This week, Republicans have delivered three speeches on the floor of the House of Delegates laying out in clear terms what is at stake this session and beyond.
- On Monday, House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert spoke about our priorities for the 2019 session, including providing middle-class tax relief, improving school safety, and lowering healthcare costs.
- On Tuesday, Caucus Chairman Tim Hugo discussed in detail our proposal to provide middle-class tax relief to hardworking families. Surprisingly, our Democratic colleagues claimed that the governor’s budget did not include a tax increase, despite the fact that a number of editorial boards have blasted his proposal for making Virginians pay higher taxes.
- On Wednesday, Majority Whip Nick Rush spoke about our plans to transform Virginia’s economy for the future by promoting major economic development deals with Amazon and Micron, aligning our higher education system to meet the needs of our economy, and funding research and commercial development.
If you contrast this agenda with the proposals from Democrats to raise taxes, increase the cost of doing business, and empower unions by repealing right to work laws, you can see that Republicans should continue to lead and govern our Commonwealth.
Excerpts from the three speeches are below followed by the speeches in their entirety.
House Majority Leader Todd Gilbert
“To be very clear, the Governor’s proposal to increase taxes on those hard working Virginians is dead on arrival, we are not going to participate in that, we’re not going to discuss that, that is a non-starter for this caucus.”
Caucus Chairman Tim Hugo
“Unfortunately, the Governor’s budget and his $2.2 billion propsed spending is predicated upon a large tax increase on middle class Virginians… our first and foremost effort is to say “no” to a hidden tax increase that is found in the Governor’s budget.”
Majority Whip Nick Rush
“Did you know that according to the Virginia Chamber of Commerce, last year alone the General Assembly defeated bills that would have cost Virginia 150,000 jobs? Mr. Speaker another stat, Virginia is constantly ranked in the top 5 of most business friendly states and that is across multiple publications, many of which cite our focus on regulatory reform.”
