Bacon's Rebellion

Cooking with Steve ‘Bisquick’ Baril

—

by

James A. Bacon
in

Why does an Attorney General candidate have a plan for transportation?

Move on over Betty Crocker! … Because the special interests contributions are flowing like hot gravy over this pork barreled Attorney General candidate. AG candidate Steve ‘Bisquick’ Baril is promising more road funding than any other politician at the General Assembly’s Store! Yes siree Bob McDonnell, it’s time to wake up! Because Steve ‘Bisquick’ Baril is trying to match your campaign — dollar for dollar with his promised mega-road recipe for higher taxing disasters! Wondering what’s for dinner tonight?

MARSHALL PLAN MENU: Hampton Roads Traffic-Spam cakes [Bisquick Baril and Special Interests Spam – Now there’s a flavor combination]; Outer-Washington beltway pork-barreled tenderloin; Foot long-hotdog served Western Corridor style; I-81 Starsolution-sauce and ‘Hot Tolls’; Rt. 29 Bypass-mashed rural Countryside potatoes; And for dessert, VDOT-Bureaucratic pie alamode.

Yum-yum! And there’s something for every lobbyist’s appetite on Steve “Bisquick’ Baril’s table tonight. Best of all! There’s NO charge for Virginia’s Highway builders, Land Developers, Real Estate Brokers, Construction companies and lifelong government burueacrats… Because Virginia’s taxpayers will ultimately pay your ‘meal ticket’ with more roads + more funding, which = higher taxes.

In a recent campaign email, Steve ‘Bisquick’ Baril said, “The only way to solve Virginia’s transportation problem is with a sustained 10-year commitment of $1 billion per year.”

Yes, I see the tax dough rising! Bisquick Baril Is Creating Special Interest FAVORITES with higher taxes on the road horizon!

Happy Trails ~ the blue dog

Stay tune next week for Blue Dog lesson on Democratic “Deeds, Wills and the Virginia’s Death Tax”

Share this article

ADVERTISEMENT

(comments below)

Comments

Comments

  1. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    I hope you include the fact that Mark Warner TRIED to roll back the estate tax in 2004.

  2. Will Vehrs Avatar
    Will Vehrs

    Maybe Baril is on to something.

    Since candidates long ago convinced the public that the AG job is “top cop,” not head of a law firm with a peculiar clientele, and the AG almost always runs for governor, he’s just fast forwarding and starting on his 2009 gubernatorial platform now.

    It will take John Behan’s 2009 AG campaign to truly inform the public about the job.

  3. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    Paul — I thought Warner veto the repeal of the Death Tax?

  4. Lori Avatar
    Lori

    What Warner quite wisely tried to do was raise the exemption level for the estate tax. I cannot believe that you supposed “tax experts” missed this one! Warner tried to raise the exemption to $10,000,000 for any estate and was willing to extend the exemption for any small family owned farm or small business even furthur. What this meant is quite simple… Only the estate that was valued over $10,000,000 would have been taxed. And then only if it didn’t involve a small business or family farm… How much more small business or farm friendly could Governor Warner possibly be? Under this system only Michael Jackson’s children would be required to pay inheritance tax. Do Republicans support Michael Jackson over working families in Virginia? It would seem so…

  5. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    yeah he didn’t try to get rid of it. but he tried to cap it at 10 million.

  6. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    Nice try with the Democratic spin, but that dog don’t hunt.

    In the Central Shenandoah Valley, a 60-100 acres with utility buildings and house is valued at 3-5 million. That’s a small farm in rural Virginia. If you add poultry houses or a dairy operation — I say additional 5-15 million. Same for acreage and equipment and vehicles.

    That’s the cost negative aspects of farming.

    Northern Virginia family farms are probably worth a nice dime, but most VA farmers are land rich and cash poor.

    Trouble is, Virginia Democrats have never really understood the family farm issues, but fully understand the liberal political rhetoric of pitting the rich against the poor.

    I suggest you do the homework before you post another blog about the estate tax — and burn the Michael Jackson CD collection.

    ~ the blue dog 😉

  7. bill d. Avatar
    bill d.

    Yet once again Mr. Sisson shows clearly that he either doesn’t know what he’s talking about or is simply repeating what his uber right masters tell him to bark out.

