GOP Address: Virginia Gov. Looks Ahead to Obama’s Budget Reveal
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Melina Mara/The Washington Post(WASHINGTON) — In this week’s Republican address, Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell touts the various achievements of GOP leadership on the heels of President Obama’s 2013 budget announcement.
But first, McDonnell finds fault with Senate Dems, who he points out have not passed a budget in “over 1000 days.”
“This is an astounding failure of leadership and management of the nation’s finances,” McDonnell says.
On Monday, the president will unveil his budget in person in a speech Monday at Northern Virginia Community College. The White House said Friday that this budget projects a deficit of $1.3 trillion for 2012. Under the administration’s tax and spending proposals, the deficit would fall to $901 billion next year.
The budget largely echoes the domestic proposals that the president has been pushing for the last year, including spending for job creation and tax increases for the wealthy.
But Gov. McDonnell says Americans can expect to see things worsen with President Obama’s proposals.
“We can expect the President’s budget to make private sector job creation tougher because it will raise taxes and continue policies like Obamacare that are making it harder for small businesses to hire — at a time when millions of Americans remain out of work,” McDonnell says.
He later adds, “Now we can expect the President’s budget to again fail to address the $15 trillion, and growing, national debt — in fact, it will probably make it worse. With no boldness or leadership or setting priorities, the Obama approach is simply more debt, more taxes, and more blaming others.”
After predicting the president’s delivery of a “bloated budget that doubles down on the failed policies of the past,” McDonnell highlights the “$65 billion in deficits” closed by Republican governors in recent years.
“While Washington D.C. borrows at a staggering $3.5 billion a day just to keep the lights on, Republican governors have closed $65 billion in deficits the past two fiscal years alone,” he says. “Here in Virginia, we closed $6 billion in budget shortfalls without raising taxes and produced nearly $1 billion in surpluses the past two years, by putting new money into transportation and colleges and universities. In Nebraska, Governor Dave Heineman proposed $326 million in tax cuts. In New Jersey, Governor Chris Christie is pushing to cut the state income tax by 10 percent.”
“And Republican governors in Florida, Georgia, Iowa, New Mexico and South Carolina are all working to reform their tax systems to make their states more competitive,” he adds.
Finally, Gov. McDonnell talks about what Republicans believe the role of government should be in economic recovery.
“At every level, governments should pass budgets on time that fund core functions like education, transportation and public safety well, and don’t waste precious taxpayer dollars. And, at every level, governments should enact policies that ensure our private sector job creators, small business owners, and entrepreneurs can compete again the world, create jobs and innovate,” McDonnell says closing out the address.
“The American people can out-compete and out-work anyone, anywhere. All they need is the opportunity.”
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