According to Virginia’s wishy-washy conservative governor,
Bob McDonnell, “There are certain incentives that do work to bring jobs to
Virginia and to be able to provide new opportunities for the citizens of Virginia,
and I think that’s a legitimate role for government.”[1]
By jobs, the governor obviously doesn’t count unionized jobs as actual jobs![2]
The comments came Thursday on the heels of a push by
McDonnell, to the tune of a $4 million grant extended to the Washington
Redskins football team, to retain the football team’s HQ in Loudoun County.
McDonnell noted that “If we had not acted, and $9.8 million
of tax revenue had walked out the door to another jurisdiction, I’m sure that
many citizens would have been concerned…”[3]
Maybe McDonnell is right, but the real concern is with so
many of the Republican Party establishment handing out millions (in the case of
Big Oil, billions[4])
of dollars in subsidies to individuals and groups who are least in need of
them.
This is one of our country’s biggest forms of irony: while
the GOP denounces the Democratic Party’s efforts to “lift up” America’s less
privileged classes[5],
the GOP is perfectly comfortable helping the rich get richer, all at the
expense of the less privileged in our society.
This corporate welfare practiced by the GOP, and most
recently by Gov. Bob McDonnell, again attests to the idea, implicit and
sometimes explicit, among the Republican Party brass that those who “make it” (i.e.
get rich) are somehow smarter, more willful, more talented, more blessed, or
more deserving of their good fortune. Is this really so? Is the mill worker,
soldier, or the truck driver any less deserving of a financial break?
So while McDonnell wants to subsidize the Redskins to stay
put, doling out funds for important projects like the Metro Silver Line receive
a lick and a promise.[6]
Doesn’t make much sense, does it?
Besides, one lesson that the Redskins should have taught
everyone by now is that throwing money at a problem won’t solve it![7]
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