Washington Examiner senior columnist Guy Benson said Democrats have been focusing on issues they didn’t campaign on since winning the Virginia elections in their “little blue wave.”
“The democrats mouth these platitudes of affordability and democracy. That’s how they got elected,” Benson said Wednesday on Fox Business’s Bottom Line. “As soon as they seized control of everything with their little blue wave in Virginia, it has been this dizzying array of increased tax proposals from every direction.”
In the 2025 elections, Democrats took control of the Virginia governorship and flipped 13 House delegate seats.
Virginia Democrats have introduced more than 50 new proposals and new rules for the new legislative session, including taxes on dog walking and gym memberships.
Benson said in addition to raising taxes, Virginia Democrats have been focusing on “culture war” issues and “gerrymandering.”
“That has been their priority — it is not at all what they campaigned on,” he said.
In comparison, Benson said the tax increases in New York City aren’t a surprise because Mayor Zohran Mamdani is a “communist.”
“In New York, you can at least say, listen, he’s a communist, you knew what you were going to get,” Benson said. “He could put on a nice grin and a nice smile and say nice words, but he was an unrepentant communist.”
“So, this was going to come [in New York City], this was not the sell job in Virginia, and yet the outcomes are looking quite familiar, isn’t that interesting,” he added.
MAMDANI PROPOSES 9.5% PROPERTY TAX HIKE IN NYC AS PART OF NEW BUDGET
Benson said Virginia Democrats’ new tax proposals are “crazy.”
“It’s crazy, like if it moves or doesn’t move, tax it,” he said. “We’ll see how much of this actually gets passed, we’ll see if the governor decides to veto some of these things to try to cling to some veneer of moderation.”