Gov. Mark Sanford vs. 'The State'

In one corner we have S.C. Governor Mark Sanford who is opposed to accepting "stimulus" money. In the other are the editorialists at the State Newspaper who are angry with Sanford for not conducting the affairs of the governor's office the way they wish.

S.C. Governor Mark Sanford: "Historically, simply throwing government money at a struggling economy hasn’t created growth. It certainly didn’t in Japan during the 1990s, when the Japanese government initiated no fewer than 10 stimulus packages over eight years. Instead of fortifying the economy, government intervention led to what is often referred to as 'the lost decade,' a time when Japan’s unemployment rate more than doubled. "Supporters of the current plan like to point to the New Deal as a model, declaring that FDR’s massive government expenditures dragged this country out of the Great Depression. But the data points just don’t back that up. The Depression kicked off with the stock market crash of 1929. Ten years and billions of taxpayer dollars later, unemployment was stuck at 20 percent."

(Columbia, SC) STATE Newspaper "Nobody welcomes the idea of more federal borrowing. There's nothing attractive about having to balance the state budget with federal money - particularly one-time federal money. And frankly, Congress made a lot of bad decisions in the stimulus package, but it's the only game in town. "The federal law allows the legislature to request the money even if the governor won't, but the blood is so bad that some lawmakers worry Mr. Sanford will trump this provision by requesting the money but refusing to let it be spent. We cannot believe the governor would act so irresponsibly. He [should] request the money so the legislature can include it in next year's state budget." The State newspaper vs. Sanford debate is a continuing feature at www.thestate.com

The editorialists at the local newspaper are Keynesian in their view of economics, while Governor Sanford appears to have read von Mises, Hayek, Hazlitt and the others of the Austrian school. Sanford claims that piling up unpayable debt led us to the present crisis and going more deeply into debt is not the solution. The editors agree we're in a peck of trouble but want the temporary fix that may come from heaping trillions of dollars of debt on future taxpayers. Our personal opinion is South Carolina's governor has a far better view of the danger of excessive debt than the editors.

Another observation on the passing parade from JW at Wrisley.com