In the last election, Democrats again campaigned as moderates, including Abigail Spanberger. Once in control of the Governor’s mansion and the legislature, however, Virginia Democrats have moved quickly to fulfill the worst stereotype of a tax-hungry, economy-crushing party. The Democrats introduced an array of new taxes on every aspect of life. At the same time, Spanberger moved to take control of Virginia universities and colleges after years of trying to move those schools to the center. Now, members are pushing rent control legislation and defining landlords as “gougers” if they raise rents by as little as 3%.
The tax frenzy immediately began after the Democrats took control.
Spanberger has also announced that the state will rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a regional cap-and-trade program that imposes a de facto carbon tax.
Virginia Democrats appear to be replicating California’s disastrous tax policies that have chased high earners and companies from the state. Here are a few of the new taxes being pushed:
HB 378 – Imposes a 3.8% net investment income tax on individuals, trusts, and estates beginning in taxable year 2027. This would raise the state’s top marginal income tax rate on portfolio and passive income to 9.55% in addition to federal taxes.
HB 900 – Imposes sales tax hikes on transportation districts as well as a new tax on every retail delivery in Northern Virginia (Amazon, Uber Eats, FedEx, UPS, etc.). This appears modeled on a Minnesota law.
HB 919 – Imposes a firearm and ammunition tax equal to 11% percent of the gross receipts from the retail sale of any firearm or ammunition by a dealer in firearms, firearms manufacturer, or ammunition vendor.
HB 978 – Extends the retail sales and use tax to dry cleaning, landscaping, and other previously exempt services.
Now, the Democrats are pushing rent control legislation despite a long history of failure in such programs to discourage new construction and property improvements. At the same time, it has been shown actually to increase rents overall.
Democrats have introduced two bills under the guise of fighting “rent gouging.” However, they define gouging as rent increases of just over 3%. That does not cover inflation in past years. Under these laws, restrictions could kick in for increases even below 3%.
In my forthcoming book, Rage and the Republic: The Unfinished Story of the American Revolution, I discuss the challenges for the American Republic in the 21st Century. That includes a predicted move by the left to introduce guaranteed incomes and rent controls. That appears to be unfolding sooner than anticipated.
In New York, Zohran Mamdani is seeking rent freezes and enhanced rent controls. He has surrounded himself with radicals who have called for the elimination or sharp curtailment of private property. The most noteworthy is Cea Weaver who has called for the elimination of private property.
The American left has cited South Africa and Cuba as models for the United States despite their economic meltdowns.
As they seek to impose an array of new taxes and regulations, Democrats are also pushing a bill that would make it more difficult to find federal fraud by nonprofits. As billions have been lost to fraud in other states, the Democrats want to make it harder for the federal government to investigate such fraud in Virginia.
Virginia Democrats are taking a prosperous and moderate state into the same failed direction as states like California. The desire to spend “someone else’s money” is irresistible when you want to increase spending. For many wealthy families, West Virginia or Florida are likely looking more and more appealing.
Federal Medicaid Audit Results In Order That ‘King of Fraud’ Gavin Newsom Pay Back $1.3 Billion Given Undocumented Migrants
https://spectator.org/feds-demand-that-king-of-fraud-gavin-newsom-pay-back-1-3-billion/
Governors Walz And Newsom – corrupt Democrat sisters of the same Marxist mother.
“There’s many groups that are penetrating our healthcare system to steal money from us who are not native-born Americans, and many of them aren’t U.S. citizens…. When the Department of Justice goes after some of these groups…[such as] earlier this year in 2025 [regarding] a $15 billion Russian mafia sting, most of the perpetrators had escaped back to Russia. So, it’s an effort by other countries to take advantage of our healthcare system.”
. Can you imagine the payback on the billion dollar boondoggle per mile. It shocks the imagination. 😂
VA taxes go through the roof. Gee, that’s tough. Be careful what and who you vote for.
Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Virginia.
The solution is to deny Democrats their constitutional right to vote .
Mamdani Pushes Tax Hikes on Wealthy New Yorkers, Breaking With Hochul Budget Pledge
https://www.rvmnews.com/2026/01/mamdani-pushes-tax-hikes-on-wealthy-new-yorkers-breaking-with-hochul-budget-pledge/
It seems like Spanberger and Mandani are going to see who can tax and waste the most.
And yet socialists supposedly don’t like competition. In reality, New York and Virginia are both about to put on displays of what the Founders referred to as the American experiment. New York City and Virginia are about to become two Democrat Marxist Petrie dishes.
