Principled GOP State Pushbacks On The Stimulus

Much has been made by liberals of what is, in their view, the negativism of GOP Congressmen regarding the so-called stimulus bill.

That nothing could be further from the truth, and that Republican Senators and Representatives have and had offered various alternatives which the Democrats banned from discussion, bothers these liberals not at all.

Perhaps the really interesting actions, though, are occurring out in the 50 states. As I mentioned to my business partner a few weeks ago, this is exactly what former Republican Governor of Florida, and Presidential brother, Jeb Bush, predicted and called for in an interview published last month in the Wall Street Journal.

Terry Sanford, GOP Governor of South Carolina, is fighting his legislature in order to decline the stimulus money. Democratic Congressmen included a clause specifically aimed at Sanford, that lets a state legislature accept the money, around its governor.

However, Sanford is making a lot of sense as he decries being forced to begin expensive programs like SCHIP, more medicaid spending, and the hiring of unionized public employees, such as teachers and policemen, only to have the federal funding cut off after only two years.

A Tennessee radio show host appeared on Neil Cavuto's Fox News program earlier this week to attest to his listeners bombarding him with complaints identical to Sanford's in South Carolina, begging Tennessee state government to refuse the stimulus 'gifts.'

Something important and powerful is occurring in America, and its going unnoticed by Wonderboy's minions.

The residents of the states through which the federal government is attempting to funnel some $800B of new spending are crying "STOP."

States can't print money, and many are not allowed to run deficits. People realize that they will have to pay for programs which, once begun, like an addiction to heroin, cannot easily be halted again.

Jeb Bush was spot on to identify the states as the places in which Republican fiscal rectitude could and would be reborn and regain strength.

My partner points out that people love a story with patterns. Right now, the First Rookie is in love with his own version of our current economic recession, in which he plays FDR, the recession becomes another Great Depression, and he and his team of tax cheats rewrite the American social contract to be pure socialism.

Trouble is, that's not what seems to be going on among voters. They are becoming angry, alarmed, and scared at governmental spending and impending waste of their taxpayer dollars.

As I remarked to my friend, while Wonderboy delights in his own coddled view of an FDR rerun, reality is already quite different.

Existing social safety nets like Social Security and welfare payments are easing the pain of the recession. Bank deposits are insured, so a bank failure really has little of the effect on the US economy in the way a 1930s bank closure did.

But voters in the states are informed by communications media not yet born in the 1930s. Newspapers and ordinary radio are no longer the most important news outlets. Instead, conservative talk radio, cable news, internet sites and blogs provide a wide variety of uncontrollable news and opinions.

This time, unlike in FDR's day, the failure of federal efforts to halt natural economic cyclical behavior will be publicized far and wide- immediately.

And the Republicans' positive actions to the contrary, including sensible refusals to take and spend stimulus money in many states, will lead the party back to control of at least one House in the 2010 election, as well as the Oval Office in 2012.