McDonnell “furious” at Washington
By JR Hoeft | Tuesday, July 19th, 2011 | PolicyResponding to a question about the possibility that Virginia’s AAA bond rating from Moody’s might be in jeopardy, Governor Bob McDonnell unloaded on the administration and leadership in Congress (begins at 34:11) over their inability to come to an agreement on the federal budget and debt ceiling.
McDonnell’s words speak for themselves:
Yea, I’m very unhappy. In fact, we’re furious. It’s a national embarrassment for the United States of America to be …two weeks from defaulting on its obligations.
We’ve got a Republican House and a Democratic Senate here in Virginia. And we’ve laid out some very clear goals about how we’re going to work together, and we get things done.
A unanimous budget passes one day late. You [in the media] wrote that the world was falling because we were one day late, now, they’re a year-and-a-half late in Washington….
We have a AAA bond rating that has been in place since 1938 that we’ve been informed just hours ago may be in jeopardy and we’re put on the watch list because of the inability and ineptitude of the president and the congress to reach a deal on how to fund the obligations of the United States of America. We’ll be corresponding with them in detail, probably tomorrow, on this issue….
We understand that we get a significant amount of money from the Federal government because of the Defense Department and other obligations that we receive, and it’s solely because of that amount of federal funding that comes to us – and it being in jeopardy if there is not an agreement – that they’ve placed us on the watch list.
I personally visited Moody’s and the other two rating agencies in New York last year. I brought the Republican and Democrat leadership of both houses up there. Moody’s couldn’t have been anymore complimentary about the way we’re doing things in Virginia. They said they’d like to see us make progress on infrastructure – so we did that. So, apart from this federal inaction, their reports would even be better.
It’s not the first time – I think this is the third time in twenty years we’ve been put on the watch list -but, it is a source of great alarm and consternation for us in Virginia, as I imagine it is for the other four governors, including my neighbor to the north in Maryland and my neighbors…in South Carolina and Tennessee.
I think it’s gonna take strong leadership.
The president and his party have failed to produce a budget. They had both houses of congress. They had the presidency, long before the Republicans took over last November. And, on October 1, when the budget was supposed to be in place, there was no budget. The budget that the president put forward was laughed out of congress by both parties.
This president has contributed $4.5 trillion to the national debt in two and a half years. It is an unprecedented, unsustainable, and immoral level of spending.
Now, every family in America – every business in America – knows you can’t spend more than you take in for a sustainable period of time – you go broke. Apparently they don’t understand that in Washington. But, for that last thirty years, that’s what they’ve done. And, frankly, it’s been both Republican and Democrat presidents and congresses that have contributed to this mess. In fact, every president, since 1980, has contributed to an increase to the national debt except for Bill Clinton.
Now the bills are due. And, if I was in charge, I’d cut spending dramatically, in every area of the federal budget. But I’d do in the way we did it here in Virginia with the help of Tommy Norment to Dick Saslaw to Ward Armstong to Bill Howell….We set priorities, we cut spending in low priority areas, and we made investment in things that are going to be important for the future – transportation, education, and job creation.
Why they can’t do that on a responsible basis in Washington is just beyond me. It is a toxic environment . There’s plenty of blame to go around.
At this point, it’s a pox on both parties, and both houses, and the president that they can’t lead and get this deal done.
It is imperative that they get this done, because if they don’t, not only will it be embarrassing, but it will create an international financial crisis. And Virginia and our four other sister states are going to be the first ones to be victim to this.
The governor sounds like a leader – almost presidential, don’t you think?
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Conservative to the core; liberal with his opinion! J.R. has been involved in politics for over a decade and has worked on several campaigns in Hampton Roads. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Republican Party of Chesapeake and the Central Committee of the Republican Party of Virginia. He is also the director of “Blogs United” in Virginia. E-mail J.R.. Follow J.R. on Twitter.
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10 Responses to "McDonnell “furious” at Washington"
Wow, this guy is really good; talk about offense being the best defense. Of course, no mention is made of the fact that he failed to pay obligations, issuing an IOU instead, he increased tuition to a point that it is cutting out students who can’t pay, he cut local governments and school boards, and of course, the big whopper, he borrowed three billion for transportation by issuing bonds, some of which is based upon anticipation notes, while his republicans cut this money from the federal budget, while he applauded that action. And now his has the audacity to blame the feds for the precarious position he has placed the Commonwealth of Virgina because he over borrowed, putting our credit rating at risk. You really can’t make this stuff up.
