GOP governors considering not taking stimulus money
By lilwonders
@lilwonders456 (8214)
United States
February 18, 2009 7:44pm CST
A handful of republican governors are considering NOT taking any money from the stimulus bill. 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.
"My concern is there's going to be commitments attached to it that are a mile long," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, who considered rejecting some of the money but decided Wednesday to accept it. "We need the freedom to pick and choose. And we need the freedom to say 'No thanks.'"
Jindal said he, like Perry and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, is concerned about strings attached to the money.
In Idaho, Gov. C.L. "Butch" Otter said he wasn't interested in stimulus money that would expand programs and boost the state's costs in future years when the federal dollars disappear — a worry also cited by Jindal and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.
Not all Republican governors are reticent about using the federal cash.
Well I have to say I do not blame SC governor for thinking about not taking it. Our local news was saying the way the split was looking my states share of the money was going to have to go to medicade, medicare and unemployement. How does that stimulate our economy here in our state. What jobs does that create? It doesn't. The states are not free to use the money to actually stimulate their ecomonies, there use is being dicated to them by the feds....so why should they take it?
I thik any state that does not take the money...that the residents of that state should not be responsible for paying it back (national debt). After all we did not vote in favor of it and we did not use it so why should we be held responsible for it. Tellme what you think.
What do you think of this?
1 person likes this
4 responses
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
19 Feb 09
All I can say is I'm glad I'm not an unemployed person or someone who needs Medicaid to help pay for medical bills in one of those states! Increasing or extending unemployment is an instant stimulus for the economy as it puts money into the economy that otherwise wouldn't be there.
Annie
1 person likes this
@grammasnook (1871)
• United States
19 Feb 09
Annie can you please correct me if I am wrong but didn't Obama say this bill would both save jobs that people have now, and he would be creating some as well? The only thing I hear is what about me, me, me! By some of the posts I think they were expecting Obama to create 12 million different jobs to please everyone. How naive can some be? Are we the supporters thinkin he is God or is it the expectations of others that oppose him think he is God? hmmmmm boy am I confused lol
2 people like this
@grammasnook (1871)
• United States
19 Feb 09
Annie did Obama say he would create jobs in all the states and all the cities??? lol
2 people like this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
19 Feb 09
But it will not create any jobs in my state. None. It will just pay for those. That is not fair. I thought this bill was suppost to create jobs. Well not for my state. My state wants to use it to create jobs. But the feds are dicating what they can spend it one.
1 person likes this
@grammasnook (1871)
• United States
19 Feb 09
I think what has happened, oh boy I am so going to get so much slack over what I am about to say I just know it. If anyone thinks that jobs can be created in every different field that will help everyone, then many are mistaken. Medicare and Medicaid both employee millions of employees, as for unemployment perhaps they will create tempary jobs... federal money for painters, roads, and highway. I would like to think it is an unbrella for many different temp jobs. I am not 100 percent positive we will have to learn more.
As for the repubs that are refusing this, I honestly feel it is just a show and in the end every single one will grab that money. Rebublican knew they would not stop this bill and therefore they are seen as heros in the voters eyes. They would still get the money they needed without putting themselves on the line for the vote. Nobody really knows what is going on in anothers mind. Everyone is screaming we have to do something, yet nobody was moving. Will it work? I dont know. They had to put stipulations on the money other wise you would have the same BS as what happened with the bank bailouts. Obama will always be damned if he does damned if he doesn't. So does it really matter?
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
19 Feb 09
It will not create any jobs. It will go to pay for medicare benefits, medicaid benefits and to pay for unemployement benefits. All of it is going to benefits. Not one penny will create one job in this state.
1 person likes this
@grammasnook (1871)
• United States
19 Feb 09
One of the BIGGEST reasons people are losing their homes is due to medical expenses, so therefore if your state needs a bump in medicaid and medicare then the cycle in your state just may come to a halt and not get worse in the real estate bubble I am so sure most states will have the unemployment in there. Here lets just hand all the billions of dollars to the officials and watch them waste it. If you do not extend the unemployment benefits that is 7.7 percent of people that will not be stimulating the economy. They will be at the welfare office for full benefits, losing their homes, Therefore causing everything to burst.
1 person likes this
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
19 Feb 09
You have to qualify for those programs. Which means if you have to make only a certain amount of money a year to qualify. So this bill basically just helps the really poor. They are the ones on medicare, and medicaid. And as for the unemployment well ya we cold use the money for that. We have an 8% unemployement rate right now.But what those people need are JOBS. JOBS are what will stop the cycle and help the economy here. Unemployment does not pay for much. Those people are not going to be able to go out and really spend and help the economy. They are going to have a hard time just holding on to what htey have. But if they got jobs THEN they would be able to have more income to spend therefore helping our economy. What this state needs are jobs. JOBS. Which this stimulus bill will not provide.
Lets say my state takes the money. Uses it like the feds are telling them they have to. Well the money will run out and fast. Then what. Who is going to continue to pay for all the people still on unemployment because they can not find a job?Or who is going to take care of people when their unemployment benefits run out? It does not solve the underlying problem. JOBS will solve the problem.
1 person likes this
@bobmnu (8157)
• United States
19 Feb 09
There are two schools of though on how to restart the economy. One is to spend your way out which has never worked without some other outside event helping. The other is to cut taxes and encourage business to expand by making it possible for them to make a profit. Give the government a dollar and they will pay someone to do a job and when the dollar is gone so is the job , unless the government collects taxes from everyone and keeps paying the person and collecting taxes from everyone else. Give a dollar to business and they will pay someone 80 cents to take 20cents of material and make something that they can sell for $1.25. now the business has to dollar back and 25 cents profit. Business then has the person make another widget and gets another 25 cents profit. This keeps up until the business has made enough profit to hire another person and buy the material to make two widgets and soon the business is hiring more people and creating more widgets. At the same time the government is still employing one person and making everyone pay part of the salary. No the government decided to hire another person so they go to the business and say you are making 25 cents on every widget and we need money to put people to work so we are going to take 10cents from each widget to pay our employee whose job it will be to come and collect the 10 cents from each widget. Now the business has to produce 7 widgets before it can hire a new employee instead of 4. Suddenly the people are no longer buying widgets so the business lays off people and the government is losing money from the widget tax so the increase the tax to pay for the government workers and the business has to produce even more widgets before they can hire new workers.
This is what is happening now and this is why some of the states believe that cutting taxes will produce more jobs. I would like to see my state refuse the Federal Money and cut government workers and spending to balance the budget and get us out of the recession.
