Columns

By Congressman Robert Hurt

Even as our economy continues to suffer from our nation’s crushing debt and as the Congressional Budget Office projected a nearly $900 billion deficit for the next year, President Obama continues to demonstrate that he is not serious about addressing our nation’s pressing debt problem. At over $16 trillion and counting, the national debt is on an unsustainable path that is destroying jobs, slowing economic growth, and harming families, farmers, and small business owners all across Virginia’s 5th District.

There’s an old saying about elephants having a long memory, which certainly makes them an appropriate symbol for Republicans in the U.S. Senate.
    They don’t forget; and they don’t forgive, either. They proved it at confirmation hearings for one of their own, former Senator Chuck Hagel, whom the president has nominated to be Secretary of Defense.

This week saw unseasonably warm temperatures come to Richmond, immediately followed by the customarily frigid temperatures that bring in the month of February.  We are now at the halfway point of the General Session, and during the week ahead we will pass crossover and both the House and Senate will consider respective their respective versions of legislation amending the state’s two-year budget.  As a result, the week to come is one of the most eventful of the General Assembly session.

    I’ve long been a fan of Sheriff Mike Brown’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC). I thought it was a great idea from the time it first got rolling as Operation Blue Ridge Thunder just before the turn of the century.
    The Internet is a wonderful thing. I use it for research and I use it to buy things. It also makes it possible for me to talk with Oksana, my favorite Russian, via Skype without having to pay a long distance charge.