Dear Friend of TJI, “The much-predicted crisis didn’t occur. Packages are moving. Gifts are being delivered. Shelves are not empty.” -- President Joe Biden, before Christmas “Grocery store shelves across America are wiped clean, and they're staying empty as stores struggle to quickly restock everyday necessities such as milk, bread, meat, canned soups and cleaning products.” -- CNN Business, 1/13/2022
Meanwhile …
1.) As the General Assembly reconvened and preparations were finalized for the Inauguration, the Thomas Jefferson Institute joined the time-honored tradition of recommending legislative initiatives for the state’s new leadership. Senior Fellow Steve Haner served up nearly a dozen ideas for reducing the cost of energy for Virginians (here) and laid out the case for lowering taxes and indexing them so Virginians aren’t penalized for the forthcoming Biden-inspired inflation (here). 2.) Visiting Fellow F. Vincent Vernuccio provided ideas for protecting the rights of workers and taxpayers under the monopoly union contracts now being negotiated by some jurisdictions through collective bargaining agreements (here). 3.) And yours truly dug out bipartisan recommendations to reform education funding by increasing transparency for the taxpayers who underwrite it … and in the process fund children, not school systems. First made eight years ago to incoming Governor Terry McAuliffe, he chose not to act on them. We trust Glenn Youngkin may be more forward-thinking (here). 4.) Education reform is likely not on the agenda in Prince William County (here), Albemarle County (here), Fairfax County (here), Henrico County (here), or Charlottesville City (here), where plans are afoot to allow teachers to negotiate monopoly union contracts (otherwise known as collective bargaining). Local school board members considering those should look west to Chicago, where teachers deprived students of five more days of education by striking – the 14th strike in 50 years, or an average of one every three and a half years (here). The Wall Street Journal contrasts Chicago with Arizona, where Governor Doug Ducey announced a program giving parents $7,000 in education aid if their child’s school shuts down (here). Which way for Virginia? 5.) The Institute’s Vernuccio, meanwhile is working to strengthen the independence of teachers from the teachers unions, drafting legislation introduced by Delegate Nick Freitas to prohibit union work on the taxpayer’s dime (here), require written consent before union dues can be withheld from employee pay (no more taking the union’s word for it), and allowing union members to withdraw from the union at any time (here). 6.) Dozens of bills too numerous to mention here have also been introduced in the General Assembly to create Education Savings Accounts (here), expand Virginia’s Education Improvement Scholarship Tax Credit (here), increase the availability of quality online education (here), and create real public charter schools (here) in Virginia. First, though, any legislation to expand opportunities for children will have to get through a Senate Education Committee and a Senate Finance Committee controlled 11-5 by adversaries. 7.) Democrats, meanwhile, prepared for the Inaugural with plans to vote down Youngkin Cabinet appointee Andrew Wheeler. Shaun Kenney has the story over at The Republican Standard here. 8.) The new Governor kicked off his time in office by issuing 11 Executive Orders unrolling Critical Race Theory, mask and vaccine mandates, replacing the Parole Board, investigating actions in Loudoun County, and more. You can read the individual Executive Orders by clicking here. 9.) New Attorney General Jason Miyares, meanwhile, announced major investigations into Loudoun County Public Schools and the Virginia Parole Board (here) 10.) In case you missed it, inflation soared in December to the highest rate in 40 years (here), the nation’s top CEOs say the biggest problems in 2022 will be labor shortages and inflation (here), there hasn’t been a single job added since 2019 (here) and Joe Manchin was right when he said spending leads to inflation (here). Yet it continues, partly because the market is too serene about inflation (here). 11.) Over at National Review, senior political correspondent Jim Geraghty details the Biden record here with all the links you could possibly want. 12.) Biden, meanwhile, tried to focus everyone’s attention away from inflation by attacking Georgia’s voting laws (here). Karl Rove slices apart the Biden claims here. The demagoguery was an attempt to push Senators like Senator Kyrsten Sinema on proposals to kill the filibuster. It worked, pushing into openly opposing efforts to kill the filibuster (here and here). Joe Manchin followed soon after. Happy Sunday Everyone. Time to get to work. | |
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