To the Editor:
A recent letter to the editor about Delegate Barbara Comstock claims that she’s focused on job creation and helping struggling college students. Unfortunately, her voting record paints a very different picture.
For example, last year Comstock voted against the historic bipartisan transportation bill passed by the Virginia General Assembly. The measure keeps local tax dollars in northern Virginia to address traffic congestion and, in the process, creates thousands of good jobs that strengthen our local economy, but Comstock voted “No.”
When it comes to Virginia’s colleges and universities, Comstock repeatedly voted for cuts in funding for higher education so that Virginia recently ranked 40th among the states in the support provided to our public institutions. As a result of these cuts in state funding, tuition costs for Virginia students and their families have risen higher and higher throughout Comstock’s time in the General Assembly.
This is the record that Delegate Comstock brings to her campaign for Congress.
In contrast, Supervisor John Foust, the Democratic nominee for the 10th District seat, has a long record of pragmatic problem solving, helping Fairfax County chart a responsible path through the Great Recession and beyond by cutting unnecessary spending while protecting our priorities on transportation, such as widening Route 7, and education, like universal all-day kindergarten.
Foust’s vision for an efficient, fair, and transparent Congress is best suited for finding the common ground essential for the sort of pragmatic problem solving we need to move beyond the gridlock in Richmond and Washington, D.C. That’s the approach we need to actually create jobs and make college more affordable for Virginia families.
Steven Bloom
McLean