GOP’s Sanford: It’s Time to ‘Rip the Band-Aid Off’
EmailABC News’ Teddy Davis and Ferdous Al-Faruque report: Gov. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., an outspoken foe of President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus package, has been touted by RNC Chair Michael Steele as one of four rising Republican Party stars.
Ferdous Al-Faruque/ ABC News If Republicans want a "take-your-medicine" presidential candidate in 2012, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford might fit the bill. "The bottom line is we’re going to go through a deleveraging and it is going to be painful," Sanford told ABC News. "And the only question is do we stick a bunch of Band-Aids over it and hopefully ease some of the pain, but frankly prolong and deepen the pain? "Or do we rip the Band-Aid off, recognize it’s going to hurt, but get this thing over with sooner rather than later?" Sanford, who was recently named one of the GOP’s four rising stars by party chair Michael Steele, was in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday to deliver a scathing critique of President Barack Obama’s stimulus package to supporters of the Republican Governors Association, a group he chairs. While some Republican governors back Obama’s plan which includes billions in state aid for education, health care, and infrastructure, Sanford considers the plan a "mistake" and warns that the United States is moving closer to a "savior-based economy." Sanford thinks federal efforts to get consumers buying again through increased government spending won’t work because, in his view, the current economic downturn is a "balance sheet-driven slowdown" rather than a "typical recession caused by an excess in production or inventory." "We can’t fall into the trap that stimulus is just checks out of Washington," said Sanford. Sanford told RGA members that the push to bailout various U.S. industries is putting the country’s free-market economy at risk. "With all due respect to the Fed and Treasury, they have become the modern-day equivalent of a savior," he said. The trouble with bailing out industry, in Sanford’s view, is that businesses stop investing and instead focus on winning favor with government leaders. "You got to be careful on … this business of picking winners and losers," he said. "A problem of too much debt will never be solved with more debt." While making the anti-bailout case, the former three-term congressman took notice of the auto-industry representatives attending the RGA’s breakfast event. "With all due respect to the automotive companies, I got some friends in this room who staunchly and well-represent folks on that front, but do you really want to have just three automotive companies?" he asked. "Do you really want to have a system where you pick just a couple of businesses?" Rather than promising to save certain American industries, Sanford, who worked as a real estate investor before entering politics, portrayed economic pain as a fact of life in a free-market economy. "I come from the deep south," said Sanford. "It wasn’t all that long ago we went through absolute carnage in the world of furniture. It wasn’t all that long ago we went through carnage in the world of textiles." "I can still take you to little towns in South Carolina that are to this day impacted by the fact that the little mill in town that was the center of town is closed," he added. "So I don’t know that you want to get into the business of saying (let’s save the) Big Three, because it never ends at the Big Three." Following his RGA event, Sanford met with a group of Senate Republicans. But he did not hold back in his interview with ABC News from taking issue with a plan which has been touted this week by the Senate GOP leader. Asked about Sen. Mitch McConnell’s, R-Ky., proposal for the government to guarantee 4 percent interest rates on home loans for credit worthy buyers, Sanford, said, "In the long run, it ain’t going to solve the problem." "You can have a loan at 4 percent, you can have a loan at 7 percent, but if you’ve got too much debt, at the end of the day, there’s going to be an adjustment," he added. Later this month, Sanford will address the California Republican Party’s convention in Sacramento. Asked if his California trip is the first step towards 2012, he quipped, "I’m trying to survive the week."
Santorum Clarifies Concerns on Women in Combat 
Gulf of Mexico to Become Gulf of America?
hmmm…………………
Easy for him to say with a lifetime pension and health care he is recession proof.
Love the GOP everyone need to suffer for the US but them.
Posted by: Thinking | February 4, 2009, 7:36 pm 7:36 pm
Gee, this fellow sounds like just what we need!!!! A good Republican who wants us to take our medicine! Admittedly politicians in both major parties have sold out our country AND its manufacturing base. Those little towns he was talking about are the victims of this “free market” economy we are supposed to be celebrating.
Republicans are the party of “death to the little guy”. After all, he’s just a lowly factory worker who spent $250,000 on a house he couldn’t afford. People like him should be renters for life! On the other hand, let’s not dictate the salaries of those “talented experts” on Wall Street. they might abandon ship if forced to live on half a million per year.
Posted by: phoenix lady | February 4, 2009, 7:41 pm 7:41 pm
You want Herbert Hoover? I give you the Republican party!
BUT… I don’t want to slander President Hoover. Today’s Republicans WANT to see a second world-wide economic depression. They are working hard on it and they might get their wish!
Things are crashing because people are afraid to spend, and businesses are afraid to hire because they see an environment where everyone is afraid to buy.
The bright side is that all the world markets are so depressed, and all the other financial investments deemed too risky that the giant world pool of money is being put into U.S. treasury bonds.
For this reason, the Federal government has the ability to borrow money at an extraordinarily low interest rate.
SO you have an economy dying for lack of spending and the U.S. government is in unusually strong position to borrow. The logical solution, obvious even to the economists at the most conservative think tanks — is to use the thing we have to provide the thing we need. The only problem is these same people hate the idea.
The U.S. government should borrow another $2 Trillion dollars and spend it on infrastructure and spend it in developing renewable, American, sources of energy and tax cuts for the middle class that puts cash in people’s wallets.
