Current Event #3 ~ Editorial

Title: “GOP Governors and Federal Funds”
Writers: Mark Sanford (Governor of SC) and Charlie Crist (Governor of FL)
Source: The Washington Post
Date: Monday, February 23, 2009

Governors Sanford and Crist have polar opposite views when it comes to the economic stimulus plan. Sanford believes that the stimulus will actually hurt the country rather than helping it by reducing our gross domestic product and devaluing the American dollar. He mentions that after the stock market crash of ’29 the government spent billions of taxpayer dollars which didn’t have the slightest positive effect on the unemployment rate which was in the teens. Also, a stimulus plan implemented in Japan doubled the country’s unemployment rate. Crist on the other hand insists upon the obvious need for an economic recovery plan. He believes that “hard-working Floridians” deserve a $66.5 billion budget next year which would include $4.7 billion in federal stimulus money to create “jobs and economic growth.”

I definitely favor Sanford’s views because he is thinking logically and using past events to form his decision while Crist is speaking like a corrupt politician and is trying to stay in office by “helping” his constituents. Sanford stated that this piece of legislation would be a key example of “do[ing] something for the sake of doing something,” which I believe will be a lot of what Barack Obama will support for the first year or two of his term.