Loose Leaf Notes

-The following first appeared in The Floyd Press on January 11, 2018

Senator Tim Kaine and his wife Ann Holton were in Floyd Saturday morning as part of a kick-off for Kaine’s 2018 re-election campaign.  From Farmville, Danville and Martinsville, to Floyd, and then onto Galax, Bristol and Abington, the couple “hit the trail” to talk to people, or as Kaine said, “to let them know what I’ve been up to in the Senate and to get educated on what issues matter most to them.”

In Floyd, at the EcoVillage, Kaine met with about 25 business owners and representatives of Floyd organizations, including The Republic of Floyd, Troika, Red Rooster Coffee Roaster, Foggy Ridge Cider, PLENTY! Five Mile Mountain Distillery, Riverstone Organic Farm, Wall Residences and more. An environmental attorney, a Presbyterian pastor, a Skyline National Bank employee, Chamber of Commerce members, Mayor Will Griffin and Supervisor Linda DeVito were also present.  

Kaine introduced himself as a “Kansas City kid,” who came to Richmond, Virginia, when he and his wife were married. The couple visited the Holton family land in Bent Mountain often during the mid ‘80s. They’ve watched Floyd grow over the years, said Kaine, who has served as a Richmond city council member and mayor, and a Virginia Lieutenant Governor and Governor before winning a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Opening the roundtable-style meeting to questions and comments, Kaine spoke about the Mountain Valley Pipeline, proposed to be built along steep mountain slopes and crossing streams through Giles, Craig, Montgomery, Roanoke, Franklin and Pittsylvania County. “I’m a strong believer that Congress shouldn’t be deciding where to put pipelines. But there has to be a fair process,” he stated.  “I’ve been disappointed in the lack of opportunity for public input.  Under what circumstances can a private for-profit company forcibly take the private land of some to use for a productive profit-making enterprise?” he asked.

Kaine said that he has written letters to FERC (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) reporting what he’s heard from Virginians about the need for the process to improve.  He reported that he’s introduced a bill, as has Morgan Griffith in the House, to make some changes to the improve public input in the permitting process. He noted that the FERC chairman recently said in a Roanoke Times interview that the commission recognized the need to re-examine the process.

There were a couple of comments from attendees about local agriculture.  “I think there’s an opportunity here to bring the economy back with agriculture, with getting this area to be the bread basket for the east coast,” commented Jack Wall, co-owner (with Kamala Bauers) of Wall Residences, the EcoVillage and Hotel Floyd.  He stated that it’s hard for small farmers to compete with the industrial agricultural system but that the demand for quality food – pesticide and antibiotic free – is there, although it’s more expensive to create. “I think our government could do more with investing in the facilities to create a food system here,” Wall said.

Woody Crenshaw of Riverstone Organic Farm agreed that the playing field could be leveled for sustainable farming at the state level, noting that over 90% of subsidies go to big Ag.  “The loss of the coal industry could, to a degree, be mitigated by small farming if we had the tools in place. He stressed the environmental toll that industrial agriculture takes with the run-off of our top soils and the imbalance that the practices create on our biological systems.  He also noted that the health care costs of consuming high salt, high sugar, high fat processed food is tremendous.

 “You have to put the promotion of health as the first goal rather than just managing illnesses,” Kaine said on the issue of health care.  He spoke of a new bill that he’s co-introduced that would allow individuals to purchase a Medicare policy and pay a premium for it.  Medicare would set up a separate public insurance policy for working age people in the family, apart from Medicare for older Americans that have paid into it over the years, Kaine explained.

“Medicare already exists in every zip code in the U.S.  They already have a provider. They already have a fee schedule.  They already know how to run a program on minimal overhead and don’t have to collect for profit or pay state and local taxes… It could be offered very economically and could have incentives for healthy living as part of it,” Kaine said.

