Republican gubernatorial wannabe Rob McKenna's speech at this morning's breakfast kickoff was very much like his first kickoff speech, only this time with breakfast! Yum! And as Eli already reported, McKenna once again spent much of his speech promising to spend billions more on education:

"We can create jobs," McKenna told a crowd of supporters. "We can educate our children to fill those jobs. And we can reform state government to pay for all of this."

Never once does McKenna mention new revenue as a source for paying for all these new jobs and expanded education spending, in fact, quite the opposite. In fact, according to McKenna, the billions more he promises to spend each year on K-12 and higher education will all be balanced out by shrinking the size of state government... math which, um, ignores the fact that the bulk of state government is K-12 and higher education.

According to data from the Washington State Office of Financial Management (pdf), state government budgeted a total of 109,969 full time equivalent positions (FTEs) in 2010, of which 49,082 were in education, mostly in our state college and university system. But that number doesn't count the 102,094 FTEs in our K-12 schools, who are technically local school district employees, even though their salaries are largely paid out of state funds.

That's a total of 212,063 state funded FTEs, 151,176 of which—or 71 percent—are employed in education. So how exactly does McKenna plan to shrink government to pay for expanded education, when education already comprises the largest chunk of the budget? Is he going to fire teachers to hire teachers? Is there really enough waste amongst the 29 percent of non-education employees to pay for the many enhancements McKenna promises?

Of course not. But "ax and spend" is a lot more attractive than "tax and spend," when like McKenna, it promises something for nothing.