http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29279120/

A handful of Republican governors are considering turning down some money from the federal stimulus package, a move opponents say puts conservative ideology ahead of the needs of constituents struggling with record foreclosures and soaring unemployment.

Though none has outright rejected the money available for education, health care and infrastructure, the governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have all questioned whether the $787 billion bill signed into law this week will even help the economy.

-With the exception of Texas, I'm pretty sure all the other states are "welfare" states; states that take in more federal money than they pay out. So, sounds kind of hypocritical to me to complain now when they've been sucking the federal teet for years...10 bucks says none of them have the balls.

Well, Idaho governor Butch Otter has said that he will accept the federal money. That much I do know ... both Idaho senators and both Congressmen (including one of the few Democrats in the House to vote against the stimulus package, Walt Minnick) were against it and voted against it.

You should hear the people in North Idaho rail against this thing Vitalogy, it's insane! One of the projects that might get done now because of this is a 6,000 seat multipurpose arena literally two blocks from my business, you bet your sweet ass I'd love to see that thing go up!

The people in N Idaho are as ignorant as they come.

There's a LOT of good people up here, Vitalogy. It isn't nearly as bad as they used to be, I don't see Richard Butler and his ilk walking into my resturant ... and if he did, I would do what my mother did at her place of employment at the time when he walked up to her and asked a question, and refuse to serve him. They voted in a Democrat to Congress, something I never thought I'd see.

But, as the bumper sticker I saw at the Kootenai County Courthouse said today, "God Guns and Hockey, vote McCain/Palin in 2008" ... it's still quite conservative.

I've heard they are also very racist up in that part of the country. Don't get me wrong, I know there are the good people in any community, but ID is one state in the NW I could not live in due to the politics of the region.

The one things these GOP governors have in common is a desire to be president. And it should be no surprise most of them are from the south – the new home of the GOP. My favorite of the bunch is Mark Sanford, governor of South Carolina. He’s on television at least twice a week trumpeting his conservative credentials all the while his state’s economy is in the tank (with one of the highest unemployment rates in the country). With so much damned time on television, it’s obvious he seems himself as a potential presidential contender. But he’s nothing more than one of Newt Gingrich’s lackeys from the GOP House Class of ’95 – best remembered for their “Contract On America”.

The "Govs" are all just thumping their chests (or breasts), but more than 75% of the stimulus doesn't even involve the state (tax reductions, additional weeks of unemployment, etc.).

So they are acting like tough guys for what little they have control of. It would be best if Obama exempted these states from tax cuts and other federal programs and you would see these governors make a mad dash for the trough quicker than any pig would move and accept the whole stimulus package.

In a related activity the Mortgage program helps those with houses of a value you below $375,000, and yet those with $1,000,000 homes are belly aching.

Talk about your welfare queens.

Saveitnow wrote"
The "Govs" are all just thumping their chests

And their bibles. We'll see just how far God gets them in this situation. I'll say one thing for them, they stand by their principles, survival of the fittest. They don't vote republican and then have their hands out when the republicans screw it up.

LOL!!!

If you have a million dollar home, you've got options, period, end of story.

From a game theory perspective, it's their best move. If they just keep holding their position, they really don't lose the 23 percenters. If the new guard sees perfect success, and no scandals, they are gonna get hammered again, come the next few election cycles.

If there are problems to exploit, they will be positioned perfectly to do that, and that's a gain from their perspective.

The problem they have is the 23 percenters. In order to continue to hold that vote firm, they have to embrace some really ugly social politics. And to continue to hold the support of the right wing corporate types, they have to do the same economically.

Owning up to the crap, means surrendering the 23 percenters, while holding on to the corporate types. That's a loser really, as their numbers don't win elections. They are good for dollars, good for lobby efforts, worthless at the ballot box.

There simply aren't enough of them.

Given the Republican brand is just ugly right now, rebuilding doesn't make any sense as that will just give ground to progressive minded people to get change done.

That ends their core ideological positions, and a complete restart.

Waiting it out right now is a smart wager. Bad stuff could happen, and that could be exploited and that opens the door for some gains, or at the least, few to no losses.

Chances are, they are looking at a pretty long run being marginalized and in the minority anyway. So, going all in at this point doesn't really have all that much of a cost!

Doing it keeps the chance of recovery for the party on the table in the shorter term.

Anything else --even a bit of general acceptance over just how bad the last 30 years of supply side really was, means it's over and the cycle turns again, and they are out for the remainder of their careers, unless they decide to just go for it and support progress.

Given those things, I fully expect them to just be as ugly as possible. They really only have something to gain for it.

That also means those of us wanting progress are just going to have to keep the pressure on, as we really can only lose at this point.

Republicans are a PITA.

Republicans are a PITA.

And 90% of the democrats are the people that are looking for handouts.

There is no reason to be and vote democrat other than to try and get something (i.e. a government handout) for nothing.

That's why you'll find that the majority of the poor folks always vote democrat. They know that they can stay sitting on their porch, smoking crack and drinking beer and the good 'ol gumint is going to take care of them and give them everything they need.

Perfect example is the new spendulus package.