Melodie Pogue expressed her frustration at having great programs in place that are cut everyday by the current administration.  She worries that until the lack of bipartisanship is fixed nothing else matters.  “Is the Senate as toxic as we hear and if it is how do we fix that?” she asked Kaine.

“A lot more happens cooperatively than people know, but a lot less than should happen,” Kaine answered.  He pointed out recent legislature that’s been passed or re-written in job training, banking, defense and education.  “I get a lot of legislation passed and one of the reasons I do is I always seek out a Republican co-chair or co-sponsor.”  Cooperation stories don’t get a lot of press, he said. 

But he also spoke of his own frustration and the missed opportunity with the tax reform bill, which was done with just Republican votes. They held no hearings.  They would not allow Democrats to participate and offer amendments, and it increases the deficit by 1.5 trillion, Kaine reported.  He recalled how the Ronald Reagan administration took ten months to pass tax reform.  “This was done too fast and without a lot transparency.”

Kamala Bauers expressed concern about the lack of national attention to the loss of public lands and the for -profit privatization of our resources.  “He’s destroyed years and years of environmental protections in months,” she said about President Trump.

Another comment was about the corruption by money in politics, which prompted Kaine to say, “I wish we had a different system of financing campaigns. Democrats are all for campaign finance reform. We put in bills year after year and Republicans block them.”  He also said, “You can accept donations and still do the right thing.”

As a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees — and the father of a marine, Kaine, spoke about America’s role in the world. “I’m a big believer that America’s role shouldn’t just be a military one, but it’s got to be about diplomacy, the Peace Corp, Fulbright Scholarships, the strength of our moral integrity, trade and all the things that have given us an important role in the world.”

He talked about the really strong turnout in the Virginia election and the crowds at his speaking engagements that have been larger than ever, which he thinks is due to people being afraid of what they see happening.  “The biggest thing they’re afraid of is not this or that policy.  It’s divisiveness.  They want leaders that bring people together,” he said.

“There will be a next president, and whether Democrat or Republican, I think it will be someone who will want to reassert American leadership and participation in global affairs,” said Kaine, adding that we’ll have to work and be creative at regaining our world standing. He summarized by saying that the one thing he worries about the most is the president getting us into an unnecessary war through his propensity to provoke unstable people like Kim Jong-un.  “We’ll be able to fix the other stuff,” Kaine said, stressing that we have to avoid an unnecessary or unintentional war.

He spoke with confidence about Trump’s most recent National Security team and commented that he believes there are enough patriotic Republicans who would draw the line at obstruction of justice, regarding Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible conspiracy between the Trump campaign and the Russia Government in 2016.

“If I didn’t think it could be better, I wouldn’t run for another term. I see opportunities every day,” concluded Kaine, who was collecting ballot signatures for re-election.  The meeting was the third time the Senator has been in Floyd in the last year.  “You’re going to see a lot of me,” he said.________________Colleen Redman

Photos: 1. About 25 local business and organization leaders met with Senator Tim Kaine and Ann Holton at the Floyd EcoVillage Saturday.  2. Tammy Belinsky, an environmental attorney from Copper Hill, spoke about the devastation that the proposed pipeline could bring to Bent Mountain.  “The top of the mountain is a sponge. The water is shallow …They’re going to build a drain that will drain the water off the mountain.  There’s no way to get water to the people of Bent Mountain, the northern gateway to Floyd County,” she said, predicting that Bent Mountain will be a ghost town if the pipeline project goes forward.  3. Attendees listen. 4. Kaine speaks with Presbyterian pastor Bob McLavey following the roundtable discussion. 5. SustainFloyd board member Woody Crenshaw (pictured) presented Governor Kaine with a framed Personal Climate Pledge, which reflects an individual’s commitment to reducing their carbon footprint and personal waste, and supporting their local economy by buying locally. The pledge, which Crenshaw conceived of in response to President Trump pulling the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, can be downloaded at sustainfloyd.com. Kaine’s wife Ann Holton is pictured looking at the pledge. 6. The dialogue goes on.