We might think of these laboratories of social experimentation as an offering of Dr. Josef Megele and the Boys From Brazil.
. They’ve told you the plan is you’ll live like Cuba and South Africa.
Heavenly..
This is what will happen under Newsom
https://torrancestephensphd.substack.com/p/california-dumb
Professor Turley, you either live in Virginia with all this whining as though you can’t afford to pay your taxes, or you’re just feeding bloody meat to Trump’s hyenas.
Every day your columns are always the same; rather than those of an honest independent broker. The Republican speaker Mike Johnson has said he will be supporting articles of impeachment against some federal judges. The judge at the top of their enemies list is Judge James Boasberg. Republicans have had him on that list since his identity was leaked as the FISA court judge who provided FBI Director James Comey with all the FISA warrants due to Trump communications with Putin. And Republicans complain about leaks! None of the evidence for those warrants against Trump or the name of the judge in those warrants was ever leaked while Democrats were in charge.
What really got Speaker Johnson enraged was when Pam Bondi allowed Patel to unseal Attorney General Merrick Garland’s Arctic Frost search warrants. Johnson found he was one of those being investigated for being a participant in Trump’s failed J6 insurrection. Jim Jordan had the same reaction when he found that he along with other elected Republicans were also considered suspects for similar communications with Trump and his White House staff on that day of rage and insurrection, where MAGAS breached the security set up at the capitol. Republicans claim those warrants obtained by Jack Smith were fraudulent because he ensured they were sealed to ensure House Oversight Committees wouldn’t discover that their members wouldn’t learn of their existence and destroy evidence of their criminality.
Turley, you and everybody else here know that this is just Trumpian circus theater, where Trump is the ringmaster who will have his toy poodle Johnson jumping through rings to appease his MAGA mob. Trump knows that he might be able to get the House to vote to impeach Boasberg if they don’t lose the votes of any Republicans fearing midterms. But they will never get Senators to vote to impeach Judge Boasberg after Trump’s J6 insurrectionists brought a portable gallows in order to hang former Congressman Mike Pence in public.
Shame on you Professor Turley for saying nothing about this plot to carry out an outrageous and unjustified impeachment of Judge Boasberg.
And what does this have to do with the article?
WE ARE DEALING WITH A PAID ‘X’ TRA WHACKO TROLL – ERGO – nothing to do with anything except their Propaganda
When you go and purchase a car, if the dealer hides the fact that it’s a lemon, you have some recourse (lemon laws, etc). If a person misrepresents their background in a job application, they can be fired. Why can’t politicians be held to account for their promises and statements? It’s fraud to convince voters that you are one thing yet all you are doing is hiding your real agenda.
I know, wishful thinking.
“Why can’t politicians be held to account for their promises and statements?”
That is part of the doctrine of qualified immunity that protects politicians and other government functionaries from accountability for their actions. The original justification given for that doctrine, I believe, was the allegation that no qualified person would seek office (or other public employment) if they were at risk for frivolous prosecutions and damages levied for actions taken in good faith while they held office. Well, we currently seem to have a FAR more than sufficient number of persons seeking political office and other public employment. Whether or not there was ever a real justification for that doctrine (I am quite skeptical of that premise), I say that it is long past time that it be entirely eliminated. To put it more plainly, if you achieve public office and do demonstrable harm while you hold it, you must be held fully accountable for that harm, and suffer appropriate penalties for it, whether those are of a criminal or civil nature.
It’s fair and legitimate to debate degree and proportion of spending.
Historically Democrats have been accused of “Tax & Spend” policies – meaning Democrats pay for the spending with new taxes.
21st Century Republicans are far worse, they support “Borrow & Spend” policies – they spend like drunken sailors to give the richest 1/10 of 1% a tax cut but they don’t pay for that spending with additional tax revenue (socialism for the richest Americans). Republicans essentially put that liberal spending on the nation’s credit card – then leave it for the next administration to dig out from.
21st Century policies “Borrow & Spend” results in your children and grandchildren paying higher taxes (higher interest payments) than Democrats “Tax & Spend” policies.
George W. Bush inherited a balanced budget from Bill Clinton, then spent like a drunken sailor then put the entire bill on your kids’ credit card. Even if you deduct wartime spending, it was outrageous.
Trump’s contribution to the national debt was $8.2 trillion tax dollars, spending more per year than Clinton, Obama or Biden.
Did these drunken sailors all get “NO REGERTS” tattoos?
