, waiting to ounce. In fact, the lobbyist for the Virginia Association of Counties and the Virginia Municipal League, begged Committee Chairman Henry Marsh (D-16, Richmond) to let him and other opponents to speak today. Senator marsh told him to save it for Finance.
In the meantime, do your part to protect property rights. Contact members of the Senate Finance Committee and ask them to pass HB 652 Wednesday morning.
I’ve been working for The Family Foundation for over a decade and thought I’d seen it all, but this morning’s display by several members of the Senate Finance Committee while debating a school choice bill went far beyond anything I’ve ever seen.
Delegate Jimmie Massie (R-78, Henrico) presented HB 599, a bill that would provide a tax credit for donations to private school scholarship programs. After several organizations, including The Family Foundation, the Virginia Catholic Conference, a private schools association and a Richmond Jewish school, spoke in support of the bill, the committee took over. From there, the normal decorum of the Senate vanished into a cloud of pure anger.
The hostility of several Democrat members of the Finance Committee to parents and education freedom went on full display. I cannot with words adequately describe what then took place. But you don’t have to take my word for it — we have the entire shameful sequence on video (see our YouTube channel as well)! Here is the entire committee hearing in its entirety:
Part 1, Delegate Massie’s Presentation:
Common sense stuff from Delegate Massie and a host of expert witnesses.
Part 2, Supporting Statements Continue:
An eloquent, passionate, personal and intellectual presentation by Chesapeake resident Alberta Wilson.
Part 3, Finance Staff — No Fiscal Impact And The Outrage Begins:
Senator Howell should know the answer before she calls the witness!
Part 4, More Race Cards, Conclusion and Vote:
Senator Miller: This bill is akin to “selling people” but she’d still vote for it once public schools are fully funded!
In addition to all of this, Senator Henry Marsh (D-16, Richmond) criticized the bill without reading it: He accused the bill of subsidizing parents who send their children to private schools, but the bill plainly states the student must currently be enrolled in public schools to be eligible for the scholarships! I urge you to take the time to watch these short videos. I know you will be as dismayed as I was sitting there watching.
In a nutshell, opponents to the bill implied over and over that efforts to provide education freedom for low and moderate-income families is racially motivated. Without actually making the claim it was clear what they were saying. The harsh tone and rhetoric on display was simply appalling. Perhaps most disappointing is the fact that the children who are suffering most from poor government schools are African-American children in urban areas. It is private schools in those areas that offer true hope for children who otherwise have little chance at success. In fact, one of the most compelling testimonies in favor of the bill came from an African-American woman, Alberta Wilson, a champion of school choice!
Question: Do Senators Colgan, Reynolds and Houck, who also voted to kill the bill, agree with their Democrat colleagues’ assessment that school choice is essentially racist?
This morning’s antics are emblematic of the philosophical divide between the political class in Richmond and families. But the anger displayed also is indicative that these legislators are beginning to feel the heat! Just two years ago, school choice bills didn’t even register a procedural motion in Senate Finance. Today, they generate heated responses.
I’ll say it again as I’ve said before — school choice is coming to Virginia! It might not be this year, it might not be next year, but it is coming. Families are demanding it. Watch the video so that you can see exactly whom it is that stands in the way of freedom.
Session hasn’t started yet and already we have a Quote of the Day. However, it comes as no surprise as today is the second Tuesday of the month which means it’s Tuesday Morning Group Coalition meeting day. TMG President and dear friend John Taylor supplies it, and it wins not only for its self-deprecating humor, but because it mentions . . . us!
Years ago the Family Foundation sponsored a conference on education. … They asked me to moderate a panel — mainly because they didn’t want me to speak!
Where once George Wallace stood in the schoolhouse doorway to keep black kids out, some politicians (like Marsh) were now standing in the doorway to keep them from leaving.
Obamanomics Claims Victim — The ACLU’s Largest Donor
Governor Tim Kaine’s expansion of state employee health insurance benefits to same-sex and other unmarried couples and announcements by Governor-elect Bob McDonnell dominate the news. Family Foundation President Victoria Cobb is quoted in the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot article on the former. As for McDonnell, he reiterated vows to balance the budget as well as to reject tax increases. He also named two cabinet secretaries: Bob Sledd, former head Performance Food Group CEO, a Fortune 500 company before taken private, will be Secretary of Commerce; and long time McDonnell aide Janet Polarek will be Secretary of the Commonwealth. He also fulfilled a campaign promise by formally announcing that Lt. Governor Bill Bolling will head up all job creation efforts. If you thought he couldn’t attend certain meetings before. …
Meanwhile, U.S. Senator Jim Webb (contact) says he’s not yet decided on how he will vote on health care “reform” (although thousands have asked him to vote ”no”). The Tea Party movement has a message for Republican first district U.S. Rep. Rob Whittman. Nationally, the Washington Post has a feature on the Tea Party movement and whether it will split the GOP. Surely, wishful, but not of the question, thinking. But liberals are not without their divisions, either: The ACLU’s top donor (to the tune of $19 million a year), David Gelbaum, has stopped cold his donations to that organization, as well as to the Sierra Club and other liberal groups. Guess Obamanomics affects rich liberals, too.
The four day Thanksgiving break is universally good for everyone. With so many events converging in November, it’s good to hit the breaks, take a rest, then gear up for the non-stop onslaught that is December (Christmas season and preparing for the General Assembly) and January and February (which is all General Assembly all the time).
