George Allen

Virginia is the birthplace of 400 years of American self-governing democracy

As Americans we are blessed to live in a country that is an aspirational meritocracy where every person has an equal opportunity in life. Our forefathers fought hard to establish the basis of a free and just society based on the ideal that a democratic republic would protect our rights, deriving its just powers from the consent of the people. Many Americans are unaware that American democracy was born 400 years ago in Virginia, a full year before the "pilgrims" arrived at Plymouth Rock. This year, the Commonwealth of Virginia is working to present accurate history — sharing its authentic, inclusive history.

June 16, 2019

Well-funded attacks on oil and gas firms drive up costs for U.S. families

American manufacturing has been undergoing a tough transition for decades. Import competition and currency manipulation by other countries as well as regulatory excess at home have all taken a toll in many sectors of manufacturing. Just as manufacturing in America appears to be coming back, it faces a formidable new threat: a cabal of activists, cunning lawyers, ambitious politicians and a network of well-heeled benefactors.

December 12, 2017

South Korea still trying diplomacy with the North

It was only a month ago that the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency said North Korea could have a "reliable, nuclear-capable ICBM" program as soon as 2018. This week, the threat from North Korea appears even more imminent.

August 15, 2017

Small businesses could get a boost

Among the many lessons our current leadership should learn from Ronald Reagan's effective governance are his initiatives to revitalize the American economy. Most relevant today is remembering President Reagan's tax cuts and corporate tax reform of 1986 enacted with bipartisan support that produced sustained economic growth.

May 24, 2017

GEORGE ALLEN: Ronald Reagan’s memory preserved in Rancho del Cielo

Having held Thomas Jefferson's seat in the House of Delegates, living for two years in a converted shed on Mount Alto-Brown's Mountain overlooking Monticello, marrying my wife, Susan, nearby at James Monroe's Ash Lawn, and now living on land that was once a part of George Washington's Mount Vernon plantation, I have seen how historic properties can be subdivided and developed, thereby altering the experience and sense of a personal understanding of important history.

February 15, 2015

ALLEN: Reagan’s Ex-Im Bank reforms still paying dividends

President Reagan was one of our country's greatest leaders because he valued fair opportunities for the American people over political manipulations that waste taxpayer money.

May 22, 2014

ALLEN: Remembering the tax-reform lessons that Reagan taught

These days we hear gloomy statements that no significant reforms can be accomplished by a lame-duck president in his sixth year in office with a partisan, divided House and Senate, in an election year.

February 21, 2014

ALLEN: Marketplace fairness deception

Imagine trying to start an innovative, online small business in Virginia only to find out that the federal government mandates that you must become the tax collector for 9,600 jurisdictions — 9,599 of which are not where your business is located — and, if you get it wrong, you could be audited by the likes of California, New York or any of the other thousands of tax jurisdictions.

July 31, 2013

ALLEN: Virginians are paying too much at the pump

No matter where I am in Virginia, a top concern on people's minds these days is punishingly high gasoline prices. We've all felt the shock at gas stations. To fill a 20-gallon tank costs an additional $40 or more than it did just three years ago. Heck, it costs $20 to fill just a 5-gallon gas can for grass cutting.

April 4, 2012

ALLEN: Obamacare stalls American economic engine

Nearly a year ago in January, as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, Tim Kaine boasted that Obamacare would be "one of the great achievements of this president." He then went on to claim this "reform will control costs and lower costs for middle-class families" and that it was "an important step toward getting our economy back on track."

December 13, 2011

ALLEN: Listen to Virginians, Mr. President

President Obama just witnessed the defeat of his flawed stimulus bill that called for tax hikes to pay for more of the same failed policies that we have seen come out Washington. Even some Senate Democrats expressed the same concerns I have heard from Virginians - the bill is "terrible," "invested far too little in actual job creation" and they can't "support raising taxes so Washington can spend more."

October 19, 2011

ALLEN: Job growth

''God gave us this great and good land, but it's up to us to make it flourish - to preserve its freedom, to see it grow and become a nation of greatness." Ronald Reagan expressed these words of responsibility in 1986. Twenty-five years later, how is our nation doing?

August 30, 2011

ALLEN: Obama is pumping pain

Each morning over the past several weeks, Americans have watched gasoline and diesel prices skyrocket, igniting worries about the potential for a record-setting spring and summer of high fuel and food costs. Prices have not spiked this quickly since Hurricane Katrina in 2005; in fact, we are experiencing the second highest weekly spike in prices since 1990, according to the Energy Information Administration.

March 9, 2011