Nice Work: Creigh Lays Out A REAL Plan for Fixing Virginia's Transportation Mess

While Bob McDonnell focuses on implementing the divisive/extreme social agenda he laid out in his theocratic thesis (including the citation to the all-porn-makes-you-gay guy), as well as on his long-held desire to "exploit the gap in state road funding as a rationale for reducing state spending on education, public safety, health care and conservation", Creigh Deeds acts like an adult and steps up to the plate on transportation. First, Deeds does something McDonnell has a great deal of trouble doing, living in the fact-based world, the one in which Virginia faces a $100 billion backlog on transportation over the next 20 years.

Our transportation infrastructure is crumbling around us. More than 4,000 bridges are structurally deficient, we can't keep up with basic maintenance of roads, and there is almost no state money for new road construction or rail and transit improvements.

No, sorry Bob, we're not going to solve a $100 billion shortfall through a one-off, $500-million selloff of the state's ABC liquor stores. That would get us 0.5% of the required money, and would also lead to liquor stores everywhere. Blech.

And no, sorry Bob, but counting on revenues that will almost certainly never materialize from a purple-unicorn-mythological offshore oil bonanza that doesn't exist ain't gonna cut it either.

And no, sorry Bob, but the people of Virginia aren't going to let you transfer billions of dollars out of education in order to still not have enough money to truly "fix" Virginia's transportation mess (which, by the way, Bob McDonnell's party is overwhelmingly responsible for getting us into in the first place).

So, fine you say, Bob McDonnell's "plan" for transportation certainly is a non-starter, but what about Creigh Deeds? Well, as I said, in today's Washington Post he puts it right out there.

The day after I'm elected, I will begin assembling a bipartisan commission to craft a comprehensive transportation package. Like Gov. Baliles did, I will appoint Republicans, Democrats and independents along with private-sector leaders and transportation experts. The commission would begin work in December and issue its report early next year.

There must be a nexus between funding and those who use our transportation system -- Virginians and those from other states. Virginia needs a bipartisan plan that must have enough funding to deal with our multibillion-dollar backlog and make the needed investments for our future. All funding options are on the table except taking money from education and other obligations met by Virginia's general fund.

I will not let lawmakers go home until we pass a comprehensive transportation plan -- our economic future depends on this.

Let me be clear regarding taxes. I will sign a bill that is the product of bipartisan compromise that provides a comprehensive transportation solution. As a legislator, I have voted for a number of mechanisms to fund transportation, including a gas tax. And I'll sign a bipartisan bill with a dedicated funding mechanism for transportation -- even if it includes new taxes.

So, there you have it: a serious, honest, forthright, and workable plan for transportation -- unlike Bob McDonnell's disingenous, dishonest transportation non-plan. Of course, given the complete intellectual bankruptcy of the Republican Party nowadays, we can all expect a chorus of "Creigh Deeds will raise your taxes" rhetoric (and ads...millions of dollars worth of ads).

But guess what? That's right, Republicans would do launch the "they're gonna tax you" scary music ads no matter what the Democratic candidate said. If Creigh Deeds swore on a stack of bibles that he'd never raise a penny in taxes, the Republicans would still run millions of dollars in ads claiming he would do just that. And they'd still claim to be able to solve a $100-billion shortfall in transportation funding through gimmicks, myths and piling up debt. That, sadly, is the Republican Way. In contrast, the Democratic Way is to actually get things done, to deal with problems realistically and pragmatically and based on that crazy little thing called "empirical evidence" (aca, "facts"). And that, my friends, is the choice in the upcoming election: Bob McDonnell the "Purple Unicorn and Fairie Dust" candidate vs. Creigh Deeds the "Get Shit Done for the People of Virginia" candidate. Yes, I realize that there's a certain appeal to purple unicorns and fairie dust, but personally I'm going with the "get shit done" guy. How about you?

P.S. By the way, it's not the # of pages in the plan that make it good or bad, it's the concept behind the plan, whether it's sound or not. And the bottom line is that Bob McDonnell's concept is fundamentally flawed while Creigh's plan is fundamentally correct, no matter how many pages they are.