Posted by: John | February 4, 2009, 8:01 pm 8:01 pm
Sanford is a pretty straight person but at the end of the day his voice will be ignored. His point about future debt should be taken seriously and since we are adding this debt on top of all the unfunded mandates that some say are 50 trillion short we are burying ourselves and our children and their children in IOU’s.
My assets, in particular my savings, has taken a hit and I will not get it back, I won’t be bailed out and neither will any of the avearge people. If it is ok for us to loose our shirts why is it not ok for ill ran companies-banks to do the same?
Real relief would be a massive tax cut for all, including businesses, a hiring freeze in the government with a flat budget and stop calling 30 year olds “kids” for the sake of getting them onto Government health care.
Posted by: david | February 4, 2009, 8:15 pm 8:15 pm
I like Mark Sanford. If he turns out to be right about the stimulus, and if he’s on the ballot in 2012, he’ll probably have my vote – unless he takes a turn for the socially fascist and starts marketing himself as believing in “traditional Christian values”.
Posted by: Mark | February 4, 2009, 8:29 pm 8:29 pm
The guy is right. IF we keep giving out money we will never get out of this. Remember what do you do when you have a budget problem. If you are like most you cut your spending. What does our goverment want to do increase it. Its simple, follow the old rule spend only what you have after you have put a little away for a rainy day.
Kill this pork bill today.
Posted by: Robert | February 4, 2009, 8:30 pm 8:30 pm
Well, at least Sanford is talking about the problem viewed from a different perspective. Clearly said. It’s all mind bloggling, to be sure…and most people want to be sure THEY survive this upheaval, whether it makes sense or not.
Posted by: CJWright | February 4, 2009, 8:33 pm 8:33 pm
Governor Sanford comment about a 4% interest rate on home loans baffles me!
If a lower interest rate would not help the economy, then why the heck is the FED lowering the prime rate? Is the FED
lowering the prime rate just for grins?
Posted by: Gordon | February 4, 2009, 8:51 pm 8:51 pm
Amazing…8 years of Bush policy and Republicans want to rip Obama’s fiscal policies? Maybe the Republicans are still look for WMDs, too!
Posted by: Matt | February 4, 2009, 8:51 pm 8:51 pm
Sanford is speaking the truth (mainly) but it’s ENTIRELY out of self-interest. The worse the country does over the next four years, the more Republicans benefit in 2012. What a shock we suddenly have sanctimony coming from South Carolina.
Posted by: Reality Check | February 4, 2009, 8:56 pm 8:56 pm
Obama seems like a nice fellow. His track on CHANGE however has been disappointing. And well, his ‘ideas’ for stimulating the economy is rehashed failed social spending, leveraged as high as his idea-less cronies in congress can go. If only those stubborn Republicans can get on board! Then he can say, “But they liked this idea too!” after the bottom falls out! What school of economics is this Obama? Some very well known Austrian School economists (Classical liberals)are warning against this false Bail-Out. Check out mises.org for some perspective.
Posted by: picomanning | February 4, 2009, 8:58 pm 8:58 pm
But, and I’m just saying, what if he is right?
Posted by: boxcar | February 4, 2009, 8:59 pm 8:59 pm
Robert: ” IF we keep giving out money we will never get out of this. Remember what do you do when you have a budget problem. If you are like most you cut your spending. What does our goverment want to do increase it. Its simple”
Yes, it is a simple answer. An analogy that is nothing like the actual situation, and an answer that is reject by the vast majority of professionals, but hey – it’s simple.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 4, 2009, 9:01 pm 9:01 pm
Typical politician. Nice rhetoric but no substance. It is time for Americans to stand strong and united and tell all these politicians to take their self righteous rhetoric and feed their families with it. Demand Action America and stop falling for Hope, Promises, Change, Medicine, Band aids, and other buzz words. This is about listening to the consitituency and not forcing us to listen the them.
Posted by: clancy49 | February 4, 2009, 9:02 pm 9:02 pm
Sanford is the worst Governor South Carolina has had in a very long time. He has brought no jobs and has done zilch for the people of South Carolina except to serve as a demagogue and try to gut the state’s already meager public education budget. He’s a completely inept leader, funded by wingnut libertarians. I can’t wait for him to be gone from SC. Hopefully the Republicans will make him their nominee in 2012.
Posted by: Martin | February 4, 2009, 9:02 pm 9:02 pm
what do you think south carolina would say about anyone not from the south.lets send the yankees there,with the national guard…
Posted by: tacoma g | February 4, 2009, 9:02 pm 9:02 pm
It’s interesting that Obama supporters are all pretty much victims of their world with government their only hope. That’s pretty much the by-product of liberalism. The concept that the only solution for business mismanagement is to tax everyone and bail out those that will give you the big bucks to get re-elected. Then create enough dependents that can’t support themselves unless the government intervenes. It’s nice to hear someone talking a little bit of economic sense.
Posted by: Informed. | February 4, 2009, 9:07 pm 9:07 pm
I truly think it’s going to take a combination of both. We ARE going to have to tighten our belts A LOT in order to get out of this. But the people at the bottom end of the economic spectrum won’t be able to survive this without some help.
And, of course, therein lies the rub. First, where do you draw the line? What income guidelines do people have to meet in order to be helped? And if you help the “little guy” it’s gonna have to be the “big guys” that end up taking even more of a hit.
