Governors from both parties agree: They're fed up with Washington

Governor of Colorado John Hickenlooper speaks during the 2011 Governors Summit of U.S. Chamber of Commerce June 20, 2011, in Washington, DC.

/ Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images

(CBS News) WILLIAMSBURG, VA -- To Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper, the partisan rancor in Washington is reminiscent of an elementary school classroom.

"It reminds me of a little bit of...the old cartoons of taking the pigtails of the little girl who's ahead of you in second grade and putting it in the ink well," Hickenlooper said. "And the throwing spitballs and the teasing. They just can't resist poking the other person across the aisle and causing a little bit of a ruckus."

Indeed, at the annual National Governor's Association meeting this weekend, collective sniping over the gridlock in D.C. was a rare point of bipartisan consensus. The paralysis in the nation's capital, after all, has tangible ramifications for the state's executives, the governors said.

Questions loom over the Medicaid expansion that the Supreme Court made optional with its ruling last month, with many governors saying they need more clarity from the federal government before they can move forward--unlikely, given that the fate of the health care law may hang in the balance of the November elections. Even more pressing, the so-called "fiscal cliff" threatens to bust state budgets around the country when automatic tax hikes and spending cuts go into effect at the start of the year if federal lawmakers fail to forge a compromise.

"The biggest issue I have with the federal government is that they don't act," said Republican Gov. Dave Heineman of Nebraska at the opening National Governor's Association press conference. "What I'd prefer is for president and Congress to make some tough decisions and then maybe go on vacation for a couple of years."

Democrat Jack Markell, governor of Delaware, offered a startlingly similar assessment from the other end of the political spectrum.

"Some of my friends who work in Washington tell us the worst day in our states is better than the best day in Washington and I think there's probably a lot of truth to that," he said. "Washington may be caught in the grip of partisan paralysis but in state capitals, we really don't have that choice."

States, Markell pointed out, can't borrow money and balanced budgets are not optional.

"It's almost a perfect storm in Washington," Gov. Mary Fallin, a Republican from Oklahoma, told National Journal. "There are so many issues that are out there that governors are saying wait a minute, it's hard to for us to make decisions on our state budgets with some of these core issues when we don't know what Congress is going to do between now and the election and the end of the lame duck session."

Hickenlooper said he's running out of ideas for what it would take to bring consensus and compromise. World War II led the country out of the Depression; hopefully, this time around, it won't come to that. "It takes some cathartic event of something and I don't know what the cathartic event is going to be," he said. "I thought it was the budget crisis last year--I thought we were going to move past that point."

But away from the central roundtable of the governor's meeting--when class wasn't in session, so to speak--many of the governors weren't beyond throwing spitballs on their own, a symptom of a heated presidential election year in which no one seems immune.

Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell, a Republican, kicked the weekend off with a press conference in which he accused the Obama team of waging a campaign of "division and misrepresentation." Connecticut Gov. Dannel Malloy, a Democrat, accused Republicans' blocking the President's agenda in Washington "unpatriotic," while fellow Gov. Pete Shumlin, Democrat from Vermont, said his GOP compatriots who had not committed to a Medicaid decision were "disingenuous."

"The American people are sick and tired of spineless politicians," he said.

On the same day that the Obama campaign released a blistering ad against Romney, juxtaposing the Republican nominee singing "America the Beautiful" while the offshore tax havens he listed on his returns flash across the screen, Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley conspiratorially whispered to reporters, "Barack Obama has a much better voice than Mitt Romney."

[venusvegasvada]

What a shame.

WW2. We came together and did it. Cold war? No problem. Decades of holding the line. 911, the country came together too.

So why is it our elected officials had no problem recognizing those threats to our national security, but not the biggest ones we have to worry about now?

You'd think our nation's dying middle class and outsource driven decay along with the budget and SS/Medicare/Medicaid problems would pull them together and they would get it done.

It seems that unless they can drop a bomb on it to fix the problem, it doesn't get done anymore.

[TheFoundersLive]

Repeal the 17th Amendment.

[ohitsubob]

I think we need to limit Congressmen/women and Senators to a 2 term limit, then back to civilian life.

[fiddlestickawshucks]

The Governors arent't the oness.!!!

And O'Malley' comment about Romney's singing voice just goes to show you how juvenile he really is.

As far as I know; the ability or inability to sing well is not a requirement for running for the office of the Presidency.

[stuwerb]

I think the first thing that needs to go is the myth that both sides of the aisle are equally to blame. Let's face it, the republicans have been putting ideology over country for the past 4+ years. If anyone has any doubts, then they need to go take a look at the number of compromises the Democrats have made AND offered versus that number for repulbicans. And then throw in the near train wreck over the raising the debt ceiling, and it is a FACT that the republicans are not willing to make enough compromises. The debt ceiling issue really underscores that since the debt ceiling is all about the US Government standing behind money that it has ALREADY spent. I know no one wants to see the debt keep piling up, but force the US government to renege on money it has already spent? That is just plain immoral as it is wrong. I thought the republicans were the part of family values -- since when does breaking one's word fit in with family values along with economic policy??

It's time for the republicans to start offering compromises, and working with Democrats and the president to solve our problems and stop pulling out all the stops to take ideological stands.

[hypnotoad72]

Governors like this one?

http://politicalcorrection.org/factcheck/201104270005
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2010/12/01/924578/-Pawlenty-pardoned-serial-child-molester-so-wife-could-open-up-day-care-center

Or this one?

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1908669,00.html
http://www.slate.com/id/2222523/
http://www.adn.com/2004/01/16/513761/frustrated-palin-to-quit-oil-panel.html
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2009/07/lost_in_translation.html

I'm sure plenty of governors, on both sides, are just as imperfect...

[hsinco-2009]

"What I'd prefer is for president and Congress to make some tough decisions and then maybe go on vacation for a couple of years."


Not surprising this Bullsh*t is coming from a Repug Governor!

[formerlyluvnut]

Just my opinion but the States need to be stripped of a LOT of power and toned down quite a bit.

[bobnjersey]

[Hickenlooper said he's running out of ideas for what it would take to bring consensus and compromise.]
-----------------------------------------------
remove the authoritarian ideologues from the political process and your problem will be solved. these people (and their mentally disturbed followers) have poisoned the well of political discourse.

it's not a partisan thing ... it's a deeply rooted personality disorder that has defined the modern conservative movement and the republican party.

even norm ornstein ... a resident political science scholar at the 'aei' american enterprise institute ... a conservative political thinktank has concluded that this gridlock problem in washington is 'republican made' in his book co-written w/ thomas mann ... 'its even worse than it looks'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/lets-just-say-it-the-republicans-are-the-problem/2012/04/27/gIQAxCVUlT_story.html

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/mon-june-4-2012/norman-j--ornstein---thomas-e--mann

http://www.kansascity.com/2012/06/14/3658276/book-review-its-even-worse-than.html

[qyeteye]

Wow. Hitting home.

[RepubsAreFiscallyLiberal]

by chevyhotrod July 16, 2012 1:08 PM EDT
Is continuous $1.4+ trillion dollar deficits progress and the common good for our country?

------------------

No, but it's easily fixed: cut off all tax credit for corporations (which cost us $1.1 TRILLION per year), and to indivuals.

What do you think of doing that?

.

[chenz66]

BFR50 - It doesn't seem like the corporations are doing anything when it comes to job creation lately and they still are sending jobs overseas. If they can make an extra buck by cutting a job here in the States they are doing it.