If you oppose stimulus, don't take the money

[spanone]

paul begala

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina took umbrage at my writing that his approach to the economic crisis is to do nothing. I'll deal with his "ideas" in a moment, but first let me make a modest proposal:

If Republican politicians are so deeply opposed to President Obama's economic recovery plan, they should refuse to take the money. After all, if you think all that federal spending is damaging, there are easy ways to reduce it: Don't take federal money.

Gov. Sanford can lead the way. South Carolina should decline to accept any federal funds for transportation, education, health care, clean energy or any of the other ideas President Obama is advocating to fix the economy. And the rest of the GOP can follow suit.

Justice Louis Brandeis famously called states "laboratories of democracy." So let's experiment. Gov. Sanford can be the guinea pig. His Palmetto State already gets $1.35 back from Washington for every dollar it pays in federal taxes, according to 2005 numbers, the latest calculated by the Tax Foundation, a nonprofit tax research group.

South Carolina is a ward of the federal government. It's been on welfare for years. If Gov. Sanford is so all-fired opposed to federal spending, let's start by cutting federal spending in South Carolina. Otherwise, he's got about as much credibility on fiscal conservatism as A-Rod has on steroids.

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/16/begala.carolina/index.html

[The_Casual_Observer]

1. It would be interesting to see those southern states left out of the deal all together.

They can wait for mccain to help them out.

[spanone]

2. i'd like to see the people storming the governors mansions in those states

to deprive your PEOPLE of help strictly for political reasons is criminal

[Kalyke]

3. You do realize that some Southern states have Democratic governors, right?

Mine does (Tennessee) and so does North Carolina and West Virginia. In fact, my governor put off finalizing his budget to await word on Tennessee's portion of the Stim Bill.

Just bashing the South without facts is becoming rather tedious on this board.