Why did conservative governors Mark Sanford, Bobby Jindal, Rick Perry and others resist potions of the Obama stimulus ? For the very reason that Arnold Schwarzenegger is now learning the hard way.
We learn today that the Obama administration will withhold some expected funding if the state goes through with a budget plan that requires unionized, state-employed home health care workers to accept $75 million in pay cuts.
If the state doesn’t go through with the cuts, it will be insolvent. If the state does go through with the cuts, President Obama could withhold $6.8 billion in stimulus funds… making the state insolvent.
Back in February when Sanford and Jindal were expressing their concerns that taking federal stimulus would create unsustainable mandates and give Washington control over state budgets, Schwarzenegger mocked them – saying Schwarzenegger to George Stephanopoulos of Sanford’s reticence: ““I’ll take it. I’ll take his money too.”
Schwarzenegger accused his fellow Republicans of playing petty politics when the stimulus was clearly “terrific.”
Now, the White House, acting at the behest of a labor union, will dictate California’s budget. Schwarzenegger and others spent weeks in marathon sessions hammering out a budget compromise – probably the governor’s final achievement – and now it’s all gone.
He called his budget “perfect medicine” for California’s ailing economy, but what does Schwarzenegger think of Dr. Obama’s miracle cure now?
