GOP still peddling its patent medicine
A handful of Republican governors in the South, including possibly Georgia’s Sonny Perdue, are making noise about turning down a small part of the stimulus package, more or less as a protest. They’re echoing the criticism of congressional Republicans in Washington and, in cases such as Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, trying to earn points with the base in preparation for stepping onto the national stage.
Their problem, of course, is that the appeal of their approach is to the Southern base and ONLY to that base. While 68 percent of Americans approve of what Obama is doing on the economy, 59 percent disagree with congressional Republicans.
Only 33 percent — the GOP base — support the Republican approach. GOP leaders keep playing to that core group, stirring cheers and enthusiasm from their buddies as they do, but meanwhile the rest of the country ignores them and moves on.
A couple of Republican governors do understand that’s crazy.
“You know, you’ve got to go beyond just the principles. You’ve got to go and say, ‘What is right for the country right now?’,” says Arnold Schwarzenegger of Cal-ee–fornia. “I think that, if they — they should make an effort to work together and to find what is best for the people, because by derailing everything, it’s not going to help anybody, and it creates instability and insecurity.”
Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who has appeared with Obama in support of the package, gets it too:
“It’s not a matter of bucking the party. It’s a matter of helping the people. I really view it as an issue what can I do that’s best for the people of Florida.”
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105 comments Add your comment
Mrs. Godzilla
February 23rd, 2009
7:34 am
Jindal is talking about turning down 2%. (Extending unemployment benefits when we’re bleeding jobs is such a radical socialist commie pinko decent compassionate right American thing to do)
It’s enough to say I’m saying THANKS BUT NO THANKS, but still get 98% of the $$$$$.
Snazzy.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
7:42 am
But Mrs. G, remember how Gov. Palin stopped claiming she’d said “thanks, but no thanks,” once she’d been called out on it?
Oh, wait…
Thanks, guys
February 23rd, 2009
7:44 am
What an original and productive idea. But, then again, we should expect nothing but grandstanding political parroting from these illiterate boobs.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
7:46 am
Not sure I get the “Cal-ee–fornia” bit, Jay.
TnGelding
February 23rd, 2009
7:54 am
With help from the media:
http://crooksandliars.com/john-amato/hannity-produces-armageddon-video-prese
Any spending will stimulate, some better than others. Congressional Republicans lost all credibility by rolling over for Bush. It’s good to see the governors’ independent streak. Even the Chamber of Commerce is for the bill for goodness sakes. Businesses need customers, not tax breaks. Santelli and Hannity are bordering on treason and trying to incite a riot.
AJC/DNC Management
February 23rd, 2009
8:06 am
Since when did Arnold become a Republican?
Three out of four Democrats support the bill, but that number drops to 51 percent for self-identified independents, and just 32 percent for Republicans. Nearly seven in ten Republicans questioned oppose the bill.-CNN
You mean the Republicans are representing the will of their constituents, why, how awful.
Looks like there’s more money for you socialists to squander.
@@
February 23rd, 2009
8:06 am
I’m not in the habit of loaning money to drug addicts, jay.
The repeated practice serves no one.
If, however, the money “earmarked” for my state is going to California’s economy on steroids, then I say keep it in my state where taxpayers can “believe” it’ll be a shot in the arm to we, the citizens.
Noddin’ of to no-man’s land.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
8:07 am
TnGelding, from the C&L page-you-linked’s comments:
“How much of the budget for his show is for Pampers?”
HoyaLawya
February 23rd, 2009
8:08 am
Mrs. G is right, it is easy to be “principled” when it will only cost you a little. I think that Congress should tell states it is an all or nothing proposition. Let them put their money where their mouth is.
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 23rd, 2009
8:09 am
Ahnuld’s accent doesn’t sound as stupid and ignorant as I Moon-face Perdoofus’s Jaw-jaw.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
8:10 am
@@, but you were ok with taking those “drug addicts”’s money all those years that CA was paying out wayyy more in federal income tax dollars to the government
http://www.taxfoundation.org/research/show/22685.html
than they received, right?
TW
February 23rd, 2009
8:15 am
Simple – the GOP can’t lead. Running on a platform of ‘tax-cuts’ is no different than buying votes – any moron from Texas or Georgia can do that. Real leadership gets the electorate to sacrifice for the benefit of the team. The provisions in the stimulus that these weak little men oppose would require them to actually lead at some point in the future. This, they are unable to do.
Maybe Sonny and Jindal could get the soldiers and their families to foot the future bill? After all, they seem to have no problem at all bleeding this select group.
