Governor Holds 'Branding' Veto Party

NEIL CAVUTO, HOST OF"YOUR WORLD": All right, I think his buzzer is meaner.

Montana's governor taking out a branding iron to veto things he deems frivolous. Will he use it next week on his state budget?

Let's ask him. Montana Democratic Governor Brian Schweitzer joining me right now.

Governor, good to have you. How does this branding iron thing work?

GOV. BRIAN SCHWEITZER, D-MONT.: Well, here's how it works.

I guess, in Montana, since we're running a budget surplus, and unlike 48 other states that are running these big deficits, our legislature has come to town and instead of actually sending pieces of legislation to a governor that makes sense, they act like people that are at a pool hall drinking beer and saying, by God, we ought to -- we ought to just send this message on up to the governor.

So, they send me things that are, well, in some cases, kooky. Some are unconstitutional. And most of them are just bad ideas. And so, if they're -- if they're going to act a little ridiculous in the public by sending these kinds of bills to me, I will respond by, well, just branding them a bad idea with the veto brand.

CAVUTO: Which is what you've been doing. You brand it right there on the steps of the capitol.

But you are not branding them physically, right? You're not doing that yet?

SCHWEITZER: Oh, no, no.

Real branding, it's completely different, as I describe to the people. In a real branding, you have got real calves, and you vaccinate them first, and some of them, you de-horn. And of course there's a little castration. We don't do any that.

CAVUTO: A little castration with some of them?

SCHWEITZER: We're not branding any hides. We just -- we just...

CAVUTO: That's a whole 'nother...

(CROSSTALK)

SCHWEITZER: No, no, castration. We just -- we brand the board.

CAVUTO: Sure.

Governor, I wonder whether a branding iron or a buzzer -- and I say this about both parties on Capitol Hill -- whether something like that isn't in order, because we waste a lot of time on frivolous stuff, on 10- year, 12-year plans to get spending under control, by which time a lot of these same people making these goals are long going to be out of office.

So, I'm wondering whether we just need to change the pressure in Washington more short-term. What would you recommend?

SCHWEITZER: Well, that's what works in Montana.

You know, our legislature only meets for 90 days every other year.  And they're 82 days into this baloney and...

CAVUTO: Every other year?

SCHWEITZER: Every other year. And then -- and we've to balance that budget. We write a budget that has to be balanced. And we make sure we got money in the bank. And by the time they leave, I will make sure that we have $200 million, $300 million that's salted away again.

And no matter what the contingencies are, we have to get by for the next couple of years, a balanced budget with money in the bank. Maybe Washington, D.C., ought to consider that.

CAVUTO: Well, I think Democrats and Republicans, regardless, would at least be open to the whole branding iron idea. I think you're on to something there.

SCHWEITZER: Well, if it's a bad enough idea, you ought to just heat up the irons and brand it.

CAVUTO: OK. Thank you, Governor. Very good seeing you.

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