There IS no simple solution to this economic mess the US has gotten into, and only time will tell whether certain decisions were the “right” ones. I honestly think Obama knows that, too. But I applaud him for doing *something*. Sitting in Washington wringing his hands won’t help either.
The reason the Chinese ended up in possession of so much of this country’s debt is because while we were maxing out our credit cards, the Chinese were saving! Something we’d do well to emulate once we finally get this mess sorted out.
Posted by: Jaylah | February 4, 2009, 9:08 pm 9:08 pm
He is selling wolf tickets, SC is in terrible shape, he need to first fix his own leaking roof.
Posted by: C Mac | February 4, 2009, 9:11 pm 9:11 pm
David has a huge bug up his butt, just like the Senator’s. The only thing he’s right about is the national debt, and I blame Mr. Bush for that. The first part of the stimulus package was used in the wrong way, and went down the drain. And the Republicans know it! The Fed knew that President Obama & today’s House & Senate would never had approved the appropriation of all that money going solely to bail out billion dollar financial corporations. Let them take their own medicine!
Perhaps, if the money would have been appropriated to give the middle class & the working poor additional tax cuts and stimulus checks, given to states for infrastructure rebuilding, small business loans, mental health agencies, etc.,before the new administration took office, our country might be at the beginning of a slow rebounding process. Instead, those banks used the cash to throw elaborate parties for themselves and reward themselves for ripping us off with million dollar bonuses.
What has our country come to? No one thinks of the poor any longer. They will, because, if the Republicans get their way, there will only be two classes: the wealth (mainly Republicans) and the poor.
Posted by: sunflower | February 4, 2009, 9:11 pm 9:11 pm
I bet this govenor is a big Bush and Cheney supporter and is a follower Rush Limbaugh.
Posted by: AJ | February 4, 2009, 9:13 pm 9:13 pm
I see we’re in for another round of “let ‘em die” and “survival of the fittest” from the top 1% of the country…
Posted by: jan | February 4, 2009, 9:22 pm 9:22 pm
John McCain must be scratching his head. Funny how all these Republicans suddenly have the answer to the economy which under their administration tanked.
Everybody is now an expert.
The one thing they all have in common is that it seems to be far more important to be in every news cycle without having any detailed alternative.(McCain suspending his campaign, and sitting with nothing to contribute when the time came for action)
Don’t you wonder why you never hear from them what’s good in the stimulus….hmmm. Like McCain they will end up with the same result…Out of touch and left behind.
I look at them on the news every night and wonder how many of them know how many homes they have, or how their household help or gardener survives. They look like a bunch of grumpy old men.
Posted by: Donna | February 4, 2009, 9:22 pm 9:22 pm
AJ: “and is a follower Rush Limbaugh.”
As was proven when a Representative was forced to grovel after he dared insult the great Rush, I think it can be assumed that any Republican is a follower of Rush Limbaugh.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 4, 2009, 9:22 pm 9:22 pm
Informed: “It’s interesting that Obama supporters are all pretty much victims of their world with government their only hope. ”
Nice strawman there. And ALL republicans work for Halliburton and think the 9/11 hijackers came from Iraq.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 4, 2009, 9:24 pm 9:24 pm
such a loser-a shame he doesn’t live in another state—like Ill.
Posted by: bob | February 4, 2009, 9:32 pm 9:32 pm
Sadly, he has made a good point. The economy has been fueled by consumer and corporate debt, not earnings growth in either sector. Doesn’t it strike anyone as ironic that for the last few years we have been wringing our hands over the anemic savings rate in this country? Now we want them to spend to spur the economy. Just seems like there is a far bigger problem that no one wants to recognize – we have no organic growth and we are out of debt. The government need to spur research, development and manufacturing to create products people want to buy and that we can export competitively to the rest of the world. We also need to increase savings at all income levels. The governor has a point, it just isn’t one anyone wants to recognize.
Posted by: beth | February 4, 2009, 9:32 pm 9:32 pm
The stimulus plan is about lies for dollars. A government hand out that you and I will pay for in the future. Fortunately, we all have access to information and seek the truth
about organizations requesting a free hand out. It will be interesting as the true numbers become available in the near future as to actually had a legitimate reason for a bailout.
Posted by: Simple | February 4, 2009, 9:40 pm 9:40 pm
The economy is suffering from gang green and the people of the United States recognize this. They have chosen to amputate more of the republican limb over each of the past 3 elections. The republicans might view this guy as their rising star but the people of this Great Nation will more than likely view him as more tar to be scraped from their shoe.
Posted by: rightbehind | February 4, 2009, 9:41 pm 9:41 pm
beth: ” The economy has been fueled by consumer and corporate debt, not earnings growth in either sector. ”
This is just not true. Production of intellectual property, export of management expertise, student attendees of our best-in-the-world Universities, and continuous expansion of high technology industries (where is Google based? Amazon?) has been increasing production. Pharmaceutical companies have also made some rather valuable discoveries, although the growth to the US bottom line from that is hazier due to industry consolidation with European giants. In addition, American worker productivity has been increasing.
There has been real, tangible production increases over the past decade.