AJC/DNC Management
February 23rd, 2009
8:19 am
You libs are getting called out-
These Governors — Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Butch Otter of Idaho, Rick Perry of Texas and Mark Sanford of South Carolina — all have the same objection: The tens of billions of dollars of aid for health care, welfare and education will disappear in two years and leave states with no way to finance the expanded programs. Mr. Perry sent a letter to President Obama last week warning that Texas may refuse certain stimulus funds. “If this money expands entitlements, we will not accept it. This is exactly how addicts get hooked on drugs,” he says.
Mr. Barbour says that in Mississippi “we will absolutely have to raise our payroll tax on employers to keep benefits running after the federal dollars run out. This will cost our state jobs, so we’d rather not have these dollars in the first place.”
These five Governors deserve credit for blowing the whistle on the federal trap that Washington has set for their budgets.-WSJ
Setting the stage for another “rescue,” are we?
What will that cost?<——————————-(Now we know why the libs are whining.)
bwa
TnGelding
February 23rd, 2009
8:19 am
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
8:10 am
GEORGIA DOES AS WELL.
Notice that Alabama, Alaska, Kentucky and Louisiana are just the opposite.
TnGelding
February 23rd, 2009
8:22 am
…not to mention Mississippi and South Carolina.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
8:28 am
TnGeld, you’re right (well, the page I’d linked is only current to 2005), although there’s nowhere near as much discrepancy for GA as there’s been for CA for the past twenty-plus years.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
8:31 am
ajc/dnc’s kind of cute when he thinks he’s found something we all hadn’t heard already, isn’t he?
Taxpayer
February 23rd, 2009
8:34 am
Arnold has a cool accent. He’s actually a pretty decent Republican — unlike most. He actually tries to work with others instead of against them and he actually cares for the environment. For example, on September 27, 2006 Schwarzenegger signed a bill creating the nation’s first cap on greenhouse gas emissions. He even donates his salary to charity.
Arnold has offered to take any of that stimulus money that his fellow Republican governors don’t want because he is ready to put it to work to help the people rather than try to make political points on yet another failed Republican philosophy — the philosophy of doing whatever it takes to get re-elected rather than doing the right thing for we the people. Then again, Republicans do like to eat their own so I would not expect help from fellow Republicans if I were him.
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
February 23rd, 2009
8:43 am
With respect to Gov. Jindal, it was pure pleasure to se him remind Mr. Greory that anyone who “actually read the bill” would understand that the requirement to make “permanent changes” at the state level creates a huge unfunded mandate that is akin to “paying a dime to get a dollar.” Based on that logic, anyone with a brain wave should be swooning over Gov Jindal. We all see in 2012 that, in Gov Jindal, President Obama has met his match. The GOP (and my beloved Southland) will rise again on Gov. Jindal’s shoulders.
G
February 23rd, 2009
8:45 am
If these states hate the federal government so much, why not cut them off altogether? Decentralized government has never actually been practiced so let them try it out and see how well it works. No funding for schools, or drug enforcement or public works or anything else. See how long they actually last.
Personally since the blue states pay more in taxes anyway and the red states are filled with redneck bigots, I think they deserve to lose every cent, but I would be curious as to how long all those dittoheads who took Rush Limbaugh at his word that they don’t need the government would last before being reduced to cannibalism.
The blue states would move into the 21st century while the red states would fall back into the 19th.
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 23rd, 2009
8:46 am
It would be great if they could finally get some of these red states to give up the federal government teat. Dixie has been a financial drain on the federal government since Lincoln mistakenly decided to keep them in.
Trillions of dollars have already been spent trying to bring civilization to Dixie, and it hasn’t made much of a dent. It still is the most backward area of the country, and will ever remain so.
Taxpayer
February 23rd, 2009
8:53 am
The right-wing Swiss People’s Party (SVP) called on Saturday for retaliation against the United States over a U.S. tax probe into the country’s biggest bank UBS that threatens prized banking secrecy. – Reuters
Good. Why don’t you insist that UBS quit doing business with US clients. Better yet, why don’t insist that UBS quit helping US clients cheat on their taxes. After all, that makes UBS just as big a crook as the US citizens that used UBS to cheat on their taxes. The rotten crooks.
AJC/DNC Management
February 23rd, 2009
8:55 am
G February 23rd, 2009 8:45 am If these states hate the federal government so much, why not cut them off altogether?
