Democrats to run ads against Sanford

Associated Press
Published: March 13, 2009

National Democrats plan to run ads in South Carolina next week accusing Republican Gov. Mark Sanford of putting olitics ahead of jobs and schools.

Sanford has been criticizing President Barack Obama’s $787 billion stimulus plan, saying it will lead the country further into debt. He has requested a waiver to spend the money on state debt, and otherwise would not use it.

Sanford spokesman Joel Sawyer said Friday that politics should be set aside and those who supported the stimulus should explain to taxpayers who pays for the stimulus.

Meanwhile, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said he agrees the stimulus should pay off debt. But Bauer says money should be used if the waiver is denied because South Carolina residents will have to pay off stimulus cash used in other states.

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Flag Comment Posted by daniel885 on March 13, 2009 at 10:16 pm

It’s a real shame that WCBD's reports tonight on this issue on television couldn’t actually present the side in favor of Governor Sanford’s position. What a disservice to the viewers! Can we get a little more balance and unbiased perspective, please? I agree that there does seem to be something unfair about the prospect of SC taxpayers paying for California to get a bailout when we don’t get our fair share. Well this underscores the biggest problem of bailouts to begin with: Why send money from South Carolina to DC for politicians in DC to take their cut of the money and send it back to South Carolina? What sense does that make? But Mark Sanford is not out-right rejecting stimulus money. He’s analyzing this pragmatically. The stimulus payout is being financed by debt that will be paid by future generations of South Carolinians and citizens from every state. The Governor is willing to take the money if Obama will allow the money to be used to pay down South Carolina’s debt. That way the negatives are partially offset by a positive. However, if Obama denies this request where does that leave South Carolina? South Carolina will be forced to accept the money with strings attached. Some of those strings would cost South Carolina millions of dollars every year in the way it redefines eligibility for unemployment benefits. This will cost South Carolina taxpayers far more than the benefit we get in the short term because long after the DC money runs out, the unfunded mandates on South Carolina will live on. Remember, what happened to the banks that took the bailout money. DC politicians think they own them. They stick their noses where they don’t belong and get into the day to day management of the banks. The DC politicians will think the same of South Carolina when and if we take the stimulus money. And I don’t want anyone from Washington, DC to think they own South Carolina like they think they own the banks. We do not need or want the liberals of San Francisco dictating fiscal policy of South Carolina.

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Democrats to run ads against Sanford

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