One wouldn’t think there’d be much news over the break, but there is. The Richmond Times-Dispatch profiles Attorney General-elect Ken Cuccinelli, who is ready and eager for his new job (to the horrors of liberals). Virginia’s financial woes continue to make news as the commonwealth borrows more to meet its unemployment insurance obligations, but it may just yet reap a windfall (see the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot and Washington Post, respectively). Speaking of the GA, ethics reform will be big this year, per The Daily Press. Speaking of ethics, the State Board of Elections is demanding some answers this week from a group that wanted to mail you information about your neighbors voting habits. Only certain people can obtain Voter Vault lists, such as elected officials, so the supplier (or willing supplier) to the Know Campaign is a case for the curious. The Virginian-Pilot has the details. In some good news, because we believe the more people can understand that the Founding Fathers intended America as a land of limited government and religious liberty, it’s now easier than ever to read their words as they wrote them (see the T-D).
Nationally, more fallout from the leaked e-mails documenting the “global warming” hoax, the GOP looks for more orthodoxy, a boycott of Gap and Old Navy ends, a Hollywood superstar calls President Obama a “socialist,” while said POTUS leaves out God in his Thanksgiving proclamation. Finally, speaking of Hollywood, the latest “feel good movie of the year,” Blind Side, has some troubling aspects about public education and government influence on families that shouldn’t go unnoticed, as writes Star Parker. Whoa! Told you it’s full steam ahead. Hope the break got you ready for what’s coming at us.
The Return Of The Editorial Comic/Twisted Tax Logic
When a friend sent me a comic today today, I thought it would make a good addition to the blog. Then I remembered that I used to provide a link to one or more editorial comics each week. So, enjoy. You don’t even have to click a link to get to it.
The big news in the campaign today is Democrat Creigh Deeds’ continuing saga of twisted tax logic. He put up a television ad, then pulled it because he realized it didn’t make much sense for Mark Warner to talk about Deeds lowering taxes yet continuing his (Warner’s) policies (which raised them considerably). Yes, not too clear (see here).
Nationally, the Supreme Court will hear a case about Crosses in the Mojave desert. In Commentary, we have the excellent Thomas Sowell writing on the Obama administration’s reputed brilliance, Bobby Eberle about the same’s indoctrination of our children, and Bart Hinkle about property rights (or, the government trying to take them away). But, in what may be the most entertaining piece today, aside from the comic, is an article from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot about socialists — who say they are misunderstood. Let them talk to the Obama administration.
Then, McDonnell was selected by House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) to give the Republican response to President Barack Obama’s weekly radio/Internet address. In it, McDonnell puts some realism into the hype of yesterday’s unemployment report (the rate went down, but 240,000 more jobs were lost) and spoke plainly and practically about the dangers of government takeovers of the energy (so-called “cap-and-trade”) and health care industries, as well as enabling union dominance at the expense of employee freedom (”card check”); and a how dynamic society free of unnecessary government regulation and litigation can create a prosperous economy.
Bob McDonnell points to positive policies that unleash freedom and creativity; “cap-and-trade” would put 1,500 Virginians out of work at the MeadWestvaco Plant in Covington.
In the queue today is the governor. According to the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, he’s grading himself on handling the disastrous budget problems, kind of like how some candidates this past spring, during the nominating contests, issued news releases quoting themselves as winning debates. Brilliant. But isn’t Governor Kaine grading himself on the budget something akin to a guy causing a car wreck taking credit for saving his victim’s life? Just asking.
Also re: the governor: The Washington Post’s look at his unique position during the campaign — “not on the ballot, but on the spot.” Clever word play, but no matter how you phrase it, at least as of now, the campaign is a referendum on Virginia and national Democrats who, again according to the Post, still are running against former President George W. Bush. I thought the Dems were the party of the future. Speaking of blame, the policy party also is trying to make something said by Virginia GOP Chairman Pat Mullins into something it’s not. Where have we heard something similar? Oh, yeah, yesterday.
In our Commentary section, liberal Richard Cohen decries the “hate crimes bill,” with very good sense. The always brilliant Thomas Sowell takes apart socialism and the equally brilliant Walter Williams explains liberty. For his part, David Limbaugh demonstrates that as much as Barack Obama is spending and printing money at our expense (and borrowed Chinese money, too), one thing he can’t afford is the truth on “health care reform” —and most Americans wouldn’t buy (if we had the money) what he’s selling anyway.
Today, we learned that this organization is making threats in Virginia. The Norfolk Virginian-Pilot reported earlier this week that this organization of self-proclaimed “atheists and agnostics” threatened the city of Chesapeake with legal action should it continue to open its city council meetings in prayer. As usual, it has misrepresented case law in making its threat — in particular, the Fourth Circuit Court’s infamous Fredericksburg decision (see its long-winded news release).
When we heard about the case this morning, we immediately contacted our friends at the Alliance Defense Fund. ADF already is at work on a letter and model policy for the city council so that it will be able to fight back against the threatened lawsuit. We hope to have the letter and model policy to the city council and mayor today or tomorrow.
A few years ago, The Family Foundation partnered with ADF to send model prayer policies to every local government body in Virginia so that they would be aware of what the courts deem as appropriate prayers at government meetings. There are very specific guidelines for governing bodies to follow in their prayer policies — and none require so-called “non-sectarian” prayers as suggested by Freedom From Religion.
We will stay on top of this and keep you posted on this case. We will work to inform the Chesapeake City Council of its rights and fight this, and all threats, to religious liberty in the commonwealth.