My goodness, I can’t believe the libs actually came up with a good idea, wonders never cease to amaze.
We don’t pay any more federal taxes and then you don’t have to send our money back to us, duh, morons.
Let’s see how long you freaks in DC survive.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
8:59 am
The blue states would move into the 21st century while the red states would fall back into the 19th.
Actually, we’ll all move forward a bit; I imagine the voters of those states “filled with redneck bigots”, to use your charming phrase, will see a cheezy political stunt (”we ain’t takin’ them Feddle Gubmint dollahs… not some of them, anyways… ok, coupla-three billion less than we’re entitled to is all”) for what it is.
Taxpayer
February 23rd, 2009
9:06 am
I’d like to see Jindal and the other southern red state governors give up their dependence on agencies like the FDIC and FAA as well. They’re just talking trash to keep their 33% of the voters in the dark while their arms are stretched out behind them and their hands are wide open. Listen close and you can hear each and every one of those Republicans, “I’m entitled to that taxpayer’s money as long as I’m not required to spend it on the taxpayers.” Republicans prefer to eat taxpayers but they will eat their own in a pinch.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
9:10 am
It would be great if they could finally get some of these red states to give up the federal government teat.
I’d like to see Jindal and the other southern red state governors give up their dependence on agencies like the FDIC and FAA as well.
I, on the other hand, do not believe in collective punishment, and thus do not think that the decent, hard working, morally upright American citizens of those states should be punished because they happen to be residing in a state run by those duty bound by GOP articles of faith.
NRB
February 23rd, 2009
9:14 am
There goes Jay, reaching for poll numbers again.
Jay, you need to read “The Crowd” by Lebon.
Just because most people may disagree with the Republican approach right now, does not mean it is wrong.
Anyone with common sense knows that the “stimulus” bill is crap and will fail miserably at creating jobs.
And then there’s the Demo-rats…
Taxpayer
February 23rd, 2009
9:19 am
DB,
I would not want to punish the people of those states either. Clearly, I’m simply calling out certain Republican politicians for the no good panderers that they are. They’d sacrifice their own for a vote. The sick little critters.
Truth
February 23rd, 2009
9:24 am
Taxpayer… You are such an idiot. Republicans don’t want anarchy. We just want small government. There is a difference. You government teat suckers need to take some personal responsibility. I bet intellectuals, such as yourself, can survive without the handouts.
NRB
February 23rd, 2009
9:25 am
Imagine a state with no federal taxes, and zero federal government interference?
Companies would trample all over the other states to set up business there, as would productive individuals who don’t have to rely on some politician to get what they need in life.
Unemployment would be near zero, and people would certainly enjoy their 32% (on average) “raise” via less taxes.
There would also be no costly entitlement programs available, giving the state that much more surplus to work with.
The fact that so many businesses would be operating in the state at 100% capacity would give the state enough funding to operate solo without useless federal interference and theft.
It would be a win-win. Businesses could be a success without being punished by Democrats, and workers would enjoy taking home almost double the pay they are now with zero loss of quality of life.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
9:30 am
“You government teat suckers need to take some personal responsibility. ”
Those figures about which states have been net income takers just swooped over your head, didn’t they?
Wyld Byll Hyltnyr
February 23rd, 2009
9:33 am
G 8:45 am
“…since the blue states pay more in taxes anyway and the red states…”, technically this is a true statement as things exist today because a preponderance of corporations are headquartered in blue states even though many have more significant operations in red states. Where income taxes assessed at the point where value is added or the point of sale rather than based on where the hq is situated, it is likely that red states would would contribute more money to the federal government. So, theorectically, were the Southland to sucede, it be a net gainer in terms of the effect of federal tax revenues.
Now back to something important, how about that Gov. Jindal, if you “actually read the bill” what a retort that all can understand. See you folks in 2012, when Jindal/Palin retakes our country for the patriots among us.
NRB
February 23rd, 2009
9:34 am
I’m not the one who came up with the masturbatory political fantasy, someone else did. I was just pointing out what would actually happen.
And since you cannot logically counter what I said, because you know I’m right, you turn to the issue of race like a good little liberal.
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 23rd, 2009
9:34 am
Oh yeah, the south was a gawddamn Shangri-effing-la-de-da before the federal gummint ruined it.
And NRB, do you like poop with your peanuts?
Paul
February 23rd, 2009
9:36 am
Well, I suppose this answers the interminable questions from some on the Left a few days back of “name ONE governor or state that’s gonna reject the money.” As Wyld pointed out at 8:43, the issue some governors are grappling with is that the Fed funds may create or expand programs which the state will then be responsible for funding. They have to carefully consider that.
