GOP Guvs Consider Rejecting Stimulus Cash

Conservatives debate turning down package despite budget shortfalls
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 19, 2009 5:01 AM CST
GOP Guvs Consider Rejecting Stimulus Cash
"In Texas, we actually know it is a good idea to look a gift horse in the mouth," Gov. Rick Perry said of the stimulus package.   (AP Photo/Lynne Sladky)

A number of of Republican governors, carping about terms of the stimulus package, are threateneing to tell the federal government to keep its money, the AP reports. The governors of Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alaska, South Carolina and Idaho have expressed concerns that the package comes with too many strings attached and won't even stimulate the economy, although none has yet rejected the funds outright.

"My concern is there's going to be commitments attached to it that are a mile long," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry, "We need the freedom to pick and choose and we need the freedom to say 'No thanks.' " The stimulus bill allows state legislature to override governors to accept the federal funds. The likeliest scenario, according to one political scientist, is that conservative governors will accept most of the funds and turn down small parts of the package they object to. (More economic stimulus package stories.)

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