Governors Condemn Stimulus - Then Take Some

Conservative opposition to the stimulus is based on a belief that bailouts are the cure that kills. Conservatives believe that too many unemployment checks encourage laziness, and that the sooner a market is allowed to hit bottom, the faster it recovers.

Governor Mark Sanford of South Carolina has made it clear he thinks the stimulus is a big mistake, and has threatened to refuse the money - or at least he WAS threatening. Now he's indicating that some of the money might be OK after all.

But should he indeed stick to his guns, his legislature (even though it's majority Republican!) is inclined to take the entire amount, allowing the governor to stand on principle even though he knows his theory will never be tested.

Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, most vocal of them all, has a majority Democratic legislature, so he can blame them if Louisiana is force-fed. Although he too is selectively principled when it comes to accepting federal stimulus help.

And in fact, all four refusenik governors (SC, TX, LA, AK) seem to be bracing themselves to be trampled senseless by their legislatures.

-- All because of a dumb provision added by Democrats who proved once again that they stink at political strategy.

"If funds provided to any state in any division of this act are not accepted for use by the governor, then acceptance by the state legislature, by means of the adoption of a concurrent resolution, shall be sufficient to provide funding to such state."

This allows state legislatures to override a stubborn governor who was desperately hoping his theories would be tested but who must now stand by helplessly, reduced to holding press conferences on how the turnaround would have been so much faster had we spent less.

Any real test of the conservative anti-stimulus theories is dead, thanks to that foolish override clause.

Funny that no governor spoke up during the debate to demand its removal!

And yet - if these governors really believed the stimulus was harmful, they wouldn't let a little clause stop them! They'd be on whistle stop tours around their states drumming up popular opposition - so that even their legislatures dare not accept the money.

They would explain that by refusing to be bailed out, their states would actually recover faster than the rest of the country.

That's what they would do - if they really believed it. I'm guessing they don't. -DR