I see the SC Democratic Representative Clyburn inserted language that would allow state legislatures to override a governor’s rejection. We know where Rep Clyburne stands on the “all powers not specifically granted to the fed shall be to the states” idea.
I’ve been gone for a couple of days. I trust there was laughter and discussion that shortly after AG Holder’s ‘we’re a nation of cowards when discussing race’ speech that Rep Clyburne played the race card when speaking of governors who expressed doubts about accepting the funds?
Hey Bosch, there’s a t-shirt idea for ya. A picture of Rep Clyburne with the caption “Cowardice not Courage!”
I’ll offer the polls still show that the American people are pretty willing to give the new guy a break in his efforts. The numbers are significantly different than the vote split in the election.
What I can’t figure out, though, is why some who regularly denounce Fox as “Faux” and say anything they say is a lie haven’t denounced this thread as it’s based on a Fox report?
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 23rd, 2009
9:47 am
NRB has a great idea. The uneducated, poorly trained, and unmotivated workers in the gummint-free south could compete with the folks in Madras, Mumbai, Karachi, Manilla, Jakarta and Ho Chi Minh City for all those great unskilled jobs.
Bring back the seven-year olds working twelve-hour shifts in the textile mills – the good ol’ days before all that gummint interfence!
The economy will BOOM!
G
February 23rd, 2009
9:49 am
Two of three states with governors waffling on acceptance of the stimulus money (i.e., Louisiana and Mississippi), were shafted by the Bush Administration and Republican-dominated Congress in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and despite this, all three states (South Carolina tends to be battered by hurricanes every few years) continue to vote blindly for the Republicans. Perhaps we’re witnessing a case of Stockholm Syndrome on a statewide (or perhaps even, regional) level.
It’s not unlike chickens who’ve learned the details of their ultimate fate still voting for Colonel Sanders.
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 23rd, 2009
9:51 am
Bookman, I hope you get this blog fixed soon – many of my great comments will be lost, and when my stalkers try to find them again, they won’t be able to.
Midori
February 23rd, 2009
9:58 am
LOL, Sir Trash — when did you become a superstar?
Of course, I’ve always known you had it in you
That NRB fella is a real hoot, I’ll tell you wot (in my best Hank Hill voice).
Next he’ll be calling for succession.
NRB
February 23rd, 2009
9:59 am
I’m not talking about north vs south.
I’m talking about any state that would want independence from the useless and inept federal government.
I seem to recall that New Hampshire had wanted to break away from the nation while Bush was in office.
But I’ll let you indulge in your liberal fantasy about slavery and child labor, as if a state could not enact laws to ban both, or that anyone would be interested in either in the first place.
With an imagination like that, one has to wonder why so many Democrats are out of work, spending their days on the welfare tit blogging on KOS and AJC.
DB, Gwinnettian
February 23rd, 2009
10:16 am
Paul @ 9.36, whenever I hear a conservative (or, frankly, most any white guy) use the phrase “play the race card” post-OJ trial, my BS detector goes off, so maybe I shouldn’t ask, but just what was it that Clyburne actually said that got you so testy?
As for the non-denouncing of FNC here, that’s probably due to two reasons:
1) Jay didn’t mention that this was a FNC poll (was it? I’ll take your word for it that it was); and
2) Speaking only for myself, but I do tend to assume that FNC’s polls are handled by professionals who do a decent job of sampling and weighting unless I read otherwise, and that one can trust any posted stats that FNC provides. As to the questions themselves, that’s up for interpretation, but I acknowledge that FNC is going to be asking many of the same questions that pollsters hired by other news outlets might ask. Some of them, on the other hand, are clearly worded to elicit a response that gives hope and comfort to FNC viewers. (not that there’s necessarily anything wrong with that—my idea of a “leading question” might be your idea of “neutral,” after all.)
Oh, and NRB? When you’re reduced to arguing, “I’m not the masturbatory one, YOU’RE the masturbatory one!” — it’s probably time to just write it off and move along.
AJC/DNC Management
February 23rd, 2009
10:20 am
Aahhh, yes, liberal Atlanta is in the news again-
ATLANTA — The FBI has rescued more than 45 suspected teenage prostitutes, some as young as 13, in Atlanta and other cities in a nationwide sweep to remove kids from the illegal sex trade and punish their accused pimps.
Why no write up in the Urinal?
