PHILADELPHIA -- President-elect Barack Obama promised cash-strapped state governors support for an infusion of aid, but also warned of disappointment, saying the federal government wouldn't be able to fix all of states' budget problems ...Before you blame Obama, try this tidbit on for size.
Republican governors told Mr. Obama they had qualms about what they called indiscriminate federal spending. "Every dollar they send to us is money they don't have," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty said. "Meantime, that bill is being sent to our children and grandchildren."Yay! Free money for everyone!
But when the governors were asked at a news conference whether any would refuse new federal funding, no one from either party stepped forward. "None of us are comfortable with the $10 trillion in debt that has been amassed over the last several years. But for the short term, most governors agree some funds are needed for state and local governments," said Republican Vermont Gov. James H. Douglas, vice chairman of the National Governors Association.
5 year olds at local kindergartens could not be reached for comment.
"5 year olds at local kindergartens could not be reached for comment."
ReplyDeleteNice.
KT Cat,
ReplyDeleteLookie-here! That's MY Guvernater cher talkin'bout thar!
So, to be honest, I'm one of the people who want to Take Vermont North, and voted for the Big O. (Hm. Unfortunate double-entendre, but maybe that's what it was, in retrospect.)
Jim Douglas (R) is known in these parts as "Governor Scissorhands" for all the ribbon-cutting he does -- not red tape cutting. He's a populist, and a flake on strategy. It's not that he likes business per se -- he disses local energy startups even as he puts in place a "business-friendly" agenda. Buys into the fact that people hate the way wind power looks up on the ridgeline and won't support the projects. And yet ... and yet ... if I were in his shoes, I'd ask for a handout for this state too. Vermont really struggles economically in ways I never could have imagined, having grown up out in Palo Alto. It has a lot more going for it than other places in the country -- for one thing, community that demonstrably cares; and for another, the banks that originate your mortgages have always been the banks that now own it -- but it's fighting a powerful economic riptide.
Just looking back to your older post: I have to say, I don't have sympathy for Henry Paulson, but I do for Ben Bernanke. Paulson doesn't have a long-term worldview -- How else do you get to the top in ibanking? Bernanke does, but he is a naive macroeconomist (who wrote a brilliant undergrad text, by the way) who was in the Policy school at Princeton, not Princeton's Financial Engineering department, hence not wise to the fast-buck derivatives story before he took the oath. I think Bernanke's instinct was sound at the outset. This is a normal recession -- you spend, and later Congress has the obligation to offset the debt with taxation. (Thanks, Republicans. Without you, where would we be today?) Then Paulson played C-3PO, and heard what he thought was bloodcurdling screams on the other end of the intercom from former friends at Goldman now in the garbage compactor they fought their way into. "Listen, they're dying! What have I done?!" So Paulson headed to Bernanke, and shook him by the lapels, and in a typical tunnel-vision response, shouted, "You don't UNDERSTAND! This isn't LIKE other recessions! We're imploding!" I mean, if Paulson told me as much, my response would be the same as Bernanke's: "OK, dude! Whatever you say! Here. Have some cash and take a chill pill. Everything's going to be just fine, alright? Sheesh." The problem is that, for different reasons, they've both wised up (as have we all) too late to reverse course.
I'm enjoying reading your posts -- they're much clearer than the stuff I've read on Yves Smith's blog. Yves is a wonderful woman, but I don't think she realizes quite how wide a following she has, and it would be nice if she would do the "Ok, let's back up and let me summarize this for the public" thing.
Best to you and San Diego!
Martin