Dave LaRock Statement on Federal Government Shutdown

I, like many Americans, am not pleased with the current budget stalemate in Washington D.C. that has shut down large parts of the federal government and is hurting government employees and contractors and private businesses, including many here in Northern Virginia.  In business you negotiate and strike a deal; that is what Congress must do. President Obama recently talked with the President of Iran, but he is refusing to negotiate with Republicans to find a solution.

The federal government needs to take a lesson from Virginia. Our legislators make some tough spending choices each year when we set priorities and balance our Virginia budget. That is how you run a household or a business.

I call for putting politics aside and running our government responsibly. We risk a national economic breakdown if we don’t get control of the runaway national debt. Many of our national leaders are ignoring that a $17 trillion debt is a major threat to our national security as well, and something does need to be done about that.

I am also concerned about Obamacare’s impact on Virginia’s budget. Our Republican-led House of Delegates here in Virginia has balanced our budget, but expansion of Medicaid could hinder our ability to fund core government services like transportation, education, and public safety in the future. Virginia must avert the pending budget crunch that another massive unfunded mandate like Medicaid expansion will guarantee.

As I’ve talked to thousands of people at their front doors over the last several months, they tell me they are tired of politics as usual. And they want to see progress at all levels of government.

I think what we’re seeing in Washington D.C. now is political gamesmanship and it must end soon.

I intend to put my small-business experience to work fighting to make sure common-sense priorities, not politics, guide funding decisions. We need to have objective standards for spending to ensure that we get the best possible results for every dollar spent. Our elected officials need to put politics aside and work together for solutions to get the results that we desperately need.