I wrote earlier about Congressman Jim Moran’s budget workshop on Monday night.

Tomorrow, the Washington Examiner will run my letter to the editor about the event:

Even liberals in Arlington want to balance the budget

I attended Rep. Jim Moran’s budget workshop Monday night in Ballston and was stunned by the number of concerned Northern Virginians who were committed to cutting billions of dollars in government spending in an effort to balance the budget and reduce the national debt.

Northern Virginia — and Arlington in particular — is very liberal, but on nearly every major spending issue presented by the nonpartisan Concord Coalition, attendees overwhelmingly supported dramatic cuts. One person in my group said: “We can’t keep spending. Everything must be on the table.”

My group alone cut over $2.2 trillion from the federal budget over 10 years. Congressman Moran, who’s certainly not known for his fiscal prudence, would do well to listen to his constituents — both liberal and conservative. There seems to be bipartisan consensus on cutting the size and scope of government.

Matthew Hurtt
Arlington

For the most part, I find it incredibly demoralizing to get involved in politics locally in Northern Virginia. Most everyone is exceedingly liberal. Or so I thought…

I attended tonight’s “Principle’s & Priorities: How would you balance the budget?” workshop, hosted by Congressman Jim Moran (D-08) and the Concord Coalition in Ballston. Moran is ridiculously liberal. Google him. Trust me.

Moran spoke for about 15 minutes about the budget. Take a listen, and I’ll tell you below the jump what to take away from his remarks. (I apologize for the quality of the audio.)

Moran Budget Speech by Matthew Colter Hurtt

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Pennsylvania Congressman Mike Kelly, whose political experience is dwarfed by his experience in the private sector, lashed out against Congress in a recent Education & Workforce Committee meeting:

Congressman Kelly has owned his own business since 1995, when he bought his father’s car dealership.

Kelly’s comments are pointed.

“I’ve gotta tell you something, gentlemen: Only in this Beltway are we so far out in LaLa Land that we don’t understand that if America’s truly gonna recover, it’s gonna be by Americans that make those decisions – not Republicans and not Democrats. It’s irresponsible to sit here and continue to talk about a budget that you don’t like versus a budget you didn’t even have the courage to put before the public last fall.

“And to force us into doing continuing resolutions. Why? Because you didn’t have the stomach to do what was right. Because you had an election sitting right in front of you.”

That’s just a little snippet of the Congressman’s comments. I’d encourage you to watch the video.

Check out his campaign site, and maybe slide him a few dollars.

I discussed last week the maxim: All gains are incremental; some increments aren’t gains. This is just one of the more than 40 “Laws of the Public Policy Process” developed by Morton Blackwell, founder and President of the Leadership Institute. A movement conservative, Blackwell has trained over 100,000 conservative activists since he first got involved in politics in the ’60s.

Aside from the training the Leadership Institute provides, I believe there is some real wisdom in these “Laws.” So much so that I’m going to write about more of them in the days and weeks ahead. The first few are directed toward my libertarian friends, who – to their own detriment – sometimes reject the two-party system in their goals. Electoral success often eludes the most die-hard libertarian.

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