Governors Chris Christie (R) of New Jersey and Bob McDonnell (R) of Virginia are both struggling with massive budget deficits. So naturally they are proposing tremendous spending programs on dozens of dubious projects, right? No. Massive tax hikes? No. True to their word, Christie and McDonnell are cutting spending, reducing the size of state government and rolling back regulations.

In Virginia, Gov. Bob McDonnell is dealing with a $2 billion deficit by “eliminating more than 500 jobs over three years, instituting 10 furlough days for state workers and slashing services…” The governor is proposing $730 million in cuts to the state’s education budget over two years and five state parks will be closed. But McDonnell’s budget, which must pass Virginia’s Democrat-controlled state Senate, includes no tax hikes.

To listen to the Left, you’d think Armageddon was upon us. There is great wailing and gnashing of teeth among liberals and Big Government activists in Trenton and Richmond. This will be a good test to see just how serious voters are about smaller government and reining in out-of-control spending.

He Said What?!

Al Arabiya reports that Iranian “president” Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is claiming that the West, and the United States in particular, is preventing the coming of the Islamic messiah, known as the “hidden imam.” Here is Ahmadinejad’s statement: “They have devised all these plans to prevent the coming of the Hidden Imam because they know that the Iranian nation is the one that will prepare the grounds for his coming and will be the supporters of his rule.”

Before you dismiss Ahmadinejad’s statement as the rantings of a madman, it is vital to understand the context. In Ahmadinejad’s Shiite fundamentalist mind, it is his job to prepare the world for the coming of the hidden imam through an apocalyptic confrontation with the enemies of Islam (that’s us). If he believes we are preventing the coming of the Islamic messiah, then anything he does to hasten that coming is justified. That could mean unleashing a new wave of terrorist attacks around the world or even developing and using a nuclear weapon against America or Israel.

As bizarre as Ahmadinejad’s statement is, what is even stranger is the continued insistence of the Obama Administration on negotiating with this lunatic as if he were behaving rationally. He is not. There is nothing we can offer that would dissuade him from pursuing Armageddon. With each passing day, our delay in confronting this growing threat makes us less safe.