Virginia’s just-passed transportation bill shows why the hoary cliche comparing legislating with sausage-making remains apt. What originally started out as Del. Tim Hugo’s, R-Centreville, revenue-neutral plan to replace dwindling proceeds from Virginia’s 17.5-cent gas tax with a slight increase in the state sales tax to pay for transportation improvements was ground up in Richmond and extruded as an unsavory tax increase.

What does a Medicaid expansion have to do with road building and pothole filling? Absolutely nothing, but Senate Democrats insisted on throwing it into the meat grinder anyway. Desperate to compromise, Gov. Bob McDonnell and enough Republicans agreed to add this unnecessary extra ingredient to a mix made even more unpalatable by a 1.3 percent increase in the hated car tax.