The House of No

In recent years, the GOP dominated Virginia House of Delegates has simply abdicated its responsibility to address the Commonwealth’s ever growing transportation needs (among other things) and the just adjourned special session proved no different. Traffic problems in Northern Virginia and Hampton Roads are fast approaching gridlock, endangering economic growth for both areas and yet the Republicans’ anti-tax ideology has continually trumped finding practical, reliable sources of revenue that can fund our transportation needs. And the really stupid thing about all of this is that everyone agrees on two key facts; that there are several projects that must be done and that delays make those projects more expensive. We are simply putting off the inevitable and making it more costly to boot. Pure idiocy.

Look, it is hard to object to a 6 cent per gallon tax increase on gasoline when that cost is compared to the expense of burning fuel while sitting in congestion. It is high time that the citizens of Virginia reject the House’s pennywise and pound foolish obstructionism and send to Richmond rational, forward thinking delegates willing to say something other than no.