Posted by: jhw539 | February 4, 2009, 9:43 pm 9:43 pm
Gov’nah Sanford is our very own village idiot here in South Carolina. He has done nothing but hamper efforts to improve the quality of life for his constituents. If given a choice, I’d rather suffer through the administration of someone like Blagojevich or Spitzer, instead of listening to this backwoods mouthpiece ramp up for a future run at the White House. It certainly is a sad state of affairs for the GOP if Sanford is considered one of their “four rising stars.” No wonder people are voting on the Democratic ticket today!
Posted by: Chillaxation | February 4, 2009, 9:44 pm 9:44 pm
Sanford’s reasoning is way outside the norms of current economic models. He’s grandstanding. Isn’t he governor of the state with the Confederate holiday?? History passed him by it seems.
Posted by: Dean | February 4, 2009, 9:47 pm 9:47 pm
The economy is suffering from gang green and the people of the United States recognize this. They have chosen to amputate more of the republican limb over each of the past 3 elections. The republicans might view this guy as their rising star but the people of this Great Nation will more than likely view him as more tar to be scraped from their shoe.
Posted by: rightbehind | February 4, 2009, 9:47 pm 9:47 pm
Ok “give Obama a chance” right? So we did. Obama went and confidentially picked out his cabinet members. Found out they are all tax fraud members. So what we’ll give him a benefit of a doult. Let him pass this trillion $ bill and if it fail we’ll start all over again right? After all we are voting for hope right? So lets keep on hoping to our graves people.
Posted by: vegas | February 4, 2009, 9:49 pm 9:49 pm
One is reminded of the liaison that Barney Frank had with his boyfriend over at Fannie Mae and how crooked the Democrats were in pushing the economic ship over the cliff. Of course, he’s still in there doing more damage. Frankly, he needs to be arrested on treason and criminal misconduct charges in my opinion.
As a Republican, I’m furious at my own party right now, but I’m even more furious at the treasonous planning of the Democrats in pushing an obvious move to Socialism and every looney-left agenda at the expense of the taxpayer and while stripping the Bill of Rights and the Constitution clean of anything in this deal for the citizens.
For every single one of you Dem-loons sitting there blaming the entire mess on the Republicans, I have a message… Go look at the documentation in the Congressional record. You’ll see your own party leaders in equally poor positions and representing anyone but you. Oh… and please don’t lecture me or others with unsupportable insults and tripe that reveal your lack of research or balanced views of the problem. It becomes tiring to wade through liberal tirades looking for one single interesting debate point in a sea of emotionally-driven drivel.
Posted by: Jon | February 4, 2009, 9:51 pm 9:51 pm
Typical Republican, plenty of criticism but,
not one idea on how HE would fix the economy.
South Carolina doesn’t have much of an economic
base to call itself bullet proof. The tobacco industry
is probably the best revenue maker. Oops, forgot
about governmental subsidizes (corporate welfare). .
Lots of Luck !
Posted by: spacerook1 | February 4, 2009, 9:53 pm 9:53 pm
Who is ‘Governor Sanford?” Coming from a little pimple state that means nothing to anybody.
People like him were cheerleaders for Republican overspending on the War in Iraq and the windfall
ripoff Bush tax cuts…Where does thie governor get all his economic expertise? Why didn’t he exercise some
of it when his party was driving us into the ditch? . Who is he that anybody should listen to his
prescriptions for more failure like what he and his party already engineered? That’s why they were voted out
of office this last election. Now they won’t even get out of the way when the North is trying to clean up the
mess the South made during their time in power. It’s bad enough Republicans
still haven’t learned that trickle down economics put us into the mess we’re in now, but this idiot
doesn’t even know what he’s talking about. And by the way his party picked plenty of favorites when they
were in power. What a hypocrite. The South is just full of opinions that don’t contribute much more to
the national dialog than a person’s derrierre. He ought to go back to picking cotton and making cigarettes
for people to get cancer with. Let this man show his credentials as an economist. Most economists don’t
become the governor of a RED sore loser pimple state.
Posted by: JL | February 4, 2009, 9:55 pm 9:55 pm
I agree with Martin that Sanford is the worst governor South Carolina has had. He has done nothing to improve South Carolina. We have high unemployment, are last or near last in terms of education, teenage pregnancies, infant mortality, obesity, and a dozen other areas. Sanford is all mouth and no action, unless it is providing quid pro quo to his financial contributors.
Posted by: fragan4 | February 4, 2009, 9:56 pm 9:56 pm
Gee, if Sanford hadn’t attended the Bilderberg Group meeting in Chantilly, Va with Obama and Hilliary, I’d almost want to vote for ‘em. Remember when the GOP HAD Republicans IN it??? Rudy, Romney, Huckabee, McCain!!! Jeez, where the HELL ARE the Republicans in the GOP! These Teddy “Kennedyesque/Bush-light Neo CONS…” are destroying what once actually was an oppostiton party to the Democrat party. Oh well, I guess we’ll have to get used to the “tyranny of the majority” and let minority rights (and I don’t mean race!) vanish without a trace. Bye bye Republic, HELL-O Monarchal “mob rule!!!” Bush, Clinton, Bush, Clinton, Obama/Cheney… Makes you wonder doesn’t it??? Oh yeah, anybody can grow up to be President, yeah Surre!!!
