FAIRMONT, W.Va. — West Virginia Governor Jim Justice called out Republican state legislators for what he perceives as an ideology that overly relies on cuts during his ongoing ‘Save Our State’ tour, which brought him to Fairmont Thursday morning.
“They want to cut you back,” Justice said Thursday morning at the Falcon Center on the Campus of Fairmont State University. “They want to eliminate you. They want us to slow down. They want to divide.”
The Governor was referring to President Donald Trump, who has not always remained in lock-step with Republican orthodoxy on budget cuts.
“They want to do every single thing that their leader of the entire free world–your saying and I’m saying–is step-by-step with me,” Justice said.
The Governor criticized Republican-proposed cuts as too deep.
“They want to completely cut out the education and the arts,” Justice said. “Eliminate it. Eliminate it.
He went on sarcastically:
“We don’t need that in West Virginia. We’re so backward and so terrible. We don’t need such a thing as the arts in West Virginia.”
Justice used a refrain from his campaign last year, citing the need to simply avoid purely “cutting to the bone.”
“I think really, at the end of the day, if we go this way, we’re dead,” he said. “You are already 50th. You are already dead last. You are, and I am too.”
Justice’s ‘Save Our State’ tour has been used to highlight the need for tax increases and infrastructure investments to solve ongoing budget shortages.
“How bad’s it going to get?” he asked. “They have no plan.”
Justice will also travel to Elkins Thursday. He is expected to highlight issues related to senior citizens.