Dem Govs Chide GOPers For Opposing Stimulus Money
At the outset of a meeting of the National Governors Association, five Democratic leaders today chided several of their Republican counterparts for threatening to turn down their states' portions of the $787B economic stimulus package signed last week by Pres. Obama.
"If some of the fringe governors don't want to help us do that then they need to step aside and not stand in the way of helping us do this," said Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley (D) during a press conference at the St. Regis hotel in Washington.
Together with O'Malley, Govs. Brian Schweitzer, who is chairman of the NGA, David Paterson (NY), Chet Culver (IA) and Ted Strickland (OH) suggested that to decline federal resources at a time of national economic peril leaves those citizens struggling to make ends meet, and losing jobs, without a net.
"The idea that they don't want to be a part of the solution baffles me," Culver said of the small group of Republican governors who have lobbied against the plan. "They need to provide leadership to enourage Americans to do all they can to benefit from this stimulus. The final question to those that oppose this is, 'what is their plan?'"
Several Republican governors have toyed with rejecting the money, a symbol of their lack of faith in the efficacy of the plan passed by a Democratic Congress. But those individuals are also possible future contenders for national office -- including AK Gov. Sarah Palin, LA Gov. Bobby Jindal, MS Gov. Haley Barbour and TX Gov. Rick Perry -- and their objections have provided Democrats with an opening to say that the GOP is playing politics with the livelihood and welfare of many Americans.
Each Democratic governor on hand today said that they are already putting their state's stimulus dollars to work. Culver, for example, said Iowa will benefit from $1.9B, which will be allocated in several key areas: $360M for 10K new construction jobs, $390M for investments in education, $56M in road and bridge projects, and $550M for health care programs.
"This will have an immediate stimulative effect," he said. "An immediate impact on our economy."
Paterson, meanwhile, blamed former Pres. Bush for turning the nation's surplus, which he inherited, into a $2T deficit. Strickland said the nation is experiencing an "economic Katrina," a reference, of course, to the hurricane that decimated the Gulf region.
"These are not normal circumstances," Strickland said. "We are not experiencing the results of a normal ebb and flow of an economic cycle."
Schweitzer stressed that only a few of the nation's GOP governors are weighing whether to reject the money, and he suggested that, by and large, the members of the NGA are on the same page. "That is hardly even a majority of the Republican governors, let alone the entire Republican group," he said. "You wouldn't expect us all to agree. We come from very different places."
But he said his state is more than happy to partake of other state stimulus money -- should any Republican governor choose to leave it on the table.
"If they are redirected from states that reject them, Montana would be more than happy to receive them," Schweitzer said.
He also said that the governors up for re-election in 2010 shouldn't be affected by their support for the stimulus package, which was not welcomed this week by Wall Street as evidenced by the steep decline of the Dow. "Good fiscal management and good leadership will take care of elections," he said. "This is a plan that gives America moving again."
(JENNIFER SKALKA)
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