We wrote a piece earlier in the week about how certain disgusting Mugabe-ist Republican governors are thinking of rejecting portions of the stimulus package aimed at their states, in effect fiddling while Rome burns. Among these governors are Mark Sanford of South Carolina and allegedly rising Republican superstar, Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal.
Jindal delivered the Republican response to President Obama's address to a joint session of Congress last week. Jindal's speech was widely panned and derided. From a stylistic and delivery perspective, the Clarion Content could not understand why. In our view most of the attacks on Jindal were ad hominem, the equivalent of name calling. This made no sense to us when there was so much to attack him and the Republicans on substantively.
Governor Jindal makes $130,000 personally, lives in the Louisiana Governor's mansion, uses state funded transportation and is turning down $100 million in federal stimulus money for a state that ranks fourth in children living below the poverty line and 46th in high school graduation rates, and that is facing a projected budget shortfall of more than $1.7 billion, (our thanks to Frank Rich for those dirty details.) Jindal actually received a $35,000 raise during this term as his state cratered.
Equally big scumsucker, South Carolina Governor, Mark Sanford, who is paid north of $106,000 annually and has the use of a state airplane, as well as the governor's mansion, heartily resisted a federally funded increase of $25 per week for folks who are receiving on average $244 per week of unemployment dollars. Must be nice when pulling down a cool $2038 per week, to decide who is worthy and unworthy of an extra $25 bucks. (And you wonder why we consider the guillotine within the range of possible response to these criminals...) South Carolina has a 9.5% unemployment rate, the country's third highest.
Addendum: Maybe the explanation is simpler than the Clarion Content figured, maybe these governors are part of the Rush Limbaugh wing of the Republican party; the folks who are rooting for the country to fail!
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4 comments:
I imagine the justification for turning down stimulus money is that it is being printed as we speak, and is not really backed by anything but hope. Of course, the Limbaugh crowd never objected when such invented funds were heading to investment banks and defense contractors...
Or when it was heading to tin-pot dictators bank accounts...
Would you prefer it if the Republican governors (who have decried the stimulus bill as the federal government throwing away money at bad programs) had taken the cash, and been shown to be hypocrites? Or is there no path that is acceptable for someone who doesn't think the stimulus plan is the right way to go?
I think that the Republican governors who reject the stimulus will have to suffer the electoral consequences thereof at the ballot box. I'm just sayin' I think they are going to get excoriated for it.
They are within their rights to reject stimulus money. It just strikes me as obscene that they make such good money personally and are willing to be so secure in their decisions that others don't need it.
It will be interesting to see what happens in forthcoming elections. It hinges on the recovery of the economy, Obama will either get credit or blame.
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