Posted by: hmn... | February 4, 2009, 9:59 pm 9:59 pm
Simple…when this bill passes and our country goes bankrupt…perhaps people will listen to this man more seriously! We’re starting the process of bankruptcy with this bill and when this process happens…guess who will get the blame…Democrats! I can’t believe the lefties pushed this bill through the House.
Posted by: Bear | February 4, 2009, 10:01 pm 10:01 pm
Stanford is absolutely correct. Debt caused this recession and anybody who thinks more debt will fix it doesn’t have a clue, Obama included. The stimulus package was so full of absurd Democrat pork that it will never pass. It reeked of corruption and waste.
Posted by: Brian | February 4, 2009, 10:05 pm 10:05 pm
This guy is right. Why should we trust Tiny Tim Geithner anyway? The guy is a tax cheat. Now he is talking about Americans trust. Give me a break.!!
Arrogance and greed + tax cheats and lobbyists = Obama’s administration
Posted by: CW | February 4, 2009, 10:05 pm 10:05 pm
Its funny how so many people didn’t see through Obama during the campaign. THE SEA WILL RISE…HOPE…CHANGE WE CAN BELIEVE IN. He said all the right things…its only been two weeks, and he sucks as a leader. He had no control over creating this bill, and it’s obvious he’s trying to get it passed before he looks like a complete fool. I have to say…lefties…you should have elected Hillary…she’s looking much better than Obama now, but hey…he’s such a wonderful speaker so that makes him qualified…lol! Obama’s followers didn’t care what he said his speeches…can’t understand half the nonsense he says anyway…it jibber jabber!!! Change we can all believe in!
Posted by: bear | February 4, 2009, 10:10 pm 10:10 pm
I agree with Mark Sanford – the band aid will only make it worse…and longer.
Posted by: j | February 4, 2009, 10:14 pm 10:14 pm
The economy is suffering from gang green and the people of the United States recognize this. They have chosen to amputate more of the republican limb over each of the past 3 elections.
Posted by: rightbehind | February 4, 2009, 10:17 pm 10:17 pm
Republicans want to shrink the economy to where we will go back to being a tribal nation with only the few wealthy on top having a decent life. Everytime they are in office they massively grow the debt. What is the deal with that. Democrats have just about always kept the debt down and helped balance the lack of opportunities.
Posted by: guest | February 4, 2009, 10:20 pm 10:20 pm
Hmmm, yes it is very interesting how all these Republicans seem to have all the answers for the economy now.
All I can say is thank the Lord that we have a President who actually cares about our country and wants to do what is best for the country and the people. (and has the intelligence and energy to get it done)
Posted by: Truth Matters | February 4, 2009, 10:35 pm 10:35 pm
Sanford is the real deal. We need someone like him in the Oval Office.
I signed up to draft him for President in 2012 at
http://www.draftsanford2012.com
Join me! Our country needs it.
Posted by: Atlas576 | February 4, 2009, 11:43 pm 11:43 pm
Thinking writes that “This guy is just what we need. Republicans are the party of death to the little guy. After all he’s just a lowly factory worker who bought a $250,000 house he couldn’t afford. He should be a renter for life”. Your absolutely right! The government should gaurantee all these things for the little guy. They should gaurantee our health care. They should gaurantee our retirement. They should gaurantee our health safety and welfare. Then we’ll get exactly what we deserve.
mike
Posted by: Mike | February 5, 2009, 1:46 am 1:46 am
The American dream is an opportunity, not an entitlement. Why do we vilify those who realize that dream by hard work and taking responsibility for their own lives? And by the way, the assumption that all the wealthy in this country are Republicans is laughable. And since Republicans give to charity in amounts equal to 3 times their Democratic counterparts, maybe we should hope that more Republicans become wealthier. Read up on the charitable contributions of both the Obamas and the Bidens through the years, and then come back and tell me how much they really care about those less fortunate than themselves. Their actions belie their words at every turn.
Posted by: Babs | February 5, 2009, 2:39 am 2:39 am
Sanford’s OK, but Michael Steele
is a liberal. Ron Paul might have
saved us had it not been for the
corrupt centrists of both parties
unconstitutionally colluding for
another puppet, and excluding him
from a fair election.
Time will tell if Obama delivers
on national health care for
everybody. Everyone has a right
to the same health care that
everyone has been subsidizing
since birth to bureaucrats and
quasi-bureaucrats.
Does anybody “get it” yet ?
Posted by: g Washington | February 5, 2009, 2:55 am 2:55 am
We are discussing this issue along with a whole slew of others over on my political blog. Recently we began tackling the issue of where the Republican party needs to go in order to rebound. We have topics on all sorts of topics including the idea of third party viability. An exert from there:
Regardless of which of the above categories you fall into, the bottom line is that the lack of respectful, intelligent, logical, honest, and non-judgmental debate in America is the single largest obstacle to our country getting back to the state that it needs to get to. It keeps us divided and in turn keeps us powerless. Without a united front against the government waste, corruption, control, and theft, the American people have no chance to combat it. The politicians know that and they do their best to create the environment the way it is so we don’t stop arguing with each other long enough to realize that both parties are taking advantage of us daily.
So I am asking all of you to take a moment and jump over there and join in on the conversation. Be respectful and offer your version of where the party is wrong or right and what needs to change. Get there here:
http://standupforamerica.wordpress.com
Hope to see you there.
