On Stimulus, Republican Governors Walk Fine Line
A year after the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the overwhelming majority of Congressional Republicans continue to be critical of the so-called stimulus bill for having spent far too much for far too little economic boost. House Minority Leader John Boehner's "Where are the jobs?" mantra has become a staple of the minority party's critique of the administration's signature economic initiative.
The message is murkier when it comes to Republican governors, however. Faced with decreasing revenues and loath to raise taxes, the stimulus dollars were impossible for most to turn down last year, even for its strongest critics.
"I think almost every conservative opposed it but when the federal government spends it across the country I know of no governor, no state, nobody who would turn down any substantial portion of it," Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) said in an interview with CBN at CPAC last week. "There were a few minor exceptions to that but everybody took it."
As governors from both parties gathered in Washington for the annual NGA winter meeting this week, the stimulus remained a major topic of discussion. And in some cases, the continuing debate has forced the Republicans who accepted it into difficult political circumstances.
"It was the right thing to do. We needed the money," Florida Gov. Charlie Crist (R) told reporters at the White House Monday when asked if he had any regrets over his support for the plan.
Crist, of course, is now the Republican most at risk over the stimulus. His deficit in the Republican primary against Marco Rubio in the race for the open U.S. Senate seat in Florida grows larger with each passing poll, it seems, and his infamous embrace of President Obama at a pro-stimulus rally last February is a major reason why.
Conversely, Gov. Rick Perry (R) has thrived in Texas for having been one of the stimulus plan's most virulent critics early on. He leads in his primary fight for re-nomination, despite rival Kay Bailey Hutchison's accusations that he has been hypocritical on the subject. He did use stimulus funds to bridge a budget gap last year, but has an explanation for it.
"We get back 70 cents for every dollar of federal gasoline tax that we send to Washington, DC," he told RCP last December. When the state had 'the opportunity to retrieve some of those hard-earned dollars back into this state," it did so, but without the strings the federal government sought to impose, he said.
Perry and Pawlenty, along with Govs. Bobby Jindal, Mark Sanford and others, found themselves in Democrats' crosshairs last week for such explanations. The DNC inducted the group into its "Hypocrisy Hall of Fame" for trumpeting job-creating projects that would not have been possible without the Recovery Act. Sanford, in particular, was targeted after having one year ago been the leading voice of GOP governors against the plan, but recently coming to Washington to seek $4 billion in education funds through it.
Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, who replaced Sanford as chair of the Republican Governors Association, contended that while most governors could hardly reject the funds, they have been proven right in their belief that the program has fallen short. He cited a statistic in his own state, that 500 jobs were created at a cost of $350 million in stimulus dollars.
"Seven hundred thousand dollars a job? We can do better than that," he said at a roundtable with reporters this weekend.
Still, that hasn't stopped many from seeking new federal aid. A report issued just before the NGA conference this weekend found that at least 17 governors, including eight Republicans, had presented budget plans in their states for the coming year that assumed a new round of federal aid.
At an opening news conference NGA chairman Jim Douglas (R), governor of Vermont, said that for many states the "worst is yet to come" when it comes to budget deficits. The Recovery Act "provided invaluable assistance" in helping to minimize those challenges last year, he said, and the NGA was working with Congress to secure more dollars.
At the same session, Gov. Chris Christie (R) was asked if he agreed with Douglas' view of the stimulus' positive impact. Just sworn as New Jersey's governor this year, Christie put the debate into perspective.
"It certainly helped states like New Jersey and others to not have to confront the difficult choices that we're now having to confront," he said. "What it did was ... to push off the problem from the Corzine administration to the Christie administration."