Thanks, But No Thanks

A handful of Republican governors are saying “no thanks” to the part of the Porkulus bill that includes expanding unemployment benefits in their states. They’re actually thinking of the future, too bad more of our so called leaders don’t share that foresight. (Emphasis mine)

Louisiana Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal is sticking to his position of rejecting part of the federal stimulus money for his state, saying Sunday that accepting an increase in unemployment benefits will lead to higher taxes on businesses in his state. 

Mississippi Republican Gov. Haley Barbour, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin say they may follow suit. They say the money to be disbursed to the states in the $787 billion spending and tax cuts package comes with too many strings attached.

“The unemployment insurance reform, if you will, would require the state to pay people who are not willing to take a full-time job,” Barbour told FOX News, saying his state is not going to expand benefits to part-time workers. “We’re not going to change that. … We’re going to give up about $50 million of federal money.”

“It would be like spending a dollar to get a dime,” Jindal said on NBC’s “Meet the Press. “The federal stimulus bill says it has to be a permanent change in state law if you take this money, so within three years, the federal money is gone, we’ve got now a permanent change in our laws.”

“What we would be required to do would be, for the first time, increase the level of benefit for part-time workers,” Sanford told “FOX News Sunday.” ”We can’t pay for the benefits already in the program, but to get the stimulus money, we’ve got to increase the program’s size and scale.”

The White House says Sanford’s state, which has the third highest unemployment rate in the nation, would be eligible for $8 billion from the spending bill, which administration officials say would create 50,000 jobs. Sanford said that’s not how job creation works.

“It sounds like the Soviet grain quotas of Stalin’s time — X number of jobs will be created because Washington says so. And that’s not the way that jobs get created,” he said.

But Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat, said she’ll be happy to take whatever cash Sanford and others reject. Also in line with an open hand are Republican Govs. Charlie Crist of Florida and Arnold Schwarzenegger of California. 

The Democrats and RINO’s have driven their own state economies into the ground with high taxes, big spending and other stupid policies. Now they shamelessly expect the rest of the nation to bail them out. It’s amazing, they should be hiding their faces in embarrassment, not proudly announcing how they’re in line to suck off the federal teat. What a bunch of girlie-men!