On three separate occasions, three members of the Virginia General Assembly were posed the same question: “Can you point to a bill passed during the 2010 legislative session that reduced the size and scope of government?” Each time, without prompting, the individual legislators – two delegates and one state senator – gave nearly identical answers and pointed to the budget bill.

Charles Poindexter
In an interview conducted with the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner at the Fifth Congressional District Republican convention on May 1, Delegate Charles Poindexter (R-HD9), who represents Franklin and Floyd counties and part of Pittsylvania County, answered the “size and scope of government” question this way:

“That’s generally in the budget itself,” Poindexter said, adding that “often the language within the budget will actually reduce the size of government.”

Poindexter also noted “There were other reform-type initiatives.,” explaining that the “governor set up a reform commission, which will bring forward quite a few recommendations, I’m hoping, as far as overall restructure of the government.”

Rob Bell
Nearly two weeks later, after the graduation ceremony at Piedmont Virginia Community College on May 14, Delegate Rob Bell (R-HD58), who represents Greene County and parts of Albemarle, Fluvanna, and Orange counties, replied immediately and succinctly to the question by saying:

“Well, the budget bill.”

He went on to explain that “by far, the budget,” that is, the general fund, “is close to the [2006] numbers and, in many departments, it’s ‘06-less,” meaning that there have been “cuts to the ‘06 numbers.”

Bell added that “arguably, the most important bill in terms of growth over the last five or six years,” the budget bill, “is also the most important bill in terms of decreasing the scope and costs of government.”

He further explained that “all of the cuts which have caused such consternation to some [people] are also the same cuts which are necessary to pay for it, if the taxes are going to be where they are. Tax revenues just track the economic prosperity of the state, and where Virginia is struggling, tax revenues are down, so the money available is down, so that leads to cuts.”

Robert Hurt
After speaking to a group of Republican activists in Charlottesville on June 12, state Senator Robert Hurt (R-SD19), who represents the city of Danville, Franklin and Pittsylvania counties, and part of Campbell County, said almost the same thing.

“I think our budget is the number one piece of legislation,” said Hurt, now the GOP nominee for Congress in the 5th District. “We cut $4 billion out of our budget.”

Hurt continued: “I can’t say that I agreed with everything that our budget accomplished, but generally speaking, I think our governor, Governor McDonnell, along with our Republican House of Delegates, really led on this issue.”

The reason the General Assembly followed the Governor’s lead was “because we had to balance our budget,” he explained.

“That’s what the people have to do. Local governments have to do it. Businesses have to do it. When they come up short, they have to spend less,” he stated, then returning to campaign mode, went on to say:

“That is what the federal government should do. The federal government needs to adopt a balanced budget amendment, and I will be proud to support that as one of the first things I do when elected.”

While three out of 140 legislators cannot be called a representative sample, it is remarkable that all three would say virtually the same thing in reply to the same question.

Do you like this article? Do you want to see more like it? Be sure to click on the "subscribe" button at the top of the page.

If you would like to become an Examiner on Examiner.com, click on the "write for us" button on the upper right corner of this page.