Please put me on your press list at the above email address (Daily Tax Report, Arlington, Va.), and COULD YOU PLEASE SEND ME ASAP TEXT OF THE ADDRESS TO THE ASSEMBLY. I called and left a message on what the recording said was your press line, but now it is busy and I have not heard back.  Video is great, but we need text, so could you please post in future. Thank you. Gail S. Keller

Governor, this speech definitely started of your term well. But I don’t see how you can afford to not raise some taxes.

I owned businesses in VA for 10 years….small businesses. I was beaten down by taxes and could barely afford health care for my family and employees. Now you are voting NO on everything that has to do with health care for the people of the United States. Why do you not see that WE NEED HELP. My family spent 30,000.00 for health care in 2008 because my husband had to have chemo. That is a salary for a middle class worker for 1 year. Maybe you do not care about health care because you are guaranteed to have it in place for the REST OF YOUR LIFE. When I watched your party sit and listen to the President I was blown away by the faces of these VOTED IN representatives. If you and your party do not like what has been laid on the table for health care bring a better option. Don’t just vote NO. You look like a bunch of children digging your feet into the ground because you don’t like the ice cream mommy just placed in front of you.
As an entrepreneur from VA I was jammed with taxes every time I sold one of my businesses.I enjoyed the freedom of working for myself but I did not enjoy the taxes and I did not enjoy how banks would laugh at us when we would want to borrow money to grow our business. I think that your “people” THINK they understand small business yet not one of them has ever had the pleasure of actually owning one and running one and feeling the pressure of keeping one going. So as an entrepreneur and an out of the box thinker here are a few suggestions for your party to think about.
1.  Open up YOUR GROUP health care policy to ALL the uninsured and allow for citizens to pay a lower premium while still keeping your insurance buddies in business. Your group would be considered an “open group” for all citizens of the US to join for health benefits. We will then pay a reduced premium that can have something to do with our YEARLY gross income. Sound fair?
2.  I love how you say we should “enact policies that promotes entrepreneurship and innovation”. In VA there was a program called BOWD. Business opportunity work force development. This program was given millions to help disadvantaged small businesses. I worked for this program for about 6 months. It was a joke. Money was thrown at people who were not even viable businesses. They could not even support themselves with their business yet the program was purchasing brochures, web design and other marketing materials that were going to businesses that WERE HEADED FOR CLOSURE. This was taking place in your own state. If you want to help small businesses SET UP A TASK FORCE THAT HAS 10-20 YEARS OF PROVEN SMALL BUSINESS EXPERIENCE (10 employees or less) AND LET THEM TELL YOU HOW IT CAN BE DONE. Putting incompetent people in with thriving entrepreneurs is a recipe for disaster yet I see this happen on the government level over and over.
3.  Come up with a plan, work with the Democrats and remember where you came from and who put you there. It was the citizens of this country and we deserve far more than your party is willing to give us. We just had 8 years of hell we need hope so pick of the torch of hope and get something done.
Sincerely,
Allison G Carlson