Monday, February 23, 2009

GOP Governors to Reject Stimulus Money

Republican governers have been split on accepting money from Obama's multi-billion dollar stimulus. The stimulus, backed by three Republicans, is also being rejected by three republicans: Southern governors Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Mark Sanford of South Carolina, and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana. The governors stated outright that they would accept no money regarding unemployment insurance. Are these decisions based on ideology or partisan politics? I think partisan politics definetely played a role: Jindal, at least, is a potential GOP presidential candidate. Should the stimulus fail, he will be able to say that he was smart enough to oppose it from the beginning, and therefore appear as a good leader.... But what if the stimulus succeeds?

Our own Arnold Schwarzenegger, however, is more than happy to comply: he is willing to accept any and all money offered. It is probably a good idea: in California, we need all of the money we can get.

2 comments:

Jesse Chung said...

I think this decision was rather foolhardy because they are deliberately making things harder for Obama to fix things. Furthermore, I highly doubt that the people of these places would be too happy knowing that their leader is denying them money to help them out.

Michael Donath said...

Jesse brings up a good point, how are they helping their constiuents if they are not taking money? Why would anyone vote for them again if they refused economic funds?Doesn't that seem ridiculous?

I saw on the news that Obama is doing quite well in ratings (62% approval, one percent higher then last month). This may come to his advantage in the economic stimulus outcome. Because if people support the president, governors, senators, representatives ect have to start jumping on the bandwagon if they want to be reelected.

Obama is making a speech tonight on primetime networks, hopefully regarding some of his plans for the economy. Maybe people will get a little more anwsers, and those who havn't, may shift gears and start listening to economic stimulus plans.