MCREC Dinner Guest Speaker: Andrew Wilkow

Monongalia County Republican Executive Committee
Spring Dinner
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Pines Country Club
3062 Point Marion Rd
Morgantown, WV 26505

Guest Speaker: Andrew Wilkow Conservative talk show host Sirius Radio
Channel 144

Contact:
Pam Krushansky
Post Office Box 2369
Westover, WV 26502
(304) 292-1265
Krushansky7@aol.com

Opposing more rail regulation keeps our highways clear

As a longtime member and current secretary of the U.S. 50 Association, I am usually focused on state issues that have a detrimental effect on our highway system, and on Route 50 in particular. But all too often it is legislation at the federal level that has unintended negative effects on our road system. One such initiative currently in the works is legislation that would roll back the Staggers Act of 1980, named for Congressman Harley Staggers of Keyser, and reregulate our nation’s rail systems.

In West Virginia, of course, our railroads are particularly important to our ability to transport coal safely and efficiently to energy suppliers across the nation. Ever since they were deregulated, railroads have provided a means of transportation that helps keep coal affordable and ready accessible for energy providers in every part of the United States.

But another, often overlooked, benefit of our rail system is the service it provides in keeping our highways and roads from being even more congested with truck traffic than they already are. If the Staggers Act is repealed or seriously rolled back – as legislation in the last Congress would have done – our roads would be even more congested and damaged by shippers using semi trucks to an even greater degree than they are used today.

As everyone traveling our highways knows, our roads and bridges are deteriorating quickly, and we can hardly meet the needs of pothole repair and general repaving and maintenance as it is. Legislation that would raise the cost of doing business with our railroads would only increase the damage to our roads.

It’s important to compare the efficiency of our railroads with the extra burden that would be placed on our highways if the Staggers Act was repealed. For example, one typical multi-car locomotive does the work of more than 280 semi trucks. It costs $1 million to $3 million per mile to add capacity to rail, as opposed to $10 million or more per mile to add a lane to urban highways.

As the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials said in its Freight Bottom Line Report. "Relatively small public investments in the nation's freight railroads can be leveraged into relatively large benfits for the nation's highway infrastructure, highway users and freight shippers.

Furthermore, railroads are there times as energy efficient as trucks. A train can move a ton of freight 423 miles on one gallon of fuel, and are also three times cleaner. Since truck fatality rates are four times higher than train fatality rates, moving freight by rail will also save lives.

Since the Staggers Act was passed in 1980, the freight railway industry has seen drastic, quantifiable improvements, including a 168 percent increase in productivity, an 85 percent increase in rail traffic, and injury rates that have fallen by 68 percent.

For some reason, Sen. Jay Rockefeller has long been seen as an opponent of the railroad industry. But in this case, all West Virginians should hope that he will join many of his colleagues in opposing any effort to roll back the Staggers Act and reregulate our rail system. The railroad industry has been good for West Virginia, and for the coal business. Just as importantly from my point of view, our current system helps keep our highways and roads less congested than they otherwise would be. Let’s keep it that way.

Individualized Democratic Tax Cut For the Liberal Wealthy and England Shut Down By A Snowstorm

In 2002 Tom Daschle declared war on President Bush's plan to make permanent his groundbreaking tax cut plan. We now know that those cuts laid the foundation for seven years of prosperity.

Daschle fought hard against tax cuts. Like most Democrats, he screamed about "tax cuts for the wealthy." His primary goal was preventing the repeal of the estate tax from becoming permanent. Tom Daschle while in the Senate wanted to make sure that the government got its hands on fifty percent of every estate upon someone's death.

We also now know that Daschle did not exercise such diligence when paying his own taxes. Call it the Individualized Democratic Tax Cut For the Liberal Wealthy. It is very simple. Wealthy liberals choose when and if they pay their taxes. Easy as pie! Now three powerful Democrats nominated to high office by Obama have been revealed to have owed tens of thousands of dollars in taxes. Daschle owes over $128,000.

$128,000 is about three times what the average American earns in three years. One year of that salary makes an American well off. Daschle owes that much in taxes.

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"Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few." Winston Churchill said this during World War II, a testament to the grit and determination of Royal Air Force fighter pilots downing German bombers as they tried to annihilate German cities. During the Blitz, Britons continued to work and live as normally as possible. Everyone strove to overcome relentless attack from a bitter enemy.

The Germans should just have sent snow.

A snowstorm brought London and much of the rest of England to a halt this week. Was it two feet? Three feet? No. Four inches. Four inches of snow did what the Luftwaffe could not. Everyone stayed home from work and the country was paralyzed.

Pretty laughable for a major city this side of Atlanta to get shut down by four inches of snow. It might even have political fallout in a country that has wedded itself so much to laws addressing the myth of man made climate change.

The Cost of Zoning on the Average Citizen

Consider these excerpts from February 9th's Washington Examiner.

