Reality Obliterates Grandstanding

Yeah Rick Perry, its fun to talk shit about the stimulus bill at a tea party isn't it? Not so fun when you actually need those funds to run your state though, huh?

Earlier this year, Texas Governor Rick Perry was one of a handful of Republican governors who refused some federal stimulus funds from President Obama's economic recovery package on the grounds that there were too many strings attached to the money.

Now that the state is dire straits, however, Perry is asking the federal government for a loan to cover the very expenses the rejected stimulus money would have paid for.

While Perry accepted most of the roughly $17 billion in stimulus funds allocated for Texas, the governor in March rejected $555 million that would have covered state unemployment benefits. Perry said he was not accepting the money because the state would have been obligated to expand its unemployment coverage, creating too much of a long term tax burden.

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Democratic legislators in Texas are speaking out against the governor's actions.

"That $555 million would that would have come with the stimulus money wouldn't have to be paid back to the federal government, and that would have saved business taxpayers money for the next 20 years," said Democratic State Rep. Mark Strama, according to News 8 Austin.

As I have said before, conservatism is good for sloganeering, bumperstickers, and selling books. As for actually governing, not so much.