21st Century Republicans are far worse, they support “Borrow & Spend” policies – they spend like drunken sailors to give the richest 1/10 of 1% a tax cut but they don’t pay for that spending with additional tax revenue
To justify running that old outrageous Democrat lie, you could point to any year after a tax cut, whether through Trump, Bush, or Reagan, where Treasury records show income taxes paid DECREASED in the years after a tax cut. The opposite exposes this lie: after those tax cuts, income taxes collected by Treasury INCREASED.
Anonymous, if you want to stick around to debate this, rather than lie and then run and hide, I’ll wait here for a bit with the open Treasury website tables open beside me. And we can discuss what percentage of a tax cut YOU got as opposed to the cut the rich that you want to plunder to stuff your own pockets got.
I’m waiting for your response…
Biden at 8.4 TRILLION Which is higher 8.4 or 8.2 ANON DF BTW Trump was around 7.8 Trillion. Loose with your “facts” ANON!!
I do not blame VA voters. Spanberger ran as a supposedly moderate. She ran under the guise as a “law officer” and “rescuing children from sex trafficking,” in her campaign ads. Once in office, she rescinded a prior directive for VA LEOs to work in cooperation with ICE to arrest and deport illegals.
Wonder if VA voters are saying, “This is not what I voted for!”
Why should anyone care about VA?
First, because there are Americans living there. Second, because there are Republicans living there. And third, the majority of people can’t easily just pack up and leave to relocate their lives somewhere else in America.
What about places where Democrats live?
It use to be a nice state. But once all the government folks moved into the cities, it fell to pieces.
. It’s United States property.
So?
I disagree Upstate. The tells were there: party incentives, endorsements, coalition politics, rhetoric over restraint, and predictable policy priorities. Voters bought the snake oil because they ignored the snake.
OLLY,
Seems to me, Democrats are much more likely to believe campaign ads and what MSM tells them. Sure, they might be educated but they clearly got duped.
Upstate, Citizens get duped when they stop exercising judgment and start consuming reassurance. At that point, deception doesn’t need to be sophisticated. It only needs to be comforting.
The real question is whether the Founding generation would have been duped by the likes of Spanberger. If not, what made them different from today’s voter?
If we can’t answer that honestly, we shouldn’t be surprised when history repeats itself.
I disagree Upstate, at least on the premise that voters were deceived. If they put no real thought into her as a candidate and just bought the campaign, then they were indeed deceived. But for anybody taking even a half hearted look at her, she was just what she is now before the election as well.
Missed Virginia’s re-embrace of DIE racism and the triumph of race over ability.
SPOT ON
All recall how West Virginia came into being during the Civil War, when western parts of Virginia separated to become pro Union West Virginia!
Would be interesting if western parts/counties of Virginia look into seceding to join West Virginia!
I always knew she was a disingenuous scumbag who will do nothing to reign in the Marxist democrats who will try to Californicate VA. The schools will revert to pro Hamas, transgender obsessed American hating teaching and no surplus will be sufficient to feed their insatiable appetite for our hard-earned savings. I cannot express how much I hate these people
Dear Mr. Turley, the Democrats know how to appeal to enough of the poor with handout gimmicks so the poor will vote for them. The Democrats have perfected a “it’s them against us” mentality with the poor, it has become a science with them. The Democrats want a full-blown Socialism here,
where everyone is equally poor, except those in power. (look at Pelosi’s wealth as well as Omar’s sudden wealth of $30 million)
If the Democrats could have an aphrodisiac, it would be taxation, with regulations almost as stimulating.
Governor Spanberger is on fire.
Republicans benefit from taxation, too.
Have you ever used a road?
Have you been defended by the military?
No and no.
Republicans benefit from taxation, too. Have you been defended by the military?
Extortionist taxes like these and Mandani’s are supposed to be normal taxation – according to Democrats attempting to build themselves a commie strawman to fight the Marxist battle on their behalf. This Biden Marxist Democrat never actually served in the military – while attempting to conscript our military to fight the American Marxist Revolution on its behalf.
Republicans benefit from taxation, too
Typical straw-man argument. Nobody is suggesting 0% taxation. By your logic, if taxation can be anything above 0%, then nobody has any argument to make about how high it goes or where the money goes. That is supremely illogical.
These taxes are not about roads and military – do the research..!! Gov. Yougkin left VA in the BLACK for the 1st time in 2 Decades.. he also brought a lot of New Business in… these New Taxes are about gouging the middles class and above so they can give money away to illegal undocuented aliens.