Posted by: USWeapon | February 5, 2009, 3:46 am 3:46 am
I live in neighboring N.C. and South Carolina has been the but of jokes for years about the state of their finances. If Gov. Sanford believes in “tearing the band aid off”, why did he beg the Federal government for funds to continue paying unemployment benefits when S.C. was running out? Don’t Republicans believe in states rights and the states fending for themselves? He’s a hypocrite.
Posted by: cltclt | February 5, 2009, 7:40 am 7:40 am
The economy is easy to fix.And as soon as these morons (both rep and dems)recognize where the problems come from. Forget printing more money, thats only pushing us over the cliff. First things first, remove every single solder we have over seas, be they in war or peace.This alone will save trillions. Remove the federal reserve, and return to the gold standard. This would prevent any corperation from determining the value of our dollar through intrest rates. The next move would be to eliminate the federal income tax. And if you think the country cant run with out it, if we cut goverment spending to what it was just 10 years ago, there would be no need for it. These three thing alone would sky rocket the economy. And its just where I would start.
Posted by: Jaybird | February 5, 2009, 8:54 am 8:54 am
Governor Sanford is certainly a governor to be proud of. The SC governor does not have much power – but he does what he can – such as refusing to request Federal unemployment money because of how badly the agency is mismanaged. While they did end up getting some short-term money, there is now a bill to have that agency under the governor.
You will find that this governor is very consistent in his beliefs in the free market system.
While I do not always agree with him, he is by far the best governor the state of SC has had in generations. Too bad the Congress won’t support him.
and while I have no doubt he would be a very good president, I cannot imagine him being elected. He is not a typical politicain – he is rather plain spoken and does not make a lot of compromises he things are going to hurt the state.
Posted by: LAC | February 5, 2009, 9:04 am 9:04 am
Why is it hypocritical for this governer to demand back from the federal government what South Carolinians and every other American were required to pay in the first place? I know that once it’s taken it isn’t ours anymore and we have no control over the federal govrnment but that doesn’t make it right. Our new “constitutional law proffessor” president has even gone so far as to express his view that the Supreme Court has failed in it’s duties by not engaging in confiscatory income redistribution. Wait till he starts trying to appoint judges who believe they should have the power to determine what we must pay in taxes to their employer, the federal government.
Mike
Posted by: Mike | February 5, 2009, 1:30 pm 1:30 pm
Let’s be accurate and right about this.
We are heading from a Bush recession into a deeper and longer Obama recession. Bush and the Republican Congress should have had larger tax cuts, particularly on capital gains (which gets reinvested to create jobs) and held down spending (outside of defense).
when Bush got a Democrat Congress in 2006, he should have vetoed their big spending bills and forced them to cut spending or override his veto.
Bush should have, years ago, issued executive orders for Justice, reversing what the Clinton administration did, to not pressure lenders into making bad mortgages.
To be clear, Bush failed.
This recession is brought to you by the intersection of interests with Democrats and Rockefeller Republicans.
All along, conservatives pushed for the very things that would have prevented this recession. Ever since 2000, the Republican party has been led by Rockefeller Republicans and the results of that leadership have come home to roost.
One would have hoped that the degree of defeat suffered by Rockefeller Republicans in 2006 and 2008 would lead to new, conservative leadership in the Republican party. Unfortunately, while Michael Steele may be conservative by northeastern standards, he is another Rockefeller Republican masquerading as a conservative, just like Bush, Romney, Guiliani, and McCain.
Conservatives need to close ranks in the Republican party, never compromise on core principles, and work from the local level up to put the party back to successfully serving Americans.
When we are deep in the Obama recession, Democrats and Rockefeller Republicans will be the ones responsible. Conservatives need to start preparing now to get out the message of conservatism in a way people will hear and understand, and see that conservatives have been fighting for them, and for a free and prosperous America, all along.
Posted by: Jeff J | February 5, 2009, 1:37 pm 1:37 pm
Eight years into FDR’s New Deal unemployment in the United States stood at about 15% on Dec. 6, 1941. That’s about twice what it is today. Don’t expect to much from this “stimulus ” package, especially since it’s burdened with useless pork and your children’s children will still be paying for it. The only alternative is to crank up the money presses and drive inflation into double digits.
MAL
Posted by: MAL | February 5, 2009, 1:41 pm 1:41 pm
Oh how I wish the Republican party had held to this principle during the Bush years, then we could actually back-up our argument. But we all know Bush led the congress down the “Compassionate Conservative” path that is responsible for this mess in the first place. So republicans look very disingenuous when we now try to actually fix this mess. Bush has destroyed the Republican party for at least a generation. Let this be a lesson to future Republican congressional members, stick to your principles and dont let a “Compassionate Conservative” bully you into abandoning them, you are there to represent the people, not the president!!!!! But at least we seem to be turning back to our principles, for what its worth!!!!
Posted by: Turk | February 5, 2009, 1:50 pm 1:50 pm
The life blood of any eco-system is the constant phasing out of species and replacement in the system with new one’s. It’s called bio-diversity.
The economic system is no different. The industries which can’t change and adapt fail, and new smaller more nimble one’s take their place. It’s easy to see the auto industry has gotten too large, too full of politics and unionism, and now needs to be propped up by government to survive. That’s not real, it’s like putting pandas in a zoo and feeding them their highly specialized food. But one disease will come along and they’re all going to die off.
