"Defending the American Dream:" Bob McDonnell's remarks at Virginia lunch

Attorney General Bob McDonnell addressed the Virginia delegation at Friday's "Defending the American Dream" summit as they gathered at a lunch after the morning session and before the afternoon seminars. Speaking before a standing-room only crowd, AG McDonnell questioned Governor Tim Kaine's plan to use rainy-day funds to make up over $640 million in shortages.

According to The Washington Times, McDonnell remarked:

"Liberals in Virginia are saying we need to raid the rainy-day fund so we can start some more programs for pre-K education when we have a $600 million budget deficit. It's not rainy," and added that $641 "sounds like a lot of money," but that former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder "got us through a $2 billion deficit without raiding the rainy-day fund and not raising taxes."

Noting that while the liberals want to raid the rainy-day fund, he had enacted a 5% decrease in the AG's budget to help with the deficit, and other agencies should be able to do the same. Although Virginia has been voted the best-managed state for two years in a row, McDonnell said that with a budget that has doubled in ten years there is still much work to do.

Even after calling for budget cuts and raiding the rainy-day fund to fill the void of the deficit, Kaine still wants to move forward on his pre-kindergarten proposal of $75 million a year.

The Washington Times summed it up:

The attorney general's comments reflected a daylong theme at the summit that centered on rekindling the desire to control spending.

Mr. McDonnell drew laughs from the crowd when he paraphrased a statement famously attributed to President Reagan.

"Government spending is like a baby's alimentary canal. It has an insatiable appetite on one end, and no responsibility at the other," he said.