How to eat your cake while claiming it’s disgusting, unhealthy, and philosophically bankrupt, too? Republican governors are quickly becoming savvy gourmands, as they attempt to balance their rhetorical opposition to federal stimulus funding with their growing reliance on it to fill gaping budget holes, a.k.a. the conundrum of metaphorical grandstanding crashing headlong into tax-based reality. Case in point: Florida Governor Charlie Crist, who has taken a beating in the polls from Tea Party favorite and primary challenger Marco Rubio for supporting Florida’s $16 billion federal stimulus intake. And the Sunshine State was just announced as a first-round Race to the Top finalist--due in great part to effective education reforms implemented under Republican governor Jeb Bush. If Florida wins, will Crist claim a political success? Or will Rubio turn the grant into yet another example of federal funding gone overboard? The same conundrum faces Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, who’s got conservative credentials to defend and whose state is also an RTTT finalist. Sweet talk won’t smooth over this hypocrisy.
“Federal funding: A Double-Edged Sword for GOP Governors,” by Harry Moroz, The Atlantic Online, March 1, 2010