Virginia's tax and spend liberal Governor Mark Warner makes me cringe every time I see him or hear him speak. He is one of the worst Governors the Commonwealth has ever seen, and plans to ruin the state economy before he leaves office in 2006. If Virginia had a recall provision, I would be personally collecting signatures for his ouster.

One sticking point to my hatred for Comrade Warner is his lack of fiscal responsibility. The Washington Post's press release on Mark Warner's recently unveiled tax plan makes me physically ill from the very first paragraph.

Virginia Gov. Mark R. Warner (D) on Monday proposed a massive overhaul to the state's tax system that he said would reduce taxes for nearly two-thirds of the state's residents while generating $1 billion in new state money from higher taxes on shoppers, smokers, corporations and the rich.

If you can read and understand bullshit you already know which two-thirds of the population will be getting a tax break, and which third will be footing the bill for it.

The specifics of the Governor's plan to return Virginia to "traditional, conservative budget practices" are disturbing. Warner plans to "stabilize" Virginia's finances by implementing the following:

1% increase in sales taxes.

$715 million increase in "basic school aid".

8% increase in Medicaid.

$140 million "down payment on the funding demands" of state colleges.

Increase cigarette taxes 1000% AND allow individual cities and counties to add their own tax capped at 2000%of the current tax.

Increase income taxes for those earning more than $100,000.

As evidenced by the proposed tobacco tax hike, Warner is following the typical Daschle-Democrat playbook, and pitting Red America vs. Blue America. Considering that Virginia is a leading tobacco state, raising tobacco taxes will further hinder farming and work to destroy the Commonwealth's top cash crop. The money taken from Red America will flow from the rural counties to the overweight budgets of the urban and suburban cities of Blue America. Warner even admits that he plans to stick it to farmers by redistributing wealth, albeit under the guise of fairness.

He also said the plan will correct what he called a fundamentally unfair tax system designed 100 years ago for a rural farming state that no longer exists.

"We will return Virginia to the traditional, conservative budget practices that has been it's hallmark," Warner said. "This is a plan that's fair to the people who pay the bills." [...]

Warner vowed to close loopholes that allow Virginia corporations to avoid paying some taxes on their income. And he said the state must phase out a costly but popular tax break for the elderly.

Warner said his plan reduces the 4-cent sales tax on groceries to 2.5 cents and would impose lower tax rates on working families by increasing deductions and reducing taxes on the first $20,000 of income, saving them millions of dollars each year.

Grrrr. The lies are just infuriating. Every time I hear a politician speak about raising taxes on corporations that are using "loopholes" to avoid paying "their fair share", I want to kick him in the nuts. And his claim that people who make more than $20,000 per year are not considered "working families", nor are they "people who pay the bills" is infuriating.

The kicker to the whole thing is that not once did Warner ever even consider reducing spending items in the budget. He never even looked at spending cuts, and in fact plans to increase spending along with increasing taxes on the evil and hated rich yet again.