Quote: By Mark Sanford, Guest Columnist
Tuesday, November 18, 2008

I find myself in a lonely position. While many states and local governments are lining up for a bailout from Congress, I went to Washington recently to oppose such bailouts -- maybe the only governor to do so.

But I suspect I'm not entirely alone, as there are a lot of taxpayers who aren't pleased with Christmas coming early for politicians. And I hope these taxpayers make their voices heard before Democrats load up the next bailout train for states with budget deficits.

Several questions led me to oppose bailing out the states. They are worth asking, even if you supported bailing out Wall Street.

- Who bails out the "bail-outer"?

Washington is short on cash these days and will borrow every dime of the $150 billion to $300 billion for the "stimulus" bill now being worked on. Federal appetites may know no bounds. But the federal government's ability to borrow is not limitless. Already, our nation's unfunded liabilities total $52 trillion -- about $450,000 per household. There's something very strange about issuing debt to solve a problem caused by too much debt.

- Do you now have to be a financial "bad boy" to win?

Community bankers tell me that they are now at a competitive disadvantage for being careful about who to lend to, because others that were less disciplined will get a federal bailout. This is also true for states. Those that have been fiscally responsible will pay for or lose out to the big spenders. California increased spending 95 percent over the past 10 years (federal spending went up 71 percent over the same period). To bail out California now seems unfair to fiscally prudent states.

- Was the economist Herb Stein wrong when he said that if something cannot go on forever, it won't?

Medicaid grew 9.5 percent annually over the past 10 years. That's unsustainable. But if Congress opens the checkbook now, there will be no reform.

- Isn't government intervention supposed to be the last resort and come only when it can make a difference?

In 2008 bailouts became the first resort. Over the past year the federal government has committed itself to $2.3 trillion (including the tax rebate "stimulus" checks of last February) to "improve" the economy. I don't see how another $150 billion now will make a difference in a global slowdown. We've already unloaded truckloads of sugar in a vain attempt to sweeten a lake. Tossing in a Twinkie will not make a difference.

However, there is something Congress can do: free states from federal mandates. South Carolina will spend about $425 million next year meeting federal unfunded mandates. The increase in the minimum wage alone will cost the state $2.6 million and meeting Homeland Security's REAL ID requirements will cost $8.9 million.

Based on what I saw in Washington, the bailout train is being loaded up. Taxpayers will have to speak up now to change its freight, tab or departure.

The writer is governor of South Carolina.

http://chronicle.augusta.com/stories/111...3872.shtml

This is the man "I" want to run in '12. When he was in Congress, he did what he said. He spent 2 terms and left. He also received awards from various groups like Citizens against government waste.

Obama, Congress, and Bernanke are idiots and their going to destroy us with hyperinflation. They think they can just print money forever to pay for problems. We're going to be the ones paying.

Jugnaut Wrote:Obama, Congress, and Bernanke are idiots and their going to destroy us with hyperinflation. They think they can just print money forever to pay for problems. We're going to be the ones paying.

sorry i can't help but laugh when a person calls a whole group of people 'idiots,' and then uses the word 'their' incorrectly.

not a slight on you, but maybe it's better if you proofread before calling other people idiots.

I just sent in my application to receive money from the bailout.

Jugnaut Wrote:Obama, Congress, and Bernanke are idiots and their going to destroy us with hyperinflation. They think they can just print money forever to pay for problems. We're going to be the ones paying.

Why are you including Obama in this when the bail outs started on Bush's watch? He was the first one to ask for it and it is his administration that is blowing the first 700 billion.

I guess I need to start reading up on Sanford...

Sanford doesn't have the personality to get elected nationally, and in recent times on national TV he's drawn a blank which if he does that as a candidate of the GOP he'd get tore up by MSM.

Happy Warriors is what GOP needs, any party really, but especially the GOP given the MSM handicap they have to overcome.


State's will likely get bailed out becaue they are Dem states(Cali, Michigan) and they have the power right now. Which means fiscally strong states like SC will get the shaft for doing the right thing. Upside down world.


If Palin gets nominated, she could pick him or Jindal as VP and run on an Outsider Reform ticket. However, by then Foreign Policy will likely be a pretty big deal again and she'll need someone with serious FP cred. to have a chance.

Palin/Jindal is the wet dream ticket of the religious right, but a nightmare for people like me. There is no way I could vote for that ticket.

[quote=Rebel]

Quote:[b] Already, our nation's unfunded liabilities total $52 trillion -- about $450,000 per household.

FINALLLLLLLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Somebody other than Ron Paul and Dave Walker who are telling what our REAL debt is.

I think I just had an orgasm.

I45owl Wrote:I guess I need to start reading up on Sanford...

http://www.wistv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1895905

georgia_tech_swagger Wrote:[quote=Rebel]

Quote:[b] Already, our nation's unfunded liabilities total $52 trillion -- about $450,000 per household.

FINALLLLLLLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Somebody other than Ron Paul and Dave Walker who are telling what our REAL debt is.

I think I just had an orgasm.

TMI, dude.

uhmump95 Wrote:

Jugnaut Wrote:Obama, Congress, and Bernanke are idiots and their going to destroy us with hyperinflation. They think they can just print money forever to pay for problems. We're going to be the ones paying.

Why are you including Obama in this when the bail outs started on Bush's watch? He was the first one to ask for it and it is his administration that is blowing the first 700 billion.

He doesn't allocate the money. Pelosi and Reid stood before every camera they could find and told America this had to pass, and NOW.
Now that it is a joke, they are nowhere to be found.

Any and all bailouts are bad ideas. If you can not compete in the free market by providing superior quality,service and price to the consumer, you need to die on the vine. To be allocated stolen wages of the citizenry to prop up YOUR failure is immoral and goes against everything the free market is about.

The big 3 need to go chapter 11 and reorganize. If we bail them out...we only reward them for their poor business plan.

Quote:"There are only 2 types of government.....government below the people and government above the people. Government below the people is only a theory."...Fo Shizzle

There are more than 2 types of government:

Quote:The Story of Two Cows
DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful. Barbara Streisand sings for you

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows
The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows.
You are surprised when one cow drops dead
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have down sized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
Then you kill them and claim a US bomb blew them up while they were in the hospital.

IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.

FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best looking cow.

CALIFORNIAN
You have a cow and a bull.
The bull is depressed.
It has spent its life living a lie.
It goes away for two weeks.
It comes back after a taxpayer-paid sex-change operation.
You now have two cows.
One makes milk; the other doesn't.
You try to sell the transgender cow.
Its lawyer sues you for discrimination.
You lose in court.
You sell the milk-generating cow to pay the damages.

You now have one rich, transgender, non-milk-producing cow.
You change your business to beef. PETA pickets your farm.
Jesse Jackson makes a speech in your driveway.
Barack Obama calls for higher farm taxes to help "working cows".
Hillary Clinton calls for the nationalization of 1/7 of your farm "for the children".
Governor Arnie signs a law giving your farm to Mexico.
The L.A. Times quotes five anonymous cows claiming you groped their teats.
You declare bankruptcy and shut down all operations.
The cow starves to death.
An L.A. Times' analysis shows your business failure is Bush's fault.

Quote:FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and as many eggs as the regulations say you should need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: The government promises to give you two cows if you vote for it. After the election, the president is impeached for speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair "Cowgate."

BRITISH DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. You feed them sheeps' brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to kill you and take the cows.

CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

ENVIRONMENTALISM: You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

FEMINISM: You have two cows. They get married and adopt a veal calf.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: You are associated with (the concept of "ownership" is a symbol of the phallo-centric, war-mongering, intolerant past) two differently aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender.

uhmump95 Wrote:Why are you including Obama in this when the bail outs started on Bush's watch? He was the first one to ask for it and it is his administration that is blowing the first 700 billion.

....and once again, a liberal thinks a President is a Dictator, instead of the head of ONE branch of government.

Last I checked, MUMP, Obama was a United States Senator. Oh, wait, that's right, he's been a full-time candidate for the past few years, so you may have a point.

Hey Libs, Bush can't just start doling out money to people. It has to go through Congress first. How'd the Dems vote on that 700 billion dollar turd?

the 55 Trillion debt isn't exactly true and makes alot of assumptions and omissions, though a good political talking point to get people riled up.

http://www.optimist123.com/optimist/2008...-fall.html

either way it sucks

smn1256 Wrote:

Quote:"There are only 2 types of government.....government below the people and government above the people. Government below the people is only a theory."...Fo Shizzle

There are more than 2 types of government:

Quote:The Story of Two Cows
DEMOCRAT
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
You feel guilty for being successful. Barbara Streisand sings for you

REPUBLICAN
You have two cows.
Your neighbor has none.
So?

SOCIALIST
You have two cows.
The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor.
You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow.

COMMUNIST
You have two cows.
The government seizes both and provides you with milk.
You wait in line for hours to get it.
It is expensive and sour.

CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
You sell one, buy a bull, and build a herd of cows.

DEMOCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows
The government taxes you to the point you have to sell both to support a man in a foreign country who has only one cow, which was a gift from your government.

BUREAUCRACY, AMERICAN STYLE
You have two cows.
The government takes them both, shoots one, milks the other, pays you for the milk, and then pours the milk down the drain.

AMERICAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You sell one, lease it back to yourself and do an IPO on the 2nd one.
You force the two cows to produce the milk of four cows.
You are surprised when one cow drops dead
You spin an announcement to the analysts stating you have down sized and are reducing expenses.
Your stock goes up.

FRENCH CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You go on strike because you want three cows.
You go to lunch and drink wine.
Life is good.

JAPANESE CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You redesign them so they are one-tenth the size of an ordinary cow and produce twenty times the milk.
They learn to travel on unbelievably crowded trains.
Most are at the top of their class at cow school.