    If Mr. Sisson has the money to put where his mouth always seems to be, there are probably 600 farmers who would love to sell him 60-100 acre farms in Rockingham County for his price of three to five million dollars. Point of reference would be the “farm” where Harrisonburg built the new high school. Wasn’t that purchased for around 1.2 million? Right on the edge of the city, across the street from a golf course, and in a prime development area-if any land would have brought a premium price, this would. No three to five million dollars though.

    I know many poultry and dairy farmers who would sell their operation to Steve on Sunday if he could somehow pay “5-15 million” dollars.

    See, the point is, he can’t-talk is cheap, which is why he is so free with his verbiage.

    Get some data blue dog, prove me wrong with fact. Your sarcastic demand that others “do their homework” is so far beyond hypocrisy as to be ridiculous.

    Oh, and by the way, if you can somehow come up with three million dollars to buy a farm, I’ve got one I’d be happy to sell you-complete with all the things you said would value at 5-15. What a deal!

    Living beside your in-law’s farm doesn’t make you knowledgeable.

    Now, go back in the crate-bad dog!

    Marge, get some paper towel, the dog’s made another pile on the carpet.

  8. Chris Avatar
    Chris

    Hmmmm.

    Jackson lives in a fantasy world, on a “ranch” called Neverland which includes an amusement park and a zoo with rare and exotic animals. Could this be where one would find blue dogs?

    This is just my opinion but, it looks like someone is trying to butter up with the Grover Norquist folks to challenge Hanger within the republican party for the nomination in two years.

    Maybe a new name could be “Transparent Dog?”

  9. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    I prefer the most famous kind of dog, a bitch.

  10. Jim Bacon Avatar
    Jim Bacon

    Tut, tut, gentlemen, I sense that the tone of the commentary is getting increasingly personal. We welcome everyone’s participation in Bacon’s Rebellion, and we hold no opinions sancrosanct. However, we do strive to maintain a collegial atmosphere. Our Blogging philosophy: Criticize the opinion, not the person.

    Thanks,
    Jim Bacon
    Publisher

  11. Anonymous Avatar
    Anonymous

    Thank you Mr. Bacon for pulling the discussion back on track. I wish more blog editors were as on the ball.

    Now, back to the discussion:

    Doing the math on Sisson’s claim regarding a 60 to 100 acre farm with nothing but a few outbuildings shows much.

    For 60 acres to bring three to five million dollars the purchaser would have to be willing to pay $50,000 per acre for $3,000,000.
    To cost $5,000,000 the land would have to sell for $83,333 per acre.

    Same math for 100 acres:
    One must pay $30,000 per acre for $3,000,000 and $50,000 for $5,000,000.

    The only land that has even come close to these values locally is the land being purchased for the hospital just east of Harrisonburg.

    For Mr. Sisson (written respectfully) to claim this kind of value for farm land is absurd.

    I don’t know his background but it obviously isn’t law or accounting and he really shouldn’t be writing like he is an authority on such issues.

  12. pat Avatar
    pat

    does sisson support anything? he’s against traffic and against doing anything about it.
    he’s against tolls or taxes or roads or not roads.
    he rants against government involvement yet wants government involved.
    he claims to be democrat and rails against democrats. even endorsed bush if memory serves.
    thinks he is funny and clever.
    emphasis on “thinks”

  13. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    The Blue Dog supports: Leaner government and lower taxes.

    On the other hand, Yellow Dog Democrats support larger government and higher taxes.

    As for your ‘potty’ language concerning the Blue Dog, I suggest you go to the corner and think about it.

    Now it’s back to more Blue Dog napping on a lazy Sunday afternoon … zzzz

  14. Tom Avatar
    Tom

    Hey Blue Dog:

    Have you no answer to the land value issue? Or are you like all the other far right claim makers? When faced with a fact based debunking of your stand you just pretend not to notice?

  15. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    How much was Old McDonald’s farm worth? I heard that on that farm he had some goats.

  16. Waldo Jaquith Avatar
    Waldo Jaquith

    I want to know what fool owns an $8M-$20M estate and doesn’t buy life insurance for the value of the estate tax.

    I might have only taken a single semester of Agricultural Law at Virginia Tech this year, but the one thing that I learned is that only the most cotton-headed of all farmers could ever be affected by the Virginia estate tax. I tried to make the math work — my whole class full of young anti-“Death Tax” Republicans learning how to manage their family farm tried to make the math work — and we just couldn’t figure out how a rational person could screw up the accounting on a hypothetical farm bad enough that any estate tax would have to be paid.

