Republican governors on the stimulus

Three of our nation’s most interesting governors happen to be Republican, and were among the most prominent of that party to speak out over the weekend on the controversy du jour – to wit, whether the president’s stimulus bill is likely to help rescue our economy.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, laden with the curse of the old Proposition 13 legislation that gutted the California economy so many years ago, had just won a significant victory in the matter of his own state’s budget. Gutsy California legislators had managed a compromise that included some tax increases and some spending cuts, driving away the prospect of California’s imminent demise.

The good governor said that he believes President Obama “needs team players,” and that any money the other governors wanted to turn down, well, he’d be happy to accept it for his state.

Schwarzenegger, unlike some, is not rumored to be thinking about running for President in 2012 because, simply stated, he can’t, because he's not a natural-born citizen. Much to the regret of Sen. Orrin Hatch and perhaps even Mr. Schwarzenegger himself. The Republicans' most obvious ticket out of oblivion is out of reach.

Rumored to be very much in reach, on the other hand, is Gov. Bobby Jindal, wunderkind of Louisiana, who has made very strong statements against the stimulus. I’d call them “trophy statements,” for, as New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin suggested, it seems likely that the governor is choosing his words very deliberately because he is an up-and-coming possibility for the Republican nomination in 2012 and wants to keep the base happy.

Jindal said he will not accept any funds designated to extend unemployment benefits; he explained that “I represent the taxpayers of Louisiana.” Of course, the Louisiana legislature can override his refusal, which he knows, so if and when the funds ultimately come to the aid of his unemployed citizens he won’t have too much to account for.

Gov. Charlie Crist of Florida, on the other hand, actually met with President Obama when the president arrived to promote his stimulus plan. Not only did Crist make it clear that he expected the plan to help Florida, he made it clear why: Tens of thousands of jobs and funds for local and state transportation projects.

Crist had an outlook somewhat different from Jindal’s: “I represent the people of Florida,” he said, making it clear that this includes the poor.

On cable TV a stockmarket guru named Rick Santelli delivered a rant (why do so many of these money guys shout?) in which he proclaimed that the president’s plan for the mortgage crisis would only help people who had bought more house than they could afford.

“It’s not fair!” he shouted, that taxpayers should be asked to help a neighbor who had “an extra bathroom.” (I’m not kidding; you can google it.)

Well, this is a road we’ve been down before.

America has the commitment to fairness in its DNA. We care. The exception may prove the rule, as shown by Jack Kennedy's remark, in a context long forgotten by me, that “life’s not fair.”

But “fair” has nothing to do with how we handle a national crisis, because the other essential quality in our national DNA is “fix it!”

If your neighbor’s house is aflame and you are called upon to help, as I’ve said before, it’s obviously in your interest to bring your water hose to try to put out the fire. And now I add this: Do you really want to stand there calculating the cost of your water bill before you turn on your hose?

The repeated claims by opponents of the administration that it’s all about helping people who should “never have bought houses they couldn’t afford” are unsustainable.
People who are losing or about to lose their homes include hard-working folks who have lost their jobs; just a couple of months out of work can mean getting behind on the mortgage payment. There are people hit with huge medical bills that cause them to fall behind.

Many of the people who are losing their homes are veterans of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, who came home to find there were no jobs available, or who came home disabled and unable to work. What about them?

And there are people who believed, when they bought a home when times were good, that they’d be able to refinance in a few years because the home’s value would increase, not to worry, no problem, and they believed the lender who sold them that bill of goods.

After all, you want to believe your lender, who is the only expert available. And who was there to tell you that everything was going to come crashing down?

There is another strand of American DNA: Charity. Taking care of one’s neighbor. We always stand together in a crisis.

We are proud of the way we stood together after 9/11. In every community in America people come together to help families who have experienced tragedy, to assist a dying child, to salute a fallen hero.

Let’s not be talked down by the cynics; let’s keep on doing the American thing.