Methinks the governor doth protest too much. It’s not like the governor didn’t know where his bread got buttered.
Either:
1. Did the governor fail to understand the developing federal budget crisis, and its likely impact on Virginia? This certainly was a slow-motion train wreck, one spoken of by many over the past several years. Now he finds himself “shocked, shocked!” to learn that the effort to cut federal spending threatens the Commonwealth’s credit rating.
Or:
2. If he didn’t fail to understand the burgeoning federal crisis, what was his plan for dealing with it when it finally blossomed? Apparently, no plan at all.
I don’t think the man sounds like any kind of leader at all. It sounds to me like he is covering up for his own lack of foresight by trying to shift the blame.
Foresight is a leadership quality, don’t you think?
On facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Draft-Bob-McDonnell-for-President-in-2012/182559595128064#!/pages/Draft-Bob-McDonnell-for-President-in-2012/182559595128064
Not so fast. The debt and specific entitlements can be met with revenue the government receives and will continue to receive by the IRS each month. What will be cut is a sizable portion of the rest. A good plan if you ask me. Since NOVA is bloated and by recent newcomers wanting big bloated government jobs that will impact Virginia’s revenues. That is only a problem as long as the Commonwealth makes the same blunders as Washington by funding needless junk. During the Depression the military took a pay cut yet in this economic crisis they have not yet the beach leaches in the Bureaucracies of DC they have received huge pay increases. A major and sudden cutting needs to happen and sooner rather than later.
Yes Mark, good to hear from another Norquist acolyte. By advocating for cutting expenditures by applauding the effect of another fiscal crisis, you uphold the Norquist prescription; that is, it is our sworn duty to cut the arms and legs off government so it can be drowned in a bathtub. But many of us want outstanding public services just like we use outstanding private ones. We want roads that are maintained and tunnels that don’t flood, schools that teach our children well, services for the sick, disabled, and elderly, universities and colleges our children can afford to attend, and we want recreational and cultural programs. We don’t want to go back to the idyllic life of the 1700′s. So speak for yourself about “major and sudden cutting”, but you don’t speak for me.
Mike,
You forgot the rainbows and unicorns again.
Along with all this outstanding public services are you also willing to pay $24B per year in Medicare and Medicaid fraud, the amount of money it takes to run the entire Defense Department for a month and a half? Are you also willing to spend over $11,000 per public school student per year to have them graduate from high school after twelve years with an average reading ability that ranges from sixth grade to tenth grade? An amount, BTW, that has increased almost 50% since 2002. Are you willing to continue to pay for free FAMIS health insurance for the children of middle class families who earn as much as 25% more than the median income in their county? Best of all, are you willing to continue the uncontrolled growth of entitlement spending until it reaches 50% of total GDP sometime by mid-century.
You see, Mike, you can’t keep just raising taxes. At some point, you have to rein in out-of-control spending. It is not Greek, if you get my meaning.
If he’s so mad, he should be calling the representatives from Virginia and get them to quit being a bunch of obstructionists and follow Senator Warner and the Gang of 6′s lead.
Presidential – he even threw in a geography twist: “and my neighbors…in South Carolina”
Our wise and fiscally responsible Governor could get upset about things like this.
Your tax dollars at work – EPA offers “golf swing seminar” on EPA work hours and in an EPA facility
http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/07/19/your-tax-dollars-at-work-epa-offers-golf-swing-seminar-on-epa-work-hours-and-in-an-epa-facility/
“There has to be a way to train some of these nut-jobs that think being against the waste and ridiculous micromanagement of the EPA is somehow being for uncontrolled polluting and environmental destruction…”
Well HisRoc, I do have to admit that some inefficiency exists in all administrative systems. That said, I agree that entitlement reform and changes to the credits in the tax system are necessary, and I certainly agree we must rein in the growth of expenditures. Both need to be done on a time table that acknowledges the economy is still coming back from the Great Recession and we don’t need another jolt right now. But I welcome the plan put forth by the Gang of Six because it does all the things necessary. You appear to rest your case on the fact that taxes have gone up, when in fact, for most americans, they have gone down, as we substituted debt for pay as you go under the Bush administration. Frankly, fighting two wars, expanding Medicare, and providing massive tax cuts on a credit card was a terrible policy; we don’t need that again, so we need to restore fiscal sanity consistent with stimulating growth inGDP.
hey …no joke….bob want run for potus….why else he lie to state worker…about pension funding?
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