Those of us (republicans and democrats) that have busted our asses and kept our mortgages current get a big fat NOTHING. But let your mortgage default and the democrats are there to bail you out.

That's why people hate democrats. Piss off a democrat, Work hard and stay off welfare.

We'll see in 2 years how the country feel during the off year elections and then in 4 years we'll know for sure. I'm not making any predictions, but just saying, we'll see how the country feels then.

QED

And 90% of the democrats are the people that are looking for handouts.

Again, comment not based on fact.

President Obama has been in office a month and the GOP hasn't offered anything of substance to the debate, except that tax cuts is a cure all from everything to the common cold to Malaria. They are truly and unabashedly pathetic. I CLEARLY understand why they were tossed out of office so unceremoniously. They doubled the national debt and spent money like meth addled ID thieves with stolen credit cards. Not to mention how the village idiot, George W. Bush, was nearly universally reviled both at home and abroad.

President Obama was left with so many unsavory problems that Monday morning quarterbacking by the GOP will be seen simply as political opportunism. The GOP had every opportunity to make good on their promise of fiscal discipline and they blew it. And not only blew it, they blew it so badly they made a complete and utter mockery of themselves. Karl Rove’s dream of a GOP majority went down in flames for good reason; they couldn’t hold the line on anything and the voters tossed them out on their asses in the biggest realignment in a generation.

This is a mess of massive proportions, and the GOP doesn’t seem to give a rats ass about it. They seem more content posturing for the next election. That’s fine. Because obviously, they have nothing of substance to offer. From health care, to the foreclosure crisis, to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, they have nothing of real substance to offer. When they were in control, they so badly screwed up on all these fronts they deserve to stand on the sidelines. They failed the mantle of leadership and it’s time for a real change.

"This is a mess of massive proportions, and the GOP doesn’t seem to give a rats ass about it."

I believe the GOP does care about it.
I believe they planned it.
If Obama "fails" (as they clearly want him to) they will have succeeded in destroying America.

""My goal is to cut government in half in twenty-five years," he says, "to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub."
-Grover Norquist

http://www.thenation.com/doc/20010514/dreyfuss


What happens if Obama succeeds?
Prosperity like we had in the 50's, 60's & 70's with the GOP on the outside looking in.

I think you might be right. Some thought Reagan was hell-bent on running huge deficits as a way of eventually getting Congress to permanently dismantle as much domestic spending as possible. He would have claimed that the only to completely enact his agenda of massive tax cuts in some sort of purist fashion, he’d need Congress to permanently eliminate all kinds of federal programs. If he would have won majorities in both the House and Senate, he would have been able to enact his grand strategy for dismantling the federal government. But with the US House standing in his way and control of the US Senate returning to the Democrats in the mid 80’s, he wasn’t able to get want he really wanted.

Bush just cut taxes and went on the spending spree to end all spending sprees.

I totally buy the idea that they were working toward it.

The unplanned bit was the timing as it hit at the end of the Bush second term, meaning no blame on Obama.

That totally great "Supply side Jesus" deal tells all. Love that piece. I'm gonna print it and hang it on the Office wall.

" What happens if Obama succeeds?
Prosperity like we had in the 50's, 60's & 70's with the GOP on the outside looking in."

Obviously the GOP will take credit for it.

President Obama made a very important point this morning. He said that it’s clearly a matter of politics for some GOP governors when they can agree on 90 percent of the stimulus but take issue with 10 percent of it. These conservative GOP governors, getting all sorts of face time on television, are clearly behaving in a way that seems like gross dereliction of duty. Their interest is in running for president, not quality governance of their respective states.

Yep. Total politics.

Basically, the Republicans are just gonna not be happy with any of it. God himself could do the stimulus and it wouldn't matter.

They are gonna do this, so they can leverage anything that happens!

If the stimulus sees great success, "THANK GOD WE WERE THERE TO KEEP THINGS IN LINE."

If it's mediocre, "SEE? IF YOU HAD LISTENED TO US, WE WOULD BE MORE SUCCESSFUL BY NOW."

If it sucks, "THAT'S WHAT YOU GET FOR TRUSTING DEMOCRATS."

And it goes on and on.

They just take the shitty position, hoping to just capitalize on what ever goes down, never, ever adding any value. To do that means actually sticking their neck out, taking a stand, supporting it and being accountable about it.

Won't happen.

Oh, and why the party unity?

Simple. If any of them turns weak and just decides not to be shitty about things, the rest of them are then at risk of being exposed as known shitty instead of likely to be shitty. So, they will TEACH THAT ONE A LESSON ABOUT WHY IT'S IMPORTANT TO BE SHITTY.

Witness the few Republicans who openly voiced some support and the backlash they got.

The only time they will back down from that is if it's clear not doing so will not benefit them AT ALL.

That's the nationalization meme rising to acceptance right now. There isn't any upside for them, NO MATTER WHAT SHITTY position they take, so they are gonna grudgingly accept nationalization of the banks.

If there was an upside, they would take that position.

How well our economy does, who gets hurt, and all that other stuff, simply doesn't matter.

The only thing that does matter is how much power they have and who is paying them to hold it.

...that's SHITTY.

Grand Old Position then is just to be SHITTY.