GOP governors: Stimulus May Hurt in the Long Run
Posted By: Backwards typist on 2009-02-22
In Reply to:
Of course, that doesn't stop my governor from taking the temporary money, probably raising our taxes after the states have to fend for themselves. As he said, he doesn't care. Know why? It's his last term. He's going to let the next governor be the bad guy. We've been suffering since he became governor. He juggles the money all the time, yet the people of this state do not see any relief. He promised property tax relief after the casinos were up and running. We have yet to see a dime of it.
"I'm not sure that we can, over the long run, cope with the high unemployment compensation standard that this mandates for states," Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell, the head of the National Governor's Association, told "Fox News Sunday."
"But I don't care. My people are suffering," he added. "They need that extra money. And right now that's paramount in my mind."
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/22/stimulus.governors/index.html?iref=mpstoryview
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Fortunately, there are governors who...
...need to answer to their citizens. I personally have a brand new respect for Governor Charlie Crist. He has refused to play the GOP obstructionist game and has PUBLICLY gone on record and placed the needs of his citizens first. I believe they call this bipartisanship.
I just love the gall of the obstructionist GOP in Congress (particularly the ones who find "Barack, the Magic Negro," etc. entertaining), those who publicly beat their chests and say they're against it, yet have no problem with their states taking the money. After eight years of Bush, they must still think Americans are stupid. We're NOT.
Look, she did not hurt anybody (sm)
She had every right to stay in the race. As another poster said, that is what democracy is all about. Leave it alone and let time take its course.
nobody said it hurt me
doesn't mean it makes it right and not all people against it are religious. I don't care if you are gay or lesbian, that is fine. I don't care if you have a civil union! I think people love who they are going to love, but MARRIAGE is between a man and a woman. There has to be something sacred left in the country.
GOP Governors Support Obama
By Jackie Calmes
updated 2:43 a.m. ET, Tues., Feb. 17, 2009
WASHINGTON - President Obama must wish governors could vote in Congress: While just three of the 219 Republican lawmakers backed the $787 billion economic recovery plan that he is signing into law on Tuesday, that trifling total would have been several times greater if support among the 22 Republican state executives counted.
The contrast reflects the two faces of the Republican Party these days.
Leaderless after losing the White House, the party is mostly defined by its Congressional wing, which flaunted its anti-spending ideology in opposing the stimulus package. That militancy drew the mockery of late-night television comics, but the praise of conservative talk-show stars and the party faithful.
In the states, meanwhile, many Republican governors are practicing a pragmatic � their Congressional counterparts would say less-principled � conservatism.
Governors, unlike members of Congress, have to balance their budgets each year. And that requires compromise with state legislators, including Democrats, as well as more openness to the occasional state tax increase and to deficit-spending from Washington.
Across the country, from California�s Arnold Schwarzenegger to Florida�s Charlie Crist and New England�s Jim Douglas in Vermont and M. Jodi Rell in Connecticut, Republican governors showed in the stimulus debate that they could be allies with Mr. Obama even as Congressional Republicans spurned him.
�It really is a matter of perspective,� Mr. Crist said in an interview. �As a governor, the pragmatism that you have to exercise because of the constitutional obligation to balance your budget is a very compelling pull� generally.
With Florida facing a projected $5 billion shortfall in a $66 billion budget, and social costs rising, the stimulus package �helps plug that hole,� Mr. Crist said, �but it also helps us meet the needs of the people in a very difficult economic time.�
Click for related content |
Mr. Obama�s two-year stimulus package includes more than $135 billion for states, to help them pay for education, Medicaid and infrastructure projects. Yet even that sum would cover less than half of the total budget deficits the states will face through 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research and advocacy organization.
The states� reliance on the federal government in times of distress will be showcased this weekend, when the governors come to Washington for their annual winter meeting. Their focus will be on infrastructure needs and home foreclosures.
GOP Governors Support Obama
By Jackie Calmes
updated 2:43 a.m. ET, Tues., Feb. 17, 2009
WASHINGTON - President Obama must wish governors could vote in Congress: While just three of the 219 Republican lawmakers backed the $787 billion economic recovery plan that he is signing into law on Tuesday, that trifling total would have been several times greater if support among the 22 Republican state executives counted.
The contrast reflects the two faces of the Republican Party these days.
Leaderless after losing the White House, the party is mostly defined by its Congressional wing, which flaunted its anti-spending ideology in opposing the stimulus package. That militancy drew the mockery of late-night television comics, but the praise of conservative talk-show stars and the party faithful.
In the states, meanwhile, many Republican governors are practicing a pragmatic � their Congressional counterparts would say less-principled � conservatism.
Governors, unlike members of Congress, have to balance their budgets each year. And that requires compromise with state legislators, including Democrats, as well as more openness to the occasional state tax increase and to deficit-spending from Washington.
Across the country, from California�s Arnold Schwarzenegger to Florida�s Charlie Crist and New England�s Jim Douglas in Vermont and M. Jodi Rell in Connecticut, Republican governors showed in the stimulus debate that they could be allies with Mr. Obama even as Congressional Republicans spurned him.
�It really is a matter of perspective,� Mr. Crist said in an interview. �As a governor, the pragmatism that you have to exercise because of the constitutional obligation to balance your budget is a very compelling pull� generally.
With Florida facing a projected $5 billion shortfall in a $66 billion budget, and social costs rising, the stimulus package �helps plug that hole,� Mr. Crist said, �but it also helps us meet the needs of the people in a very difficult economic time.�
Click for related content |
Mr. Obama�s two-year stimulus package includes more than $135 billion for states, to help them pay for education, Medicaid and infrastructure projects. Yet even that sum would cover less than half of the total budget deficits the states will face through 2010, according to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal research and advocacy organization.
The states� reliance on the federal government in times of distress will be showcased this weekend, when the governors come to Washington for their annual winter meeting. Their focus will be on infrastructure needs and home foreclosures.
Obama Could Hurt a Fly
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