Virginia Lawmakers Unite To Push Job Saving Bill

By Philip Bunnell

Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Rep. Frank Wolf (R-Va.) joined together Friday to announce a bipartisan initiative to repatriate foreign jobs.

The jobs in question are primarily manufacturing jobs that have moved to China and India as well as call centers. Warner told reporters that states “can’t compete” with nations like China because they don’t
get federal help.

Virginia could compete against Pennsylvania or California, said Warner, “but who we’re really competing with is South Korea or Canada or other nations” where federal support has been successful. Warner also highlighted the need for more export opportunities, stating that “we don’t do a very good job.”

His fellow Virginian lawmaker, Wolf, recommended an expansion of broadband internet service, which he said makes it cheaper for companies to do business in America. Wolf and Warner were very proud of the bipartisan nature of the bill. 

“This kind of thing doesn’t happen enough in Washington,” said Warner.

Both men said that their initiative would be paid for, but did not provide the details. Warner said that the plan would not be too expensive, “in the hundred million dollar range.”

Panel Argues Suits Against Health Reform Lack Substance

By Kyle LaFleur - Talk Radio News Service

A panel discussion between activists from the Center for American Progress, Washington and Lee University and the National Senior Law Center focused their thoughts on lawsuits filed by Florida and Virginia state Attorneys General against the Obama Administration’s Affordable Care Act.

Tim Jost of Washington and Lee University Law School spoke on the Florida case which, in part, accuses the the health reform provision mandating Americans to acquire insurance coverage by 2014 to be unconstitutional.

“Basically it says that if you can afford health insurance, if you don’t have a religious objection to it, if you’re not otherwise insured, if you been insured for more then three months and if it wouldn’t otherwise work a hardship on you, you would have to buy a very basic insurance policy,” said Jost. “This is something I think every responsible person should do and it’s a little bit hard to understand why the states find this such a terrible provision.” 

Virginia, according to Jost, has its own statute and claims that the individual mandate is not enforceable.  

“Under our federal system, under the Supremacy Clause, if the statute is constitutional then it’s enforceable in Virginia.  The state can’t nullify a federal law, we fought a war over that and the federal government won,” said Jost.  

The federal government tried to dismiss the Virginia case in August but the court found that Virginia had a plausible claim with an arguable legal basis. The case is being briefed on summary judgement and oral arguments over these judgements will begin at the Justice Department Monday.  

“To quote the case ‘It will certainly not be the final word’,” said Jost.  

Lawyer Predicts Virginia's Health Care Reform Challenge Will Fail

Philip Bunnell - Talk Radio News Service

Despite a Federal Judge’s decision Monday to allow a lawsuit filed by Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli challenging the national health care reform law to proceed, Walter Dellinger, Chair of the Appellate Practice at the firm O’Melveny & Meyers in Washington, D.C. and an acting Solicitor General in the Clinton administration, predicts the effort to block the legislation will fail.

“It is fairly routine that thousands of cases go forward every week in the courts of this country that survive a motion to dismiss on the face of the pleadings where ultimately the plaintiffs lose, and I think that will be the case here,” Dellinger said during a conference call hosted by the Center for American Progress.

Dellinger also noted that filing a lawsuit that challenges decisions made by elected representatives is “a very dramatic expansion of judicial authority” and that such a notion would likely bother conservative judges.

“This is the kind of challenge that was brought against the Social Security law by the people who lost in the legislative process,” added Dellinger.  “This kind of litigation was brought against the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act.  These challenges have always failed because in the end, courts realize that these important decisions are to be made by the elected representatives of the people.”

Virginia Politician Urging State To Adopt Arizona Immigration Law

By Linn Grubbstrom
Talk Radio News Service

The top elected official of a Northern Virginia county located less than 40 miles from the nation's capital says he wants his state to pass a very similar version of the anti-illegal immigration law passed earlier this year in Arizona.

Corey Stewart, the chairman of the Prince William County Board of Supervisors, says he will lobby Virginia lawmakers this year in an effort to persuade them to pass a measure that would increase the power of state and local law enforcement to capture, detain and deport illegal immigrants. The plan Stewart is pushing would also outlaw day laborer centers, places where illegals are known to gather.

Stewart, who earned national notoriety in 2007 for instituting a county-wide crackdown on illegals, told Talk Radio News Service that adopting the Arizona bill would drastically decrease Virginia's crime rate.

"The first two years after the crackdown on illegal immigration in Prince William we had a 37 % drop in the violent crime rate," he said. "Based upon that experience we believe that we would have similar results in the rest of the Commonwealth of Virginia."

In fact, of the 2,000 people arrested last year for major crimes -- including violence -- in Prince William County, only 121 were found to be living in the state illegally. That figure represents a significant decline from the level recorded before Stewart initiated the crackdown two years ago.

However, on a statewide level, over 17% of those arrested in Virginia last year for violent crime offenses were found to be non-residents: A frightening statistic in Stewart's view.

"We need to bring the rule of law to all of Virginia," he told the Washington Post in an interview this week.

Though Arizona has faced mounting threats of economic boycotts by cities and businesses in neighboring states, Stewart insists that enacting such a bill in Virginia would have minimal negative impacts on the state's economy.

"Businesses do even better, because when you crack down on illegal immigration, the quality of life improves and the crime rate goes down and that's the type of environment that businesses want to move to."

Stewart said he expects to encounter push-back on the effort from federal officials, but added that a lack of federal enforcement of the nation's immigration laws has created a need for action on the local level.

"In their typical political fashion I would expect that the Obama administration will try to intimidate the Commonwealth of Virginia, try to sue the Commonwealth of Virginia. But we have to do what is right precisely because the federal government has refused to do anything about illegal immigration."

Pelosi Trumpets Democrats' House Wins

By Leah Valencia, University of New Mexico- Talk Radio News Service

While Republicans celebrated their parties numerous victories from Tuesday’s elections, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday that she was not disappointed by the results.

"From our standpoint, we picked up votes last night, one in California and one in New York," Pelosi said during a press appearance, referencing the special elections held in New York's 23rd Congressional district and California's 10th.

"From our perspective, we won last night," Pelosi added. "From our standpoint...a candidate was victorious who supports health care reform.”

The Speaker did not acknowledge the fact that Democratic gubernatorial losses in New Jersey and Virginia may have a negative political impact on her efforts to win votes to pass the America’s Healthy Choices Act, the bill to reform the health care system, through the House.

Pelosi instead focused on the Democratic wins in the two special elections for House seats.