We ended our trip last week on Thursday in Fredericksburg, where Senator Warner held a town hall meeting with employees of the new Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center. Then we stopped by the University of Mary Washington's Annual Devil-Goat Day.

The Fredericksburg Free-Lance Star did a great write-up from both the events:

WARNER BRINGS DEBT, DEFICIT DEBATE HERE

BY JIM HALL

Sen. Mark Warner said yesterday that he was embarrassed earlier this month when a noisy argument over a small portion of federal spending almost shuttered the entire government.

"That whole debate was around cuts only in one part of government spending, domestic discretionary spending, which is only 12 cents of every dollar we spend," he said.

To Warner, the patient needs radical surgery, including those cuts to discretionary spending, but also cuts to defense spending, changes in the entitlement programs and a revision of the U.S. tax code.

"We will ask of everyone to put a little skin in the game," the Virginia Democrat and former governor said.

Warner was in the Fredericksburg area yesterday for stops at Spotsylvania Regional Medical Center and the University of Mary Washington.

At the hospital, he visited the cafeteria at lunch time to talk with employees.

At the university's Fredericksburg campus, he met with students celebrating the school's traditional Devil-Goat Day.

Hospital employees asked about several health-related issues, including malpractice reform and Medicare funding.

Warner listened and responded, but he also said that in recent months his time and interest has been captured by the double Ds--the nation's deficit and debt.

Warner is one of the founders of the "Gang of Six," a bipartisan group of senators who soon will offer what he says is a comprehensive approach to trimming the nation's $14 trillion debt.

"It used to be that we've got to do this to take care of our kids and our grandkids," Warner said. "It's not that any more. This is about us."

The group has agreed to withhold details about its plan for now, but Warner predicted that it will have $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in revenue from tax code changes.

Their work will be modeled after the plan offered last year by the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, he said.

"There is going to have to be a little bit of give from everyone, or we as a country are going to be in an untenable position," he said.

One important decision arrives within 90 days, Warner said, when Congress must decide whether to raise the national debt limit.

If it does not raise that limit, he said, interest rates will immediately jump by at least 3 percentage points.

"This economy will not just slow down. It will come to a grinding halt," he said. "Why would you roll the dice on something like that?"

DEVIL-GOAT DAY

Sen. Mark Warner yesterday gave what he called "the shortest political speech you will ever hear."

Warner joined hundreds of University of Mary Washington students during the school's Devil-Goat Day, a tradition in which students compete against each other as devils or goats.

"Like any good politician, I'm an honorary devil, but I also love the goats," quipped Warner, who spoke in front of Lee Hall.

Before his quick speech, Warner shook students' hands as they lined up to receive T-shirts. He was welcomed by student leaders and UMW President Rick Hurley.

"I'm Mark Warner," he would tell students. "I was the governor, now I'm the senator."

A student in UMW's Young Democrats asked Warner about Social Security, but most were content to shake his hand and pose for pictures.

"Wow, that's Mark Warner," one student told a friend. "I just realized that."

More info on the Spotsy town hall is available here.