Copyleft
February 23rd, 2009
10:25 am
Jay: It’s true that a small portion of Americans are going to appreciate such an empty, meaningless gesture… but those Americans ARE all southerners, and these guys know their constituency.
The Republican Party: Party of the Ignorant South.
Travist E.
February 23rd, 2009
10:28 am
Schwarzenegger is dreaming if he thinks he can save the left coasters from themselves. I was born and raised in the golden state. Closed my auto repair business and got the hell out in 93 after welfare recipients had the gall to file a lawsuit against the state because our legislature dared to decrease their payments.
$42M it cost us to surrender to those cholos. F*%&#* that dangling participle of progressive freedoms. Opportunity died there by many-a-moon.
Paul
February 23rd, 2009
10:39 am
DB Gwinnettian
Good catch, my apologies. Got up and scanned thru the threads I’d missed, the Fox poll results were on the GPS of the landscape, not this one, so I stand corrected (altho the news reports I caught up with on Fox said about the same thing). I just like to see how people who one minute denounce anything from that network the next minute use it as the basis for a thread discussion. Or ignore their earlier comments when it comes to citing remarks made by Pres Obama – in a Fox interview. Or any of a number of his administration officials.
I’m not upset over Rep Clyburne’s comments. It was a topic as I was scanning through sat radio on my weekend trip. Newsmax synopsis was “The highest-ranking black congressman said Thursday that opposition to the federal stimulus package by southern GOP governors is “a slap in the face of African-Americans.” The “race card” phrase was one I heard a lot – specifically, reports that stated “A spokesman for South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford accused Clyburn of playing the race card.”
U.S. Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., said he was insulted when the governors of Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and his home state, which have large black populations, said they might not accept some of the money from the $787 billion stimulus package. ” After the blowback started “Clyburn spokeswoman Hope Derrick later said Clyburn didn’t mean he thought those governors were racially motivated in their opposition, but that rejecting stimulus money would hurt black residents.”
Kinda a silly response. One can argue that not taking the money would hurt any resident – altho Clyburn made the point that the states comprise what is known as the “Black Belt” (that’s a new one one me) and the effect would be disproportionate.
Fact is, though, Rep Clyburn saw the issue through a decidedly racial prism.
Oh, some of the polls are a joke. Call-ins and such. But they are not the only outlet that does that and and least they describe the type of poll. I think you’re correct when you say FNC will ask the same types of questions. When the results diverge it’s good to look how the questions diverged.
G
February 23rd, 2009
10:43 am
Jindal wants the country to fail. The Republicans thought he was something until he opened his mouth and everyone realized he has the same thimble sized brain as the rest of the Repubs.
We won’t be seeing him in the picture for long.
Taxpayer
February 23rd, 2009
10:50 am
Truth February 23rd, 2009 9:24 am Taxpayer… You are such an idiot. Republicans don’t want anarchy. We just want small government. There is a difference. You government teat suckers need to take some personal responsibility. I bet intellectuals, such as yourself, can survive without the handouts.
“Truth”,
If you could actually learn to speak the truth instead of posting your blatant lies about me, someone you know absolutely nothing about, then I might be able to read your posts without bursting out laughing — you pathetic twit.
Dave R
February 23rd, 2009
10:52 am
No surprise that Taxpayer thinks Ah-nold is a good Republican governor. After all, he is presiding over a state with a $48 BILLION budget deficit, courtesy of his Democrat buddies in the state legislature, and has somehow not found a way to actually cut spending in any appreciable amount.
Joey
February 23rd, 2009
10:54 am
Thank you for acknowledging that Republican medicine has earned a Patent. While the drug that Democrats are pushing is experimental. Still not ready for use on rats, but Democrata are taking a short cut.
Injecting it directly into humans. Risky at best. Deadly???????
GodHatesTrash, Superstar
February 23rd, 2009
10:58 am
They probably don’t cover terms like “Black Belt” in GED history class, but the term has been around for a long time. People that study history (called “historians”) came up with the term.
You’ve probably heard of slavery. According to some southern historians, nice white people in the south were forced to buy slaves from African kings and mean yankees and give them nice cushy “jobs” on their plantations. In one large area of the rural south, these people were forced to buy so many slaves that they were actually outnumbered by them. This area, which extends from south-central Virginia, through large parts of the Carolinas, Georgia, Alabama, most of Mississippi and Louisiana is called the “black belt”, since to this day the counties involved still have large percentages of black people living there.
Hope this helps!