LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR BOLLING’S TOWN HALL IDEARAISERS

I attended Lt Gov Bill Bolling‘s Idearaiser this afternoon at George Mason University’s Prince William Campus (for background, see here). Here is a report.

Introduction

Bolling has not made it any secret that he intends to run for governor, and his idearaisers obviously serve to advance his campaign. Nonetheless, the forums he has created with his idearaiser do provide a positive venue for a worthwhile discussion of public policy issues itself. About 30 – 40 people showed up, and everybody definitely seemed to find the event worth their time.

Any good meeting has to start off with a joke. After he was introduced, Bolling told a joke. Here is the joke Bolling used as his opening.

Whenever he is introduced, Bolling said he never quite knows what to expect. Some introductions are short and some not so short. Some are eloquent and some are not. Nonetheless, Bolling said each introduction brings to mind how Senator Chancy Depew once introduced President William Taft. The story went like this.

Senator Depew had a reputation for giving long speeches. His introduction of President Taft was no exception. Finally, after 40 minutes, his speech neared its end, and Depew decided to add a little humor at the President’s expense. President Taft was a large man; with his great belly, he weighted in at 315 pounds (Here Bolling had to admit he is a bit rotund himself — although not quite in Taft’s class.). So as Taft came to the podium, Depew closed with a double entendre, “Our president is pregnant with ideas.”

When Taft reached the podium, he quickly executed his revenge. “Thank you Senator Depew. Let me assure you, ladies and gentlemen,” he said as he rubbed his stomach, “that if it is a girl, we will call her Theodora. If it is a boy, we will call him Theodore. But, if, as I suspect, it is simply gas, we will call it Chauncey Depew.”

Bolling then got into the meat of a short speech that emphasized Virginia’s prosperity and the fact the state is well run. First, he invited folks to come visit their Capitol in Richmond. In just the last couple of months, the state has completed $104 million in improvements. So they should come see what their money purchased. In addition, the state has spent about $25 million in Jamestown celebrating its 400th anniversary. So we should visit Jamestown and enjoy the improvements. Finally, Bolling spoke about Virginia’s ranking by Forbes Magazine as the best state to do business (here), and he mentioned PEW Center study that ranked Virginia the best place to raise a child (here).

Nonetheless, Virginia does have problems to solve, and that is why Bolling is organizing idearaisers and set up his website - www.100IdeasVA.com. Here are a few examples:

• Medicaid is broken, and the cost doubles every eight years.
• The gang problem problem is growing. This includes the participation of illegal aliens; 20 percent of the people in jail are illegal aliens.
• Our transportation system is breaking down.
• The public education system is having trouble keeping up with foreign competitors.

Question and Answer; Discussion

Undoubtedly, everyone at this meeting wanted to hear what Bolling had to say; he had no trouble getting people’s attention. Nonetheless, many of the folks there also wanted to bend the Lt Gov ear.

Illegal Immigration

The questions started off with the issue of illegal immigration. The first question wanted to know what the state could do. She was concerned that the Dillon Rule (Virginia is a Dillon Rule state.) would limit the effectiveness of the Prince William Board of County Supervisor’s (BOCS) resolution against illegal immigration (See here for the resolution.). Bolling said he had read the resolution, and he did not believe the Dillon Rule posed a problem. However, he did think the state has a role in controlling illegal immigration. He urged people to read the guest column (here) he wrote for the Richmond Times Dispatch.

Energy Issues

Next two different individuals brought up the subject of the 500 kV power line Dominion Virginia Power wants to run through Prince William County (background here). One person spoke about energy conservation as an alternative to the power line, and the second mentioned the lack of market competition. Bolling responded by mentioning nuclear power as an alternative and the possibility of incentivizing energy conservation and alternative energy sources. In particular, Bolling mentioned the possibility of encouraging ethanol production in Virginia.

Transportation

With respect to the transportation bill just passed by the General Assembly in it last session (HB3202). Bolling expressed some disgust and some understanding. Bolling clearly did not like this bill, but he noted that the General Assembly was at an impasse. Given the alternative of doing nothing, the General Assembly passed HB3202. Candidate Bob FitzSimmonds noted a particularly defective feature in HB3202. By breaking the state in to separate tax regions, the bill balkanizes Virginia. This is especially bad for some businesses. For example, Northern Virginia’s special tax on auto repairs will encourage people to go out of Northern Virginia for auto repairs.

To provide funding for transportation, Bolling advocates a different approach, set aside 10 percent of each year’s budget growth to transportation. He said that in the last decade the state budget had doubled, but the leadership had not been discipline enough to fund transportation needs.

Education

Here Bolling continued his theme on budget discipline. Over the last decade, whereas the student population had increased only 30 percent, the education budget had increased 90 percent. The problem is budget priorities. Virginia spends 40 percent of the education budget on central office personnel and only 60 percent on the classroom.

Restraint

Bolling spoke about the lack of government restraint. We are drifting towards socialism, and we have to fight this trend. Unfortunately, Bolling did not suggest how we might move back from socialism to limited government.

Citizen Tom’s Analysis

Lt Gov Bill Bolling has a good record as a moderate conservative. Some would say Bolling is a reliable conservative. Nonetheless, Bolling has the typical streak of pragmatic realism one tends to find in almost every politician. The public has come to expect politicians to solve problems, and, quite pragmatically, Bolling has accepted that role. Such pragmatism is the basis for the growth of government.

At one time, people were content when the government largely existed just to provide order by stopping people from interfering with each other rights. However, the existence of certain natural monopolies, such as the public road system, required the government to take a more active role in the economy. Over time this government role has expanded. Not content with a limited role in “problem solving”, politicians, for the benefit of the special interest groups that offer to support them, promise to take on problems where their assistance is not needed. Thus we now have a huge government and social welfare programs that started their mad growth during administration of President Franklin D. Roosevelt.

Bolling obviously understand the dangers of this socialist trend. Unfortunately, he did not project a philosophy designed to combat socialism. Instead, he speculated on the possibilities of incentivizing alternative energy sources. Arrhhhhg!

Such pragmatic realism undermines the conservative cause. Unless we believe we can win, unless we clearly define conservative principles and fight for them, we cannot win. Consider this example. After the end of the formal session, I spoke with a conservative activist and a representative of the Chamber of Commerce. We discussed the Chamber of Commerce’s support of taxation authority for the Northern Virginia Transportation Authority (NVTA). I pointed out that the NVTA could not provide a regional solution. The very people advocating this taxation authority for the NVTA, business people, would pull any regional plan apart with their own special interest grabs. Both the Chamber of Commerce representative and the conservative activist easily understood the problem. Any business person understands the difference between socialism and market economics; however, Chamber of Commerce representative still defended backing NVTA taxation authority as “the only realistic solution”.

That is the danger of pragmatic realism. Even when it violates our principles, because it is “the only realistic solution”, we adopt a solution we know is wrong. When we do this, we get the solution we deserve. Sometimes, rather than sacrifice our principles, it is better to fight and lose. At least our principles will survive to fight another day.

When we hang the capitalists they will sell us the rope. — Joseph Stalin (ref)