The cost of doing business with Fairfax County’s zoning regulators would skyrocket under a proposed fee increase to be considered by the Board of Supervisors.
The package of fees could hit homeowners and the ailing Virginia home-building industry alike, and follows measures proposed by Northern Virginia governments in similarly desperate financial straits.

Fairfax County faces a $648 million shortfall, and county staff wants to recoup $2 million by raising the cost of some permits, zoning appeals and other applications. The price of appealing a zoning administrator’s unfavorable decision, for example, would increase from $375 to a maximum of $2,455, according to documents provided by Fairfax County.

Michael Toalson, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Virginia, called the proposal “government at its worst.” As builders endure rounds of layoffs from the shrinking volume of work amid the housing downturn, zoning staff should follow suit, he said.

Some in Mineral County look to Fairfax County, Virginia as a model and claim that Mineral County needs zoning. For some reason, the prospect of unchecked growth terrifies them (although many in Mineral County would love to see 10% of the growth these Northern Virginia counties have seen in the past decade.) Now the burden of maintaining a bureaucracy for the Planning and Zoning Board forces the government to raise zoning rates to maintain a bureaucracy that is currently restraining job growth in a tight market. God forbid they lay off their staff as many private businesses have. Instead they raise rates sky high and likely force the layoffs of more private sector workers.

Basically the people must pay more for an agency that restricts opportunities.

That is exactly what we DO NOT need in Mineral County. We need more jobs, not more rules.

Obama's Plan Will Harm the Bailout Banks

Obama recently proposed federal regulations that would cap executive pay at the so-called "bailout banks" to $500,000 per year. It is a brazen step that takes advantage of the current economic problems to impose a populist and socialist measure. After all, $500,000 would be more than enough for us, why not bank executives?

Consider the example of the woeful Detroit Lions. They lost every single game last year. Part of the problem lay in the coaches. The head coach made poor decisions, including sticking by a relative that he hired as a defensive coordinator. Suppose the federal government bailed out the Lions and imposed at $500,000 per year limit on their coach salaries?

The best coach out there without a job is former Pittsburgh Steelers coach Bill Cowher. He brings a unique style and a wining track record as well as an intense work ethic to the job of head coach. Cowher ranks as one of the winningest coaches of his time. If he was looking for a job, the Detroit Lions would love to have him. With their declining status among NFL franchises, a coach like Cowher would have lent immediate credibility along with experience building great teams.

Bill Cowher would not mow your grass for $500,000 per year. He is one of the greatest of his time, a proven winner. Cowher, if he returned to coaching, would command millions per year and a guaranteed contract that would continue to pay him even if he were fired for complete incompetence. It would take a so-called "golden parachute" and a huge salary to attract such a figure to the organization to begin with. A mere half million dollars per year would only bring a mediocre personality and more risk of failure.

So now, at a time when the bailout banks need to find dynamic, quality, proven leadership among the ranks of their executives, Obama wants to put them in a no win situation. Government control is no solution. Obama continues to struggle due to his lack of understanding of politics and now economics as well.

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That being said, some of the banks are doing very little to help their own cause. their own foolishness has given socialists the opportunity to get public support for their plans. Wells Fargo received buyout money, then turned around and planned executive trips to Las Vegas. These were later canceled.

Shelley Moore Capito blasted them, stating "Let's get this straight: These guys are going to Vegas to roll the dice on the taxpayer dime? They're tone deaf. It's outrageous."

The responsible companies simply dealing with hard times need to speak up and criticize their colleagues for irresponsible behavior.

Governor Manchin's Statesmanship

I voted for Russ Weeks last November and I am still proud of that vote because it was a statement against things as usual in West Virginia.

However, we must give credit where it is due. In the past month, Governor Manchin has emerged as a rare bird in state politics. He looks, sounds, and importantly acts like a statesman. As economic indicators drop across the country, he alternates between a Rooseveltian and a Reaganlike tone. Boosting confidence and morale is the job of a leader. Manchin has grasped this concept.

This opinion came to me when I was watching him address the Mineral County delegation on Thursday, February 12. He presented a contrast to the flailing, bumbling, power hungry Democratic president. Where Obama stokes fear, Manchin reassures. Where Obama preaches that government will save us, Manchin asks us to first start saving ourselves. Where Obama has no vision, Manchin tells us that we are not in a panic, but in a planning mode. If we had to have a Democratic president, why could it have not been someone more like this. Of course many assume he is a Republican at heart anyway.

Manchin this week unveiled a mandate demanding that 25% of state production of energy eventually come from some alternative source. This will not hurt the coal industry as energy needs will continue to expand. To the representatives present from US Windforce this was an important boost to their plans to expand windmill production into Mineral County, especially after County Commissioner Wayne Spiggle promised that he and the county would work hard to make all of the Governor's plans successful.

Vision without fear. Policies that emphasize individual effort and private sector initiative. What a welcome change compared to what we have seen from Washington lately.