Patrick McSweeney


 

Let's Have a Televised Debate

We can't trust the media to fairly characterize the transportation debate. The best alternative may be a three-way debate between the major contenders.


 

There has been far too much political posturing about the state’s budget impasse. If Gov. Timothy M. Kaine and our state legislators are genuinely concerned about a government shutdown, they can act immediately on legislation continuing the budget of the current biennium until a new budget for 2006-2008 is enacted. The state budget — and, indeed, the security of all Virginians — should not be held hostage to the ongoing fight over transportation funding.

 

To put an end to the haggling over a transportation plan, we could have a three-way television debate so that Virginians can see for themselves, rather than through the distorting lens of the news media, what the respective positions of Kaine, the Senate and the House actually are. Those positions have been lost in the almost daily reporting about who left the bargaining table and who is more serious about reaching agreement on a new state budget.

 

There is a decided slant to some of the reporting of these budget negotiations. Some reporters parrot the accusations of Senate conferees that the House conferees are playing games. The larger problem, however, is the statist bias among some in the news media.

 

Most reporters and commentators would reject the label “statist,” but their writings betray them. They often begin with the value-laden judgment that we need another major tax for transportation simply because we haven’t had one since 1986. They operate with the unarticulated assumption that only another tax will solve our traffic problems. They equate a tax increase with an actual transportation policy. They utterly ignore the failure of the 1986 tax increase to curb traffic problems, as measured by the very standard set at the time by its proponents.

 

The editorial commentary on this subject generally reflects an even deeper pro-government bias. Most political commentators reflexively propose a new government program or a new tax for every problem, not just the traffic problem. They distrust private entrepreneurs and disdain profit motivation. They favor government planning over the operation of free markets. They lack faith in voluntary solutions and voluntary institutions. They strain to find potential weaknesses in innovative proposals that involve greater private participation in transportation, while overlooking the shortcomings of government programs.

 

Whether the leading figures in the present budget fight share the media’s pro-government, anti-private bias should become clear in a television debate. They would have to explain whether transportation taxes must be periodically increased until there is nothing left to tax. The viewing audience would be able to gauge whether these leaders have considered any solution other than raising taxes.

 

The historical record on transportation is clear and unmistakable, even though the media refuse to address it. Unmet transportation needs continue to increase far beyond existing revenue sources despite tax increases in 1983 and 1986. That widening gap was acknowledged shortly after both of those tax hikes were enacted. The same gap-widening will occur again if more money is simply poured into the old transportation approach as a result of another tax hike.

 

Yet, the media, Senate Finance Chairman John Chichester, R-Northumberland, and Kaine insist that we should mindlessly repeat past mistakes by enacting a massive, new tax increase for transportation to assure a “long-term, reliable source of funding for transportation.”

 

It would be more akin to a drug fix, which is temporary and usually requires an even higher dosage the next time to get the same high. The public is quite capable of deciding for itself whether more of the same or a new approach is needed. That’s why the idea of an open, live, televised debate shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.

 

– June 12, 2006

 

 

 
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Contact Information

 

McSweeney & Crump

11 South Twelfth Street
Richmond, VA 23219
(804) 783-6802

pmcsweeney[at]

   mcbump.com

 

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