Keep your cash: SC governor rails against bailouts
By SEANNA ADCOX
Associated Press
December 18, 2008
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) -- At a time when other states are clamoring for cash, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford is saying no thanks.
The newly minted head of the Republican Governors Association is carving out an identity as the anti-bailout governor, speaking against calls for more money from Washington for new state public works spending, lifesaving dollars for the auto industry and even stimulus checks.
At a time when the nation sinks deeper into a recession, state budgets everywhere are growing greater holes and unemployment rates are soaring, Sanford knows he doesn't have many people rallying around him. But he doesn't care.
"I find myself in a lonely position," he said in an op-ed column in The Wall Street Journal last month. "While many states and local governments are lining up for a bailout from Congress, I went to Washington recently to oppose such bailouts. I may be the only governor to do so."
Sanford, a trim, 48-year-old former real estate investor who requires his sons to memorize a family constitution, clashes often with the Republicans who control both chambers of his state Legislature, once famously carrying two piglets to the door of the House chamber in opposition to what he said was pork-barrel spending. He fought lawmakers' spending increase proposals long before the housing crisis hit, warning of a looming recession.
He's loudly decried the $700 billion bailout of the financial services industry and the proposed bailout of the auto industry. He spoke against a proposed $150 billion economic stimulus proposal this fall and against one by fellow governors to provide billions for state infrastructure projects. His rationale has been consistent: More debt is not the answer, and the nation is already sinking in it.
"(W)e must be wary of the moral hazard present in the idea of bailing out the private or public sector," he wrote to President-elect Barack Obama during a meeting of the nation's governors earlier this month.
Sanford said Wednesday that bailouts sap people of their initiative, "which is the ultimate economic stimulus."
"If it turns out that no matter what you spend as a state or what you spend as a business or a municipality, it doesn't matter, we'll bail you out, then why should anyone at a personal or buiness level be circumspect?" he told The Associated Press. "It's a total gut check of where we are as a civilization. It's frightening what the federal government is doing."
It's not that South Carolina is doing better than most states. The state's unemployment rate hit 8 percent in October, a 25-year-high and the fourth-highest in the nation. Economists project it will worsen substantially next year. Currently, South Carolina is paying out more than $14 million a week in benefits.
But Sanford is even balking, at least for now, at asking for a federal loan for his state's unemployment benefits, which otherwise will run out of money at the end of the year.
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