A vote for real reform

Tim Kaine
Published: October 4, 2008

By TIM KAINE

It is easy to be cynical about politicians and politics. It’s easy — and sometimes understandable — to think Washington can’t change and that everyone, no matter how well-intentioned, is destined to be
dragged down by the weight of partisanship and the influence of special interests.

I am using this space to ask you to cast off that cynicism this November.

I’m not saying you have no reason for doubt, but if you look at our Commonwealth, you can see what’s achievable. Accountability. Meaningful reform. Competent management. Virginians have shown that
government can work for the people. It can be responsive. It can be well run. 

If we can do it here, we can do it in Washington, and Barack Obama is our best chance to get it done. 

Most of us are tired of the gridlock and petty bickering in Washington.  Big problems — health care, energy policy, immigration — go unaddressed year after year because lobbyists like things just the
way they are.  Poor fiscal management by the Bush Administration has taken us from surplus to deficit, job expansion to job loss, robust growth to home foreclosures and financial meltdown.

And, we’ve seen the consequence of a government that values politics more than results — the botched response to Katrina and committing our best and brightest to a war in Iraq without a clear rationale
or plan for success. 

Barack Obama has made the Virginia values of government accountability and transparency his cause. Beginning in the Illinois Senate, he fought to make government work for the people. He passed the
toughest ethics reform legislation in state history. It banned legislators from accepting campaign contributions for personal use and from taking lobbyists’ gifts.

When he arrived in Washington, he made no attempt to appease “the old boys club.” Instead, he put an end to travel subsidized by lobbyists and promoted the creation of an independent commission to
investigate ethics complaints against members of Congress.

He reached across the aisle to work with Republican Senator Tom Coburn to create a ‘Google the government’ system, which allows Americans to see how their tax dollars are spent. In his campaign for
president, Senator Obama has refused to accept contributions from Washington lobbyists or corporate political action committees. Instead, he’s built his campaign with contributions from everyday
Americans — more than 2 million of them.

Senator Obama also believes that a critical next step in restoring fiscal discipline is enforcing pay-as-you-go budgeting rules, which require new spending commitments or tax cuts to be paid for by cuts
to other programs or new revenue. He will stop funding wasteful, obsolete federal government programs and end taxpayer subsidies for oil and gas companies that are enjoying record profits. 

And to curb the influence of special interests, Obama will prohibit anyone working in his administration from conducting business with a prior employer, ban political appointees from lobbying the
government for the remainder of his administration and ask all new agency hires to affirm that their jobs were offered on merits and not based on political affiliation or contribution. 

John McCain talks about limiting special interests but won’t even limit the influence of special interests on his own campaign. His campaign is run by career lobbyists and he has accepted millions from
lobbyists and corporate PACs. This summer, after reversing his position on offshore drilling, his contributions from the oil and gas industry quadrupled. And John McCain has long promoted the
wrongheaded view that deregulating the financial system will bring growth. The industry lobbyists love that idea, but the greed-fueled collapse of the savings and loan industry in the 1980’s and the
financial markets today show that real Americans get hurt when Washington turns a blind eye to these institutions.

If the same Washington crowd is both running and funding his campaign, why would we think his administration would be different than the one we have now? Americans know we need a change to
independent and competent management.

Barack Obama believes that government’s purpose is to work for you.  He knows that Virginians aren’t looking for government hand outs. We just want a president who knows how to get our economy and
nation moving again after eight years of drift.

It’s no accident that Virginia is ranked the Top Performing State Government in America. It’s no accident that we’ve been ranked as the state with the best business climate for three years running. We
need a partner in the White House who will bring the basic values of competence and intelligent leadership to Washington. We need a president who will do what’s best for the country instead of
rewarding the Washington insiders.  Barack Obama is that leader.

Tim Kaine is the 70th Governor of Virginia and National Co-Chair of the Obama campaign.