Former U.S. Senator George Allen, who before he was Governor of Virginia served as a member of the House of Delegates from Albemarle County, returned to his old home base on July 2 to ride his horse in the Crozet Independence Day parade.
Allen, who earned his law degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, was not the only former governor present. His likely Democratic opponent in the 2012 election for the U.S. Senate from Virginia, Tim Kaine, was also in Crozet, where they both briefly spoke to the crowd, describing each other as “competitors and friends.”
After delivering his remarks, Allen answered questions from reporters.
‘Vulnerable to outside forces’
In response to one question, Allen said that “America needs to get back in control of her own destiny. We are vulnerable to outside forces due to our dangerous levels of debt as well as our counterproductive energy policies.”
He pointed out that “the Chinese own more of our government bonds than do Americans.” This, he said, “is not a good position to be in.”
With regard to energy, he continued, “we are vulnerable to these dictators and oligarchs and cartels” even though the United States has “energy resources under our land and under our water.”
“Creative people,” he explained, are another form of resources but “what we need is the political will to unleash those American energy resources.”
If that occurred, he went on, “we’d have more jobs here in America. Families and businesses would be paying lower fuel and electricity costs.”
Finding energy independence, he said, would help the country’s balance of trade, improve the quality of life, and strengthen national security.
“The good news,” Allen said, “is we do have these resources. We have the technology, we have the people, we have the capabilities to take back control of our own American energy destiny.”
‘Balanced budget requirement’
Replying to a question from the Charlottesville Libertarian Examiner about the pending debt-ceiling vote in Congress, Allen offered his assessment of the situation.
“What I’ve been advocating for many years,” he said, is “that is there needs to be a balanced budget requirement in the federal Constitution, [the] same as we have here in Virginia. I think the President should have line-item veto authority and there should be taxpayer protection.”
A balanced budget amendment “narrowly failed back in the 1990s by one vote,” he explained.
“Can you think of how much better our country could be if that had passed back then?” he asked.
“If I were in the U.S. Senate, I’d be advocating for spending cuts, for curtailing the amount of spending, and putting in real reforms to have ironclad reductions in reforming the way that Washington does business,” Allen said.
‘Bind him down from mischief’
Turning to his favorite political philosopher – “since it’s Independence Day weekend” – Allen quoted Thomas Jefferson, who said:
"In questions of power, then, let no more be heard of confidence in man, but bind him down from mischief by the chains of the Constitution” and also that “public debt [is] the great danger to be feared. To preserve your independence, we must not let our leaders load us with perpetual debt."
Allen repeated the phrase “perpetual debt,” adding: “That’s happening right now, and it’s skyrocketing. And it’s not just me saying this. Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s, and others are questioning the creditworthiness of the United States.”
As a consequence, he pointed out, “spending needs to get under control immediately. For the long term, I think, [we need] a balanced-budget requirement for the constitution with taxpayer protection.”
Allen concluded by saying that he thinks “the line-item veto makes a lot of sense. I used it as governor. I think the president, Democrat or Republican, should have it.”
Although Allen is widely seen as the favorite to win the 2012 GOP nomination to regain the U.S. Senate seat he lost to Jim Webb in 2006, he has several opponents also seeking their party’s nod, including Tea Party leader Jamie Radtke, business executives Tim Donner and David McCormick, and Bishop E. W. Jackson.
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