Bailouts are the same thing. They will eventually crash our system, just like non-diversified species crash and die out.
Posted by: Scott | February 5, 2009, 1:51 pm 1:51 pm
Gov Sanford isn’t the worst or the best we’ve had. I’ve always had the impression he was sharp on economics. I know he’s pushed for cutting spending, though not in areas folks would prefer. Can’t please everybody.
As for someone above insulting SC, and nobody caring about it, that’s fine, keep your puney mind and biased arse away from here.
Posted by: wildblueyondergoAF | February 5, 2009, 1:59 pm 1:59 pm
To wildblueyondergoAF:
“As for someone above insulting SC, and nobody caring about it…”
I used to live in columbia, S.C. and I loved it. It is a wonderful state, and a good place to live. As well as home to Clemson and the original USC. :)
Posted by: Jeff J | February 5, 2009, 2:11 pm 2:11 pm
Mortgages got us into this, the trillions should be used exclusively to allow low/fixed mortgages so the ones close to forclosure won’t lose their homes and others would be able to purchase new homes without the fear of forfeiture. Using money for global warming crap is useless. Fix the home situation and get out of the way.
Posted by: Sue | February 5, 2009, 2:32 pm 2:32 pm
Liberals still don’t get it, and never will. Both parties are puppets of the CFR, and are fully committed to global governance and transferring wealth away from the West. They’ve nearly gotten us there, lock, stock and barrel. The bail-outs and stimulus packages are a feel-good fraud. When they fail, we’ll realize that the foundations of a socialist police state were built with our consent.
Posted by: TJ Anderson | February 5, 2009, 2:41 pm 2:41 pm
Liberal knuckleheads are still blaming Herbert Hoover for the 1929 crash – an event that he was barely in office for six months when it occured. Let’s see if they’ll allow Obama to be blamed in six months when the next crash occurs.
History…. lessons you forget you’ll have to re-live.
Posted by: TJ Anderson | February 5, 2009, 2:45 pm 2:45 pm
Tax Cuts, Tax Cuts, Tax Cuts. We know what the answer is but the government will never listen. All they want to do is play shell games with our money and never admit their plan won’t work in fear of losing control.We can’t borrow our way into prosperity.
Posted by: John W. | February 5, 2009, 3:38 pm 3:38 pm
Boy, if Steele is promoting him, you know he is just another neo-con. Everybody in the GOP is trying to be like Ron Paul. Too little too late Republicrats. You did nothing but increase the size of Gubbinment when you had the chance to live up to your rhetoric. At this point, I will never go back to the GOP. The lobbyists don’t play both sides for nothing. Both sides are corrupt, and they know it doesn’t matter which party is in office-the Republicrats or the Democommies. WAKE UP PEOPLE!!! The gubbinment cannot save you. They are a parasite, and you are the host. As the host, you will either give in to submission, or fight back. I prefer to fight. The GOP is headed for many more losses, if they don’t change their ways. So far, it doesn’t look like they’ve learned a damn thing.
RON PAUL IS MY PRESIDENT!!!
Posted by: DavidR | February 5, 2009, 3:40 pm 3:40 pm
DavidR wrote “Everybody in the GOP is trying to be like Ron Paul.”
No, not conservatives. Ron Paul is a libertarian who isn’t stable enough to trust with the Presidency.
Ron Paul opposed the war on Islamic jihadists. That alone makes him unfit to lead the nation. Rockefeller Republicans (like Bush, McCain, etc.) were for nation-building, and conservatives were not. Condservatives understand why we went into Afghanistan and Iraq, but were against the nation-building aspects. Ron Paul apparently has no concept of just how real, present, and dangerous the Islamic threat is, and seems clueless on the current threat from China and a resurgent Russian empire – just like Bush and Obama.
Some of Ron Paul’s positions coincide with conservative principles, but he doesn’t arrive there from those principles.
Conservatives were pushing against Bush’s nation-building, weak tax cuts, and high spending long before now.
Posted by: Jeff J | February 5, 2009, 4:14 pm 4:14 pm
I can tell you now, as a citizen of South Carolina that Mark Sanford is the real deal. He is a fiscal conservative, and has brought the Employment Security Commission to their knees because he wants accountability for where the unemployment benefits are going before he asks the fed gov for a loan. He is definately a great governor, and a man of principle. Also, just because he is from the south, he believes in God, but he isn’t a shove it down you throat christian. Go Mark Sanford.
Posted by: Hugh Jascock | February 5, 2009, 6:17 pm 6:17 pm
Simple question for all. If the excessive spending and credit craziness created this mess, why does anyone think that borrowing 900+ billion dollars and not figuring on paying it back will work. We are just about bankrupt and this should do it.
Watch for the further steps: Devaluation of the dollar and nationalizing the financial institutions. All in the name of “saving the economy”
Posted by: John | February 5, 2009, 7:27 pm 7:27 pm
You Idiots – NO ONE – even us “greedy” Republicans “want” to see a depression – but if push come a shove at least we have the bal*s to eat it ourselves rather than pass a socialized-no motive-loser-lazy-lets all be mediocre nation that is trillions in debt on to our children. Being able to buy a set of hub-caps that keep spinning at the stop light might be kewl – but most people are going to pay down dept – not go out and buy there small town dream with any stimulus sent to the public. As for the corporate world – let Bankruptcy laws do what they were intended to do – help those who still have a heart beat – and let the dying die so the market can replace them with the living. Good intentions feel good – but they do nothing to add healthy results.