The new Dems (marxist) cant help themselves lies and deception, they play their electorate like a well tuned violin. When all said and done Virginians will wished they elected hamburger instead of Spanberger. Next NJ.
Maybe hate speech laws with capital punishment for violators? I have a feeling our s@@tlib friends would become very pro capital punishment if implemented only on “nazis”. And or course a “nazi” is anyone with whom they disagree.
Hate to aay it but Professor Turley, you’re a “nazi” too.
antonio
Weeks of antagonizing both Denmark and all of NATO with threats of tariffs and even war, in Trump’s telling, won the United States key concessions in the Danish territory following a one-on-one meeting with the NATO alliance’s secretary general, Mark Rutte, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
“We’re getting everything we wanted ― total security, total access to everything,” Trump bragged to Fox Business Thursday morning, acknowledging that the details are still being worked out. “Essentially, it’s total access. There’s no end. There’s no time limit.”
Yet Trump could barely begin his victory lap for his claimed achievement before it began falling apart.
Rutte said Greenland never even came up in his discussion with Trump.
Then, after the White House leaked a claim that the agreement would give the U.S. ownership of “small pockets of land” on Greenland for military purposes, the Danish prime minister announced that that was not true.
“We can negotiate all politically: security, investment, economy,” Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said in a statement Thursday. “But we can’t negotiate our sovereignty.”
She repeated that message speaking to reporters in Davos: “We have said from the very beginning that a discussion about our status as a sovereign state, it cannot be discussed.”
She also pointed out that Trump had only been “negotiating” with Mark Rutte, the NATO secretary-general, and that even if they had been discussing Greenland, which Rutte said they had not, Rutte had no authority to negotiate on behalf of Denmark.
So basically, Trump is just blowing smoke and lying as he always does.
“[Trump] is very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region—where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and the Russians are more and more active—how we can protect it.”
“When it comes to the Arctic, I think President Trump is right. Other leaders in NATO are right. We need to defend the Arctic,” Rutte, who previously served as the Dutch prime minister, said.
NATO spokesperson Alison Hart, in a Jan. 21 statement to The Epoch Times, said that discussions would focus on “ensuring Arctic security through the collective efforts of Allies, especially the seven Arctic Allies.”
Trump announced he had formed the “framework of a future deal” on Greenland and the broader Arctic region following his meeting with Rutte.
UpstateFarmer
What exactly is your point here ????
Everyone agrees that the security of the Arctic region is important. That is why Denmark has had a treaty with the US for over 75 years regarding military bases in Greenland.
The Defense of Greenland Agreement has been in effect since 1951. This allows the US to build and maintain as many military facilities as necessary, and grants the US the right of free access to and movement between defense areas by land, air, and sea. The agreement remains in effect for the duration of the NATO Treaty, effectively providing access in perpetuity as long as that alliance exists.
Nothing has changed.
Trump has been bloviating about “taking over” Greenland, but that will not happen.
Now he claims to have the “framework of an agreement” after discussing the matter with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte. The problem is that Rutte denies that specifics about Greenland ever came up in his discussion with Trump, and the Danish Prime Minister denies that there is any agreement and states that Rutte has no authority to negotiate on behalf of Denmark.
Rutte says that he had a general discussion regarding “ensuring Arctic security through the collective efforts of Allies” as noted in your quote from the Epoch Times. That’s all. Nothing beyond that. He denies specific discussions about Greenland.
The bottom line is that absolutely nothing has changed.
There is no new agreement.
The 75 year old Defense of Greenland Agreement is still in effect and the US is free to build as many bases as desired and deploy troops and other assets.
The status quo is still in effect and Trump has achieved absolutely nothing except for nonsensical bloviating about an agreement that does not exist.
That is the point I am making.
Trump is simply bloviating about some supposed “great victory” that does not exist except in his demented mind.
And in your MAGA fever, you fall for his lies hook, line and sinker.
THAT IS MY POINT !!!!!!
. I’ll check on the ownership of the Epoch Times.
“ownership of the Epoch Times”
It is owned by the Falun Gong, a religious group that is, like several other minorities (e.g., ethnic Uyghrs), persecuted in Red China.
. Well maybe the greenlanders can cut a lucrative deal with the US and don’t want to share it with Denmark. DJT offered.
“Rutte said Greenland never even came up . . .”
Yet again, you’re lying through your teeth.
That is *not* what Rutte said.
I live in Virginia. I’m moving to Tennessee. No income tax.
MAGA monkeys!
https://www.thenationalherald.com/maga-monkeys
Communists shrieking in excitement!!!!