It was bittersweet satisfaction to hear a Republican friend say that she was not sure about the new Republican governor, Bob McDonnell. When I asked what she meant, she said that she was shocked and disappointed with the proposed education cuts he is recommending to balance the Virginia budget. She continued that she didn't think she was voting for the severe cuts in teaching positions when she cast her vote for him.
I hope everyone who voted for Bob McDonnell has had a chance to read the front page of the
Thursday edition of The Roanoke Times in which his wish list of cuts is fully outlined. Here are some of them:
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His suggestions include nearly $730 million in reductions to K-12 education, freezing enrollment in a health insurance program for low-income children and pregnant women, and requiring state workers to take as many as 10 unpaid days off and contribute more toward their pensions. And, on a day McDonnell reopened four shuttered rest stops, he also recommended closing five state parks -- none in Western Virginia. "There's no doubt in my mind it will cause hardship for real Virginians," McDonnell said. But he maintained his campaign pledge not to raise any taxes.
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From the side box in the print edition, here are the figures for the cuts: $925 million in salaries and benefits for state employees; $730 million for k-12 education including laying off tens of thousands of teachers according to the Virginia School Boards Association Executive Director, Frank Barham; $300 million in cuts to health and human resources programs.
Roanoke's Democratic state senator, John Edwards, expressed his disagreement with the governor's proposals calling them "a political tsunami."
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"It's the biggest jobs-cutting budget I've ever seen," Edwards said. "When people find out the number of teachers that will have to be let go ... the number of health care workers that will be let go ... the number of services that will be cut, they will be outraged." "The shame of it is, it's unnecessary," said Edwards, who said lawmakers could cushion the severity of the cuts by rolling back car tax relief subsidies as former Gov. Tim Kaine proposed.
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McDonnell is quoted as saying, "There's no doubt in my mind it will cause hardship for real Virginians[.]" Here we go again with that phrase, 'real Virginians' which tells us a lot about McDonnell's thinking. It previously was used by the McCain-Palin campaign as a term to disparage Northern Virginians. Now we know that, in truth, it must mean all the Virginians who are not rich because you would have to be rich not to be affected by these cuts. All you 'real Virginians' who voted for him are getting exactly what you voted for--hardship from another corporate Republican who protects big business and the rich at the expense of the rest of the 'REAL Virginians.'