Everyone Has Their Price -- Grandstanding GOP Governors Are Taking The Stimulus Money
Yet another anti-stimulus GOP governor, who had been hinting previously that his state would be turning down cash, is now accepting the money.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who co-wrote an op-ed piece with South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford about all the things that were wrong with the bill, has now informed the White House that he'll accept the money. (By the way, Sanford is taking some of the money, too.)
Perry is, however, leaving the door open to not taking all of it, as he doesn't want to spend money that would expand existing social programs, and thus trap him into having to continue the increases later on with state money. Perry's spokeswoman said that they are studying the aid package "line by line to determine what is in the best interest of Texas taxpayers."
Josh
Matt
Eric
The same concern about continuing social spending is being raised in Minnesota. Do these fools not realize need is greater because of the crisis, and they won't need to continue this spending if the stimulus works?
February 19, 2009 1:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
If they realized it (or wanted to admit it) they proabably wouldn't be fools.
February 19, 2009 2:26 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll try to be as tactful as I possibly can in response to these governors. Fuck you, you motherfucking lying sacks of hypocritical shit.
February 19, 2009 1:49 PM | Reply | Permalink
Your restraint is admirable.
February 19, 2009 2:17 PM | Reply | Permalink
If only there was an equivalent to the NY Daily News in Texas -- then the headline would be "Perry to Poor: Drop Dead!"
As far as these lunatics are concerned, money for defense is fine, money for business is fine, money for highways is fine, but God forbid the people who need it the most -- and who will spend it the most, maximizing the stimulative effect -- get a penny.
February 19, 2009 1:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
It was my understanding that this is a take it or leave it package that you can't pick and choose line by line what yo will or won't accept. Though I could be wrong. Can anyone verify one way or another?
February 19, 2009 2:15 PM | Reply | Permalink
Don't worry, they'll end up taking every "red" cent. All this bluster is just lip service to the Rush Limbaugh wing that currently runs the GOP. These red states have been sucking on the federal tit for years and they're not about to stop now.
If they do actually turn some of the money down, I hope there is a provision in the bill to give that leftover cash to other states instead.
February 19, 2009 2:23 PM | Reply | Permalink
I am sooooo sick and tired of the Red Welfare Queen states taking the Blue Prosperous state's money and then bitching and complaining about it. Please Please do not take the money! Just let your ignorant backwater revert to the swamp it ever was. Teach your children to memorize the bible like the Taliban do and get those nasty science teachers fired for teaching evolution. I want the southern white rednecks to stew in the uneducated poverty that they promote with every breath. Let them! Quit arguing with them! California needs all the money it can get to solve our own problems and I am furious that we have to spend BILLIONS of OUR hard earned dollars on these ignorant rubes who loudly proclaim how much they HATE us while taking our money and stuffing it in their pockets. ENOUGH!
February 19, 2009 2:30 PM | Reply | Permalink
O I can't wait for Rick Perry to explain to every single city, town, village and incorporated crossroads in Texas why they aren't getting the money they have asked for. I don't think there is one that hasn't.
I wish Perry would walk his talk, but Gov Goodhair is a chickenshit with a stupid mouth.
February 19, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
Tena!
I was just wondering where you had disappeared to -- haven't seen you around here since shortly after the election, I don't think. Or maybe I just haven't been reading the right articles.
February 19, 2009 3:47 PM | Reply | Permalink
I've been over at Greg's new gig when I've been online, which hasn't been much.
Greg encouraged everyone he could reach out to to help get it started and I've just posted comments over there from time to time.
Missed you too. So I jumped in cause this story is too damn good not to.
February 19, 2009 4:20 PM | Reply | Permalink
Christened by Molly Ivins as Rick "Goodhair" Perry, he's met his match in Kay Bailey Hutchison. Grandstanding is his only option.
February 19, 2009 2:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Word.
Alas - I do believe she's going to be the next gov.
All I can say is that if you get Fluffy away from the Bush Republicans (aka the batshit faction) she is more moderate. She was traditionally in favor of choice and pushed for stem cell research in Texas even during the Bush Administration. If she can read numbers and has seen the NYT map that shows that Texas is voting less Republican with every election cycle, then she might revert.
February 19, 2009 3:34 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'll take just about anyone over the pointless walking hairdo Perry, but when I think about Kay Bailey my mind kind of goes blank. I can't recall a single thing she's done in the senate other than vote the party line and otherwise remain completely anonymous. Combined with that idiot Cornyn we might as well have just not had any senators the past few years for all the nothing they've done.
February 20, 2009 9:33 AM | Reply | Permalink
Too late for you to ever see this - Fluffy is active here in the state and you must not be paying attention. The military here loves here cause she has fought over time to keep every single base in Texas open.
She surprised the hell out of me in 2005, I believe it was, by coming home and making a tour of the state touting stem cell research in Texas. There is a lot of medical research done here and she was all about bringing more and bringing stem cell.
Other than that, there isn't much, besides the fact that her Freshman year in Congress, she was voted the new kid who brings the least to the picnic.
February 20, 2009 9:51 AM | Reply | Permalink
Was this op-ed piece carried in the comics section? I'm sure it produced more guffaws than anything else there.
February 19, 2009 4:14 PM | Reply | Permalink
For the WSJ, the Op-Ed pages qualify for the cartoon section, and almost as funny as Family Circus.
February 19, 2009 5:25 PM | Reply | Permalink
Sanford is such a hypocrite. Everyone knows South Carolina has been getting federal stimulus spending for decades. South Carolina collects about $1.40 in federal spending for every $1.00 they pay in federal taxes.
February 19, 2009 5:04 PM | Reply | Permalink
Hypocrite is the nicest thing that can be said about Perry. The turkey was last elected with 39% of the vote.
February 19, 2009 5:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
Our small Texas town, which went 75% for McCain, has already posted a list of all the things they want to do with the stimulus money. No way Perry was planning to turn that money down. GOP = hypocrites and liars. I just wish that it went only to the states that voted for it, that would have changed the vote quick enough.
February 19, 2009 5:51 PM | Reply | Permalink
Under Rick Perry, the American dream is distant in Texas today. Texas is dead last in the percentage of residents with high school diplomas and nearly last in SAT scores. Texas now has America's dirtiest air. Texas ranks 49th in tax revenue raised per capita and dead last in tax expenditures per capita.
Texas ranks second in public school enrollment, but ranks 49th in average teacher salary as a percentage of average annual pay.
Texas ranks first in the nation in the percentage of population that is uninsured and 48th in per capita state expenditures on mental health.
Under Rick Perry, Texas ranks third in the percent of residents living below the poverty level and third in the percent of population with food insecurity.
Texas ranks dead last -- 50th -- in average credit scores.
Texas ranks first in air pollution emissions and first in the amount of toxic chemicals released into water.
Under Rick Perry, Texas ranks 46th in the average hourly earnings of production workers on manufacturing payrolls and 37th in median household incomes.
Texas continues to rank first in the number of executions and second in the rate of incarceration.
Texas comes in first in the per cent of voting age population that votes and third in the number of convicted public officials.
-- From Texas on the Brink, 4th Edition, January 2009 published by Texas State Senator Eliot Shapleigh of El Paso.
February 19, 2009 6:56 PM | Reply | Permalink
CORRECTION: Texas comes in LAST in the per cent of voting age population that votes.
Sorry for the error.
February 19, 2009 6:59 PM | Reply | Permalink