Key Republican Governors Like Palin Oppose the Obama Stimulus Package February 17, 2009 04:20 PM ET
By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street ****
Rumors of a split between Republican governors and members of Congress may be overblown.
While no congressional Republicans supported the stimulus plan, the New York Times reported today, several GOP governors have weighed in in favor of it. But some of the most influential Republican governors—including those most likely to run for president in three years—opposed the package.
In terms of presidential politics, the most notable name in the Times piece is Florida Gov. Charlie Crist, who campaigned with Obama for the stimulus package last week. Glaringly absent from the Times piece were governors like South Carolina's Mark Sanford, Louisiana's Bobby Jindal, Mississippi's Haley Barbour and Alaska's Sarah Palin—all governors recently named in the Washington Post's excellent "The Fix" column as being among the five most influential and powerful voices in the Republican Party (the other person named was former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney). Palin and Jindal are often named as contenders in 2012, and Barbour gave 2008 a long look before passing on it. Sanford is chairman of the Republican Governor's Association.
-------------------- No longer eligible for government service due to lack of tax issues. Posts: 5178 | From: Up North | Registered: Dec 2005
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Some Governors will speak out and sau they refused the money from the stimulus knowing that it is ultimately up to the individual state's Assembly and Senate to make the determination. It's kind of like being against the Bridge to Nowhere but taking the money anyway.
Posts: 3255 | From: Los Angeles California | Registered: Jan 2006
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Barbour repeats concern over stimulus money
2/23/2009 6:17:32 AM Daily Journal
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour on Sunday reiterated his reluctance to accept some of the federal stimulus funds, joining the debate among his counterparts over whether the billions offered in President Barack Obama's $787 billion plan are entirely a good deal.
Barbour, a Republican, has said he is considering turning down millions of dollars in unemployment aid because it would force his state to raise taxes when the stimulus money runs out by putting in place a tax on employers.
"There is some (money) we will not take in Mississippi. ... We want more jobs. You don't get more jobs by putting an extra tax on creating jobs," Barbour told CNN's "State of the Union" on Sunday.
Appeared originally in the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal, 2/23/2009
South Carolina's governor may turn down stimulus money
Mary Ann Chastain / Associated Press IN DISSENT: Gov. Mark Sanford says he’s worried about excessive government borrowing to fund the stimulus. South Carolina's governor may turn down stimulus money In dissent Email Picture Mary Ann Chastain / Associated Press IN DISSENT: Gov. Mark Sanford says he’s worried about excessive government borrowing to fund the stimulus. Some say Mark Sanford is just grandstanding. Others say the Republican just might follow through, despite the state's 9.5% unemployment rate. By Richard Fausset February 21, 2009 Reporting from Columbia, S.C. -- Would a governor in a state with the third-highest unemployment rate in the nation really say no to President Obama's stimulus money?
That is the question reverberating through South Carolina, where Republican Mark Sanford -- a popular second-term governor and noted fiscal conservative -- says he may reject some of the $2.8 billion in federal funds headed to his state.
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"i think the GOP is trying to find out just how much it can really lose"
No, I think they have, quite correctly, figured that they have suffered so vast a loss it might as well be evaluated as total and, while trying to locate a rallying principle for future efforts, they need to provide fodder to those few who remain stubbornly loyal because they are now their only source of financial income. They won't say so aloud, because many in that cadre of party worshipers might desert too and then, cease financial support to the lingering Party; the Party knows that, eventually, if they ever hope to recoup any credibility, they will need to cut ties with the radical religious and the politics via hate crowds.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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