Florida Governor Charlie Crist | 2009 State of the State AddressThere is no doubt, that for our economy to recover, we must get people back to work. In the past several weeks I have visited with Floridians at seven unemployment offices across our state. I have looked into their eyes and I saw worry. I saw good, honest people who desperately want the opportunity to help themselves. Some argue the politics of the federal stimulus plan. My friends, while our people worry, we cannot put politics over their needs – the needs of our students and teachers, the sick and the infirm, or those out of work. We should not ask what it means to be Republican nor should we ask what it means to be Democrat; but rather what a good human being is supposed to do. In each and every one of us is the hope of the millions who sent us here. We must honor that sacred trust, to put them first.
Above is a part of
Crist's State of the State address from March 3, 2009 (as written, perhaps not as it was delivered). Crist, a Republican, is not one of the governors who tried to refuse stimulus money. He has thus become a target by conservatives. That is understandable, but only so far as as is his acceptance of the money, as he outlines above. Call me anti-capitalist, but I agree with Gov. Crist, in the comment above, at least. As fate would have it, so do all our governors, as of very recently (SC's guv caved this week). Stimulus stinks, indeed, and so does how steeply off track had gone our regulations, laws and practices. Shame.
If this stimulus results in future increased taxation burdens for states, to pay for unemployment -- and welfare of a more permanent nature -- into the future, I will be thoroughly miffed. If that's the deal, then that law needs to be trounced and "un-billed" (so to speak; that is, passing a bill to remove a prior bill). Right now, today, Florida is a state that needs this money for a real crisis. Millions would have lost their unemployment -- professionals who are not being hired by the occasional retail or other company that has an opening -- without this. Is this is good thing? Define "good thing".
Do I love getting unemployment, ever? No. Would most anyone getting unemployment be happy they are getting it? I seriously doubt it! I would be much happier being EMPLOYED, and I am pretty sure most people who just got on welfare rolls feels the same way.
Do I like using tax dollars for unemployment, education and to help the needy? Yes, far more than I think tax money should be used to bail out companies such as GM, AIG and to cover bad mortgages -- all inspired by cowardly attitudes, stupid laws and bad regulation. I don't want government to be any bigger, any more taxing (literally) than it is, and I vehemently want it to be less so. Screwing people out of unemployment is not the answer, however. Getting rid of the disgustingly pandering attitudes of people such as Nancy Pelosi, where Americans feel pain for basics while she calls illegals patriotic Americans, and whines about getting her own jet for trips, THAT is where the real battle lines are, not where we help -- and minimally so -- underemployed or unemployed American families.
Do I like any of this stimulus money, knowing just what it and this absurd federal budget seem to be promising? No. But reality, to me, dictates caring about the jobless and the needy Americans, not throwing the baby out with the bath water. As for the budget, well, one can only pray that plenty of people get their common sense -- and butts -- in gear and working boots on, and move Barack Obama into a nice speaking tour in November 2012. However, that seems a very far-fetched concept to me right now, seeing the adorable little mess that 2007-08 brought in and how well it was played by the Democrats (even though it was their upside-down finance markets ideals that helped everything along, too).
Meanwhile, 2010 is not very far away, and there's some Congress and gubernatorial work to do, to get rid of wacky liberals and get in some moderates and conservatives.
- jR aka AirFarceOne (Twitter)
Powered by ScribeFire.
