South Carolinians, your governor is a real piece of sh*t

[marmar]

from ThinkProgress:



Sanford: It would be ‘fiscal child abuse’ to accept millions of stimulus dollars for education.

As Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) continues to wage an ideological war against $700 million of sorely-needed stimulus funds for his state, he has become more and more desperate to stave off his critics. Tonight on Glenn Beck’s Fox show, Sanford claimed that accepting the funds — 80 percent of which would fund education in his state — would be akin to “fiscal child abuse”:

BECK: But your point, if I’m not mistaken is, no, no, no, you’re taking care of the children in South Carolina by not taking it. Can you explain that? (…)

SANFORD: Since we don’t have any of this money that’s now being dispensed from Washington, DC; since we’re going out and printing money and we’re issuing debt to solve a problem that was created by too much debt; since that’s taking place, and since those costs will be borne by the next generation, in fact it is sort of fiscal child abuse to do what we’re doing.

BECK: Yes.

Watch it: http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/31/sanford-child-abuse/


It’s unclear whether South Carolina student Ty’Sheoma Bethea will agree that denying her crumbling school the stimulus cash it needs to rebuild — or that firing 4,000 state teachers — is protecting her from child abuse.


http://thinkprogress.org/2009/03/31/sanford-child-abuse/

[phantom power]

1. Republicans simply do not believe in using government to help citizens.

They think govt is for force projection, period.

[alsame]

2. That sums it up perfectly. n/t

[harun]

17. I thought you were half right reading the title, then I read the contents

of your post and yep, that's it.

[nxylas]

3. We know, we know

Well, some of us do, anyway.

[wildbilln864]

4. I know but I didn't vote for the P.O.S.! nt

:hi:

[GoCubsGo]

7. Nor did I.

P.O.S. is a HUGE understatement, actually.

[raccoon]

14. Ditto. nt

[dem629]

5. We're on a roll. Haven't had a good one in a long time.

[ShareTheWoods]

6. Is there a catch if they accept the money?

It seems logical to take the money if it's without strings and is used to benefit the schools and
education of the students. Is SC required to do something different than what they are doing now after the money is spent? If not, then he should take the cash and spend it on the student's education. Period.

[nxylas]

8. The catch is that Sanford's precious libertarian principles will be compromised

South Carolina effectively has two governors - Mark Sanford and the ghost of Ayn Rand.

[gratuitous]

9. At least he's honest

After all, why provide anything resembling a quality education for the kids, when the Republicans will be doing their level best the rest of their lives to steal it and its fruits from them? No sense raising their little hopes that they, too, can enjoy the benefits of their own education and hard work. That's exclusively reserved for the likes of Gov. Sanford and his overrich benefactors.

It's sad in a way that there's no alternative.

[spanone]

10. keep the kids ignorant and they will grow up to vote republican

[harun]

18. That or get them super rich.

[sweetpotato]

11. We know.

Help.

[PA Democrat]

12. SC already ranks 41st based on national reading and math scores,

high school graduation rates and the results of Advanced Placement exams.

And SC ranks 44th for equity in funding of schools across the state.

Is Sanford shooting for his state to be ranked dead LAST on education?


http://www.acsd.k12.sc.us/Press%20Releases%20of%20Inter...

[DemoTex]

13. E-mail from Greenville's Alliance for Quality Education (Call the Governor!)

Federal Stimulus Money for South Carolina

NEWS
Governor Sanford has until this Friday, April 3, to inform the federal
government that South Carolina will accept $700 million in federal stimulus
funding. This is $350 million a year for two years with the majority of
funding to be used for K-12 education.

So far the Governor has stated his intention to not accept the funds for the
required purpose of funding education and other essential state services.
If the money is not spent in South Carolina, it will be reallocated to other
states.

Without the stimulus funds, the State Senate is looking at cutting $368
million from the House-passed budget that used the stimulus money. This
includes a cut of $161.5 million from K-12 education. It is estimated that
not accepting the stimulus money could result in the lay off of 4,000
teachers in the state.

According to Greenville County Schools, without the federal stimulus funds,
next year's state funding for our school district will be reduced by
approximately $28 million from the House-passed budget. This could result
in the loss of more than 480 teachers in Greenville County as well as
numerous other administrative, clerical and programmatic positions.
Classroom size would increase dramatically.

OUR VIEW
The Alliance supports taking the Federal stimulus funds. To not take this
money will severely harm our public schools and the quality of education
that can be provided our children. Our school system has already incurred
$30 million in cuts during this school year.

Taking the federal stimulus funding would put state base student funding
near, but below, the 2006-07 level. Not taking this money would put the
base student amount below what was funded in 1999-2000. We could go
backwards by a decade.

A reduction of this size would be truly devastating for our students and
teachers.

ACTION
Call Governor Sanford at [phone]. Tell him to accept the federal
stimulus funds for South Carolina. Otherwise he will severely damage our
public schools and the quality of education our children can receive.

[Are_grits_groceries]

15. The whole political system in the state is effed up.

Sanford is a one off. He really is not the typical hale fellow, well met Bubba that often runs. I don't think he has a clue about being from the state. He tries to act like he came up with the people. Working on your Daddy's "farm" doesn't cut it. He trained at Goldman Sachs in NY. Sanford is a John Galt.

The majority of the state legislators can't stand him and that goes double for the Rethugs. In the last election, he drew up a list of Rethugs he wanted defeated with his own candidates. The ones he aimed at weren't sufficiently pure enough for him. Sanford didn't win the day, and just endeared himself even more to the R's.

So Sanford and the lege spend their time snarking at one another. If they happen to do something he wants, it is just by chance, and they would undo it if they could. They pass bills and he vetoes them. Then they overturn his vetoes. I call this state of affairs flinging poo. They spend their time figuring out how best to fling poo at each other.

The Dems run around and use flanking maneuvers. They make pacts where they can. The state Democratic party is an inefficient cabal of people who have been around forever. They all should be toted to Fort Sumter and left there. I have less patience with them because they are supposed to do something. I think they just sit around in their small island of power, and pretend they matter.

I really have no use for them after the last election. They didn't even make a decent attempt to run against Lindsey Graham. Some fool ended up with the nomination. He was a Rethug who supported Ron Paul and then switched parties to get the nomination. He still got 40% of the vote. If the party had really tried, they might not have won but they wouldn't look stupid.

Sanford doesn't govern. He doesn't understand the concept. He thinks he is back at Goldman Sachs or running a corporation. I doubt if he has visited 10 public schools in the state. I also wonder if he even knows what all the counties are. The stimulus money he wants to turn down is for education. Without it, up to 7000 teachers may be laid off.

I have a friend who has been deeply involved in education in SC for years. She says they don't care. They being the lege to a point, but especially Sanford, DeMint, and Graham. They are all too busy being on the teevee. So as the schools fall down one by one, we in the resistance will keep trying.

[blindpig]

16. Our Governor at work.

It's all pork to him. This is libertarianism in charge.

[StreetKnowledge]

19. Wow. Sandford are you really that stupid?

You won't take money to help your state's schools? How stupid are you?

[Orsino]

20. Colbert re-ran that interview for a reason. n/t