September 20, 2014 10:08AM # Bipartisan Agreement against the Taxpayers By [David Boaz](https://www.cato.org/people/david-boaz) --- SHARE The Washington Post [reports](http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/virginia-politics/ed-gillespie-goes-on-attack-in-va-candidates-forum-with-sen-mark-warner/2014/09/19/e796defa-4009-11e4-9587-5dafd96295f0_story.html) on strong disagreements in consecutive appearances by Virginia Senate candidates Mark Warner and Ed Gillespie. Obamacare, terrorism, lobbying, partisanship — lots of arguments. But take heart, the Post advises us: “Despite the positioning, both candidates agreed on a few topics.” As usual, [as I’ve written before](https://www.cato.org/blog/bipartisanship-versus-taxpayers), when you hear about bipartisanship, watch your wallet. Here’s what Warner and Gillespie agree on: > For example, they each called federal sequestration cuts devastating to the Northern Virginia economy. > > > Gillespie said Warner was in support of sequestration, while Warner blamed Republicans for allowing the automatic spending cuts to go through after Congress failed last year to resolve the debt-ceiling crisis. > > > “Sequestration is stupidity on steroids,” Warner said, promising to look for places to cut spending in other areas. “You have to take on entitlement reform and tax reform.” > > > Both also agreed that there is an urgent need to improve Virginia’s transportation infrastructure, though Gillespie said the solution lies in bringing in more revenue through deep-sea oil drilling and Warner argued for privatizing portions of transportation improvements. > > On national security, Gillespie and Warner agreed on a need to spend more on the U.S. military in the face of the threat posed by the Islamic State. [Once again](https://www.cato.org/blog/does-bipartisanship-bigger-government), what the candidates agree on is spending the taxpayers’ money. ##### Related Tags [Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) [![Creative Commons License](/build/cato_2020/images/creative-commons.svg)](http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/) This work is licensed under a [Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/).