    As a bonus exercise, some of us tried to track down any Virginia farmer who had ever been nailed by the estate tax. We never did manage it.

  17. Nelson Avatar
    Nelson

    Yes Waldo Jaquith, you have discovered in college what many of us already know, because we’re living it…

    The Farm Bureau Federation, which will support Matt Lohr in the 26th—he was the president who they bestowed a new dodge truck upon after all—acts like it actually cares about family farms while supporting policies and measures that benefit the ultra wealthy and corporate at the expense of people who actually try to pay for their children’s education with farm income.

    Why did your class not find a farmer who had to deal with estate tax? ‘Cause they don’t exist! Just as Blue Dogs don’t exist in McGaheysville.

    I’ve been through the loss of my parents and the resultant valuation of an estate and Sisson doesn’t know the first thing about the whole situation.
    I’ve watched both Fulk and Lohr grow up, and I can tell you that there is a world of difference between these two young men. Fulk will bust his behind to get the work done, and Lohr will bust his to get in front of a camera.
    I don’t even know if the Lohr boy has ever even been dirty. I’ve seen Fulk overhauling diesel engines and loading manure and filling silo. I’ve also observed Fulk being both a father and a son. One man is a farmer, and the other one just lives on a farm. One hell of a difference!
    I don’t know however if I would wish politics on Fulk, he’s too good of a man. Lohr just fits in with the other politicians.

  18. Steven Avatar
    Steven

    Waldo’s right — The estate insurance is a good idea, but the blog post is about VA transportation and Steve Baril’s proposal.

    Tom — In the coming weeks, I promise to draft a column about the Estate tax and the candidates stands on the issues, but I’m not going to debate my stand on the issue. I’m not running for office. And somewhere in-between here and there … the Steve Baril blog post morphed into a personal attack on the Blue Dog — and on a very personal level to include his family.

    For those ‘jellyfish’ anonymous bloggers … who said this, said that …

    Perhaps you (Valley Democratic) anonymous bloggers ought to look in the mirror once in a while. Because I’m surprised you can survive without a backbone to support your pompous backsides. You’re gutless as well.

    If you’re so bold, please email the Blue Dog at [email protected]

    ~ the blue dog

  19. Paul Avatar
    Paul

    Yes, but if Old McDonald passed his small farm down to Young McDonald, would he have to pay estate tax? That’s the question, Blue Dog.

    E I E I O.

  20. Mike Avatar
    Mike

    Whining Dog won’t answer you Paul. He has no answer… Old McDonald would have to have a farm worth more than $3,000,000 for McDonald Jr. to have to pay any estate tax at all, no matter how many goats… Few if any farms in the Shenandoah Valley are anywhere close to that value. If there are, let Baby Huey Dog tell us who they are.
    Oh and by the way, there were no attacks on the whimpering dog’s family at all. Just his puppy imagination I suppose.
    How ironic and hypocritical to be the most attack prone dog in the kennel only to then yipe about someone smacking the pup with a newspaper for messing on the floor.
    And Blue Dog… You do need to justify your rant bark. You will have this discussion. If you stake a position, you damned well should be able to defend and justify it. You attack everyone else without mercy or grace. If you can’t take it, of defend what you say, then shut the hell up. I’m taking donations for the neutering fee………..

  21. Geoff Johnston Avatar
    Geoff Johnston

    Although I understand that the original intent of this “blog” was a discussion regarding Steve Baril’s grand transportation plans, I will limit my comment to the “Death Tax” issue so vehemently espoused by so many entitlement-driven people.
    What difference does the price of and acre, out-building, cock, or cow make to the root issue being bantered about tertiarily here? The issue that Mr. Sissons is trying to make, I am sure, is that the Death Tax itself is Dead Wrong! I am sure that there will be grand mudslinging as a result of this post, but by the time a person passes from this life, haven’t they paid enough of their hard-earned money to support the designs of ignorance, greed, mismanagement, and gross stupidity? Where and when did the idea that the government in any form has a right, or even an obligation, to partake of the spoils from a life time of post-tax leftovers, come to be an expectation, much less a campaign promise? Shame on all of the self-righteous who believe it unfair that the kid down the street got a cooler bike for Christmas, to the point that the cool bike is taken away and dispersed throughout the neighborhood!

Leave a Reply

ADVERTISEMENT