Va. Gov. talks high-speed rail
Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell this morning praised House Budget Committee Chairman Rep, Paul Ryan from Wisconsin who was chosen to give the Republican response to the President’s State of the Union address Tuesday night.
“Paul Ryan is a great spokesman for our party on fiscal responsibility. I think, in a very succinct and measured way, he talked about why spending is not only a problem now but for future generations and why it is a top priority for the American people to get it back under control and live within our means and I think an think they get it and he did it in ways they could understand and relate to so I give him high marks,” McDonnell told Fox and Friends Wednesday morning.
McDonnell said he was disappointed that President Obama did not get to the specifics on cutting back on the deficit.
“It took him a long time into the speech to talk about spending in a serious way and everybody knows that and jobs are the top two issues I think our people care about in Virginia and around the country and the best that he could muster was a discretionary spending freeze. Well, that’s nice but it’s not but a small piece of what we need to do. We need to dig into entitlements and look, these are tough gutsy calls but that’s what a president or leader is supposed to do is lay out a good blueprint and I didn’t see it.
“Very light on substance, but as usual a well-delivered speech,” said McDonnell who gave the President a ‘B’.
McDonnell was asked if the President’s high-speed rail plans announced at the SOTU would resonate with the people of Virginia:
“It would because we understand that infrastructure is a huge part of making America competitive and recruiting business and jobs in an intensely competitive global economy. We are looking at that particularly to relieve congestion in our I-95 corridor and we think that it is a piece of the overall future transportation strategy. We’ve got to do it better; there are some examples in Europe and Asia on how to do it well, and manage it well but we need to have some monies distributed a little bit better. There were some resources distribute a couple of years ago that we didn’t see much of,” said McDonnell who added that he would let other people decide if that was because he is a Republican.
“I’ll just tell you, the states that had Democratic governors fared a little bit better.”
Governor McDonnell was chosen to give the Republican response, live from the Virginia House of Delegates, last year.
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