GERMAN CORPORATION
You have two cows.
You engineer them so they are all blond, drink lots of beer, give excellent quality milk, and run a hundred miles an hour.
Unfortunately they also demand 13 weeks of vacation per year.

TALIBAN CORPORATION
You have all the cows in Afghanistan, which are two.
You don't milk them because you cannot touch any creature's private parts.
Then you kill them and claim a US bomb blew them up while they were in the hospital.

IRAQI CORPORATION
You have two cows.
They go into hiding.
They send radio tapes of their mooing.

FLORIDA CORPORATION
You have a black cow and a brown cow.
Everyone votes for the best looking one.
Some of the people who like the brown one best, vote for the black one.
Some people vote for both.
Some people vote for neither
Some people can't figure out how to vote at all.
Finally, a bunch of guys from out-of-state tell you which is the best looking cow.

CALIFORNIAN
You have a cow and a bull.
The bull is depressed.
It has spent its life living a lie.
It goes away for two weeks.
It comes back after a taxpayer-paid sex-change operation.
You now have two cows.
One makes milk; the other doesn't.
You try to sell the transgender cow.
Its lawyer sues you for discrimination.
You lose in court.
You sell the milk-generating cow to pay the damages.

You now have one rich, transgender, non-milk-producing cow.
You change your business to beef. PETA pickets your farm.
Jesse Jackson makes a speech in your driveway.
Barack Obama calls for higher farm taxes to help "working cows".
Hillary Clinton calls for the nationalization of 1/7 of your farm "for the children".
Governor Arnie signs a law giving your farm to Mexico.
The L.A. Times quotes five anonymous cows claiming you groped their teats.
You declare bankruptcy and shut down all operations.
The cow starves to death.
An L.A. Times' analysis shows your business failure is Bush's fault.

Thats funny....I still stand by my assertion though, since govt. has a monopoly on the use of force...it can only operate above the people.

smn1256 Wrote:

Quote:FEUDALISM: You have two cows. Your lord takes some of the milk.

PURE SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. You have to take care of all the cows. The government gives you as much milk as you need.

BUREAUCRATIC SOCIALISM: You have two cows. The government takes them and puts them in a barn with everyone else's cows. They are cared for by ex-chicken farmers. You have to take care of the chickens the government took from the chicken farmers. The government gives you as much milk and as many eggs as the regulations say you should need.

FASCISM: You have two cows. The government takes both, hires you to take care of them and sells you the milk.

PURE COMMUNISM: You have two cows. Your neighbors help you take care of them, and you all share the milk.

RUSSIAN COMMUNISM: You have two cows. You have to take care of them, but the government takes all the milk.

DICTATORSHIP: You have two cows. The government takes both and shoots you.

PURE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors decide who gets the milk.

REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. Your neighbors pick someone to tell you who gets the milk.

AMERICAN DEMOCRACY: The government promises to give you two cows if you vote for it. After the election, the president is impeached for speculating in cow futures. The press dubs the affair "Cowgate."

BRITISH DEMOCRACY: You have two cows. You feed them sheeps' brains and they go mad. The government doesn't do anything.

BUREAUCRACY: You have two cows. At first the government regulates what you can feed them and when you can milk them. Then it pays you not to milk them. After that it takes both, shoots one, milks the other and pours the milk down the drain. Then it requires you to fill out forms accounting for the missing cows.

ANARCHY: You have two cows. Either you sell the milk at a fair price or your neighbors try to kill you and take the cows.

CAPITALISM: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull.

ENVIRONMENTALISM: You have two cows. The government bans you from milking or killing them.

FEMINISM: You have two cows. They get married and adopt a veal calf.

POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: You are associated with (the concept of "ownership" is a symbol of the phallo-centric, war-mongering, intolerant past) two differently aged (but no less valuable to society) bovines of non-specified gender.

Anarchy is simply the absence of government...Why would you try to kill your neighbor and steal his cow just because government did not exist.

TiggerFan Wrote:

uhmump95 Wrote:

Jugnaut Wrote:Obama, Congress, and Bernanke are idiots and their going to destroy us with hyperinflation. They think they can just print money forever to pay for problems. We're going to be the ones paying.

Why are you including Obama in this when the bail outs started on Bush's watch? He was the first one to ask for it and it is his administration that is blowing the first 700 billion.

He doesn't allocate the money. Pelosi and Reid stood before every camera they could find and told America this had to pass, and NOW.
Now that it is a joke, they are nowhere to be found.

The first person I saw in front of a camera was President Bush. Then McCain comes off the campaign trails helped hammer out a bill. That bill got shot down, then you have President Bush on camera again saying "It doesn't matter if the first bill passed all that matters is a bill gets passed." (I paraphrased a bit) and then we have this crap and you want to blame it all on the Democrats. Some people on this board need an enema, then maybe they will start thinking straight.