The only way out of this mess – is to suffer until we “work” our way out – you liberals need to go wayyyyy back to when economics was taught instead of condom useage – “printing” money only adds to inflation – and borrowing it only makes you in bondage to the lender. Quit your damn whining and realize what you love to see in the gym – no pain no gain – its true with your latte sipping bodies – and its true with economy. The party is over – Government – not free markets – caused the problem – hold it accountable.
Posted by: idiot-proof | February 5, 2009, 8:40 pm 8:40 pm
Idiot-Proof, you stole my thunder. I was about to rebuke the 85-90% of commenters to this article who, like dumb sheep, actually believe that big daddy government is going to fix this problem. Well, I’ll go ahead and do it anyway. What the h*** are you people thinking? Have you all been brainwashed beyond help? The government is not a wealth creator, it can only transfer wealth. Who do you think is going to pay for the trillion or so they will be conjuring out of thin air in the next year or so?? The greedy corporate Wall Street executives? Evil capitalist entrepreneurs like your bosses who for some unknown reason continue to employ your ignorant a*ses? NO! YOU WILL PAY! YOUR CHILDREN WILL PAY!! I understand that some of you may pay little in federal taxes. You may even get a “rebate” (wealth transfer) check each year for paying nothing. But understand this. The bastards who have hijacked our government figured out long ago that they could get in bed with central bankers and do a number on you and most of you fools would never be the wiser. You see, they do not need your money (yet). They can “borrow” money from the central bank (FED) that didn’t exist until that moment. That expands the total supply of money, which then devalues every damn dollar that was in circulation prior to this new expansion (inflation) of the money supply. Those dollars are in your pocket and maybe a few of you actually have a savings account. Your earnings are literally evaporating because of this theft. You haven’t seen real inflation until we run through a few years of trillion dollar deficits. Do not believe for a minute that B.H. Obama is going to save you from this. He is one of two things: too dumb to understand it, or he approves of it. Otherwise, he would be compelled by the sheer evil of it to speak out! (same goes for Bush, Clinton, McCain, etc) The only presidential candidate who had the b*lls to speak against it was Ron Paul. Say what you will, it will take a great host of men and women with his integrity to fix this. And they can’t do it unless there is a citizenry behind them who are willing to stop whining and holding out a hand to Massa Uncle Sam for a few more morsels, but rather people who get sick and damn fed up and throw off the ignorance and laziness brought on by years of governmnent education and worthless micky mouse college degrees. WAKE UP PEOPLE! We are headed for socialism and it will not be like what your Marxist college professors taught you! God help us if you people represent the majority of America!
Posted by: SlaveNoMore | February 5, 2009, 11:20 pm 11:20 pm
Please tell us the details about your visit to California. Its about time a Republican with cajones stand up to the Neocons. Sanford never said anything about supporting criminal activities among these bankers and Wall Streeters. A crook is a crook regardless of party affiliation. Lets get some reality and maturinty and quit trying to believe in Santa Claus. Only an honest leader can get us out of this mess, not a sloganeering, poll watching sycophant.
Posted by: ben | February 6, 2009, 1:07 am 1:07 am
Fellows, a few pts here… our technology/IP focused industries have been in the doldrums since Nasdaq 5K. Since then, the former bigwigs like HP, IBM, Oracle/MS, have survived by consolidation, eliminating jobs, and offshoring support work. The media feel good stories like Facebook and Google enrich the few and in essence, support the type of bubble economy we’re in with advertising making up their revenue base instead of selling technological products/services.
What’s kept the 00s going was real estate and the entire financial economy, including derivatives, mortgages, appraisals/sales, etc, which surround it. Now, it’s gone in reverse and there are no ideas as to how to jump start any industry when all industries are pretty much either flat lining or coasting on prior achievements.
Posted by: Randy | February 6, 2009, 9:52 am 9:52 am
Where do you guys think America will get 900 billion dollars from? At this very moment the Chinese could demand payment on their matured bills and bonds and the US gov’t would be completely insolvent. Of course, we assume that they wouldn’t do that because Americans with no money are worthless to them. Now, let’s say that they realize, unlike ourselves, that there is no way to stop this; do you think they’d continue to purchase our bonds?
Posted by: Jessica | February 6, 2009, 12:43 pm 12:43 pm
“There is no means of avoiding the final collapse of a boom brought about by credit expansion. The alternative is only whether the crisis should come sooner as a result of voluntary abandonment of further credit expansion, or later as a final and total catastrophe of the currency system involved.”
~~Ludwig Von Mises
Posted by: the $50 is the new $20 | February 7, 2009, 1:11 am 1:11 am
say what you will, but Sanford is right. democrats or republicans notwithstanding, YOU CAN’T SPEND YOUR WAY OUT OF DEBT ! common sense should tell anyone that.
Posted by: EDD | February 12, 2009, 12:26 pm 12:26 pm
Give me a brake about Debt the new four letter word for the republican party. Does anyone realize that during the 2o th century our country lived with debt for 92 years out of 100? We are sill a major player in the world and very successful I might add.
Posted by: Joe from oxford | May 3, 2009, 12:36 pm 12:36 pm