The fault lines exposed by Virgil Goode’s mystifying vote in the House last week against the GI Bill, a bill that he co-sponsored, presages a deeper problem for him and other down-ticket Republicans this Fall.
It is the inherent contradictions of the mess that the Conservative movement has become as a result of the failures and corruptions of the Bush presidency.
Despite the cleaves exposed by the Democratic primaries this year, the fault lines of the GOP, bound up in the fundamental failure of the governing philosophy upon which the party’s electoral success have been based, are significantly more vulnerable..
Bush’s instance on fighting a war of choice while simultaneously enacting and maintaining personal income tax rate cuts has left Republicans without resources necessary to govern the country in any meaningful manner. Despite the so-called long-term Conservative strategy of “starving the beast” to reduce the size of government, the demand for all sorts of government services, and in wartime the necessity for them, creates an untenable situation that has reduced Republicans to fumbling for explanations as to why the largest deficits in history are acceptable.
The Republican governing philosophy, as practiced, has always been evident as nothing more than a Ponzi scheme of staggering magnitude, but there was no telling how long it could rhetorically and electorally continue to pass muster with voters able to access seemingly unending credit to finance it. However, the inevitable squeezing of that credit by financial markets, together with the undeniable incompetence of the Bush Administration, particularly in foreign policy, the emergence of the United States as a left-of-center country (sorry, George Will - look at the polls) on social policy, and the public and personal corruption which seems to permeate every nook and cranny of the Republican Party, have hastened the end and left the GOP with a single substantive issue that it believes stands a shot of resonating with the financially hurting, fed-up, independent-minded, decent voters who will decide this election in district after district: Democrats want to increase your taxes.
This is what explains the curious vote of Virgil Goode against a bill he co-sponsored.
The bill upon which the House voted last week differed slightly from Senator Jim Webb’s GI Bill - the bill that Goode co-sponsored after being called to account on the matter by Tom Perriello. But both bills provided for a 3.9 percent pay increase for military personnel to take effect Jan. 1, as well as full scholarships to any in-state public university and other educational assistance for men and women who serve the military for at least three years.
At the insistence of Blue Dog Democrats, however, the House bill added an increase in taxes on income above $500,000 per year to pay for itself, a so-called “Patriot’s Premium.”
According to statement from Goode’s office, which did not respond directly to reporters’ phone calls on the matter, this was the provision against which he voted.
In fact, so did every Republican member of Virginia’s delegation.
I have been asking myself, why would Virgil Goode risk the adverse publicity of failing to support the troops in defense of this tiny amount of high-income earners?
Was it simply that Goode, with a Congressional salary of $165K plus an income-earning fortune of more than $5 million, might simply have been voting in his own self-interest? I doubt it. Even if he were to earn that much, and for all his faults, Mr. Goode is a honest person who doesn’t strike me as a legislator that would so blatently abuse the trust of the people he represents.
One explanation might be that when your only substantive issues are scaring folks, sometimes about illegal aliens, sometimes about Muslims and sometimes that your opponent will want to raise taxes, then you’re voting options are limited. You are, for example, simply unable to vote for any tax increase whatsoever, no matter how worthwhile the reason, without undercutting a main argument behind your own candidacy.
The media in Southside is beginning to notice. Last week, the Danville Register & Bee took note of Goode’s inconsistent stance in its story headlined, “Rocky Mount’s Goode votes no on soldiers’ education bill”:
While maintaining that he supports increased benefits for veterans, U.S. Rep. Virgil Goode voted against a House bill aimed at ensuring educational costs for soldiers, saying Democrats used it as fodder for promoting partisan politics. … “(The bill) as a stand-alone piece of legislation would have passed overwhelmingly,” Goode, R-5th, said in a written release, after he couldn’t be reached by telephone. “It is a good example of Democratic rhetoric about bipartisanship being untrue. This could have been a bipartisan effort.”
The Washington, D.C., Bureau of Media General News Service reports that conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats got on board only after the GI Bill was funded through what Democrats dubbed a “Patriots’ Premium.” The premium increases an individual’s taxes by a half-percent on all income above $500,000 and would generate an estimated $56 billion over 10 years.
“The Democrats created a package so that they could highlight the VA benefit and not mention the $10 billion in foreign aid and the tax increase on individuals and on individuals who own small businesses,” Goode said. … For his part, Goode said he continues to support any bill that benefits veterans.
“I suspect that the Senate will not adopt the Democrats’ tax increase provision, and we will have another opportunity in the House to vote on the legislation to give expanded educational benefits to our veterans,” Goode said.
This kind of honest press coverage in an area that has been a Goode stronghold in the district - Pittsylvania County, suggests that the first part of a successful campaign for Perriello - convincing the electorate that it can do better in Washington, DC than Virgil Goode, is clearly achievable. The R&B gets the story exactly right - At the end of the day, Goode voted against our soldiers because he politically beholden to a discredited ideology of governance.
Goode’s explanation of his vote is both convoluted and unconvincing. He is trying to square the proverbial circle.
Perhaps more revelaing than Goode’s actual vote on the bill, however, is his closing line that Democrats will give him another chance to vote on the bill. Perhaps GI benefits will come around again, and Mr. Goode can support it after he opposed it - that would be fine because it would help our military.
But the sad fact is that, as he implicitly acknowledges, Mr. Goode’s vote and his input is quite irrelevant to the outcome. This is not simply a matter of Democrats controlling the House and the Senate (which they will continue to do for the foreseeable future). Rather, Mr. Goode and other Virginia Republicans have removed themselves from the conversation because they have demonstrated a rigid ideological approach to legislation that is not suceptable to reason.
What good does this do for the people of the Fifth District?
Of course, it will be up to Tom Perriello to close the deal. He is a great candidate whose common sense positions are, like many folks down here in the Fifth, rooted in his religious faith. More importantly, he has lived his life consistent with those beliefs, fighting for ideals in which he believes on behalf of some of the most oppressed people on the planet.
At a practical level, Tom has proven to be an effective fundraiser. And he has put together an enthusiastic and dedicated staff that has creatively developed ideas to reach out to the community, such as by tithing 10% of their volunteer hours this summer.
It’s a long time to November, but it seems with each passing day the Perriello campaign looks stronger, and Virgil Goode looks more and more vulnerable.