After listening to President Obama’s State of the Union address, I wanted to get the opinion of someone who understood both the fiscal and political ramifications of his plans.
I thought of South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford. Gov. Sanford – a renowned fiscal conservative – famously challenged the introduction of federal stimulus funds in the state last year on financial rather than political merits. The Governor graciously consented to a few questions about the President’s speech.
SPY: What was your overall impression of President Obama’s State of the Union address?
GOV. SANFORD: I think it was a well delivered speech, and in fact it might have been a great speech if it had been given a year ago, as it was bold and, for the most part, uncompromising. Yet it was at the same time a bit disconnected as over the last year we’ve seen the underpinnings of the Administration’s policy proposals in large part fall away.
The stimulus failed in its promise to create jobs, as well as its premise that the way to solve a problem created by debt was to create more debt. Spending money we don’t have just hasn’t seemed to work the way the American people were led to believe it would, and the very public backlash to that – seen in Tea Parties and other avenues around this country – are something I can’t recall seeing in my political lifetime.
Now, there’s incredible popular resistance to the idea that Washington should take over a sixth of the U.S. economy under the guise of health care reform, and yet the President seems intent to push forward. Frankly, I believe the President’s remarks would have met with a better response – certainly with me personally – if he had gone further to acknowledge some of these realities and pivot toward a more sensible, fiscally-responsible approach to governing.
SPY: Did you hear anything in the speech that sounded encouraging?
GOV. SANFORD: Initially I was encouraged by the President’s statement that the federal government is spending too much, too fast. Whether those words will translate into meaningful action remains to be seen, but given the last year and the powers that be in Washington D.C., let’s just say I’m skeptical. For instance, President Obama’s commitment to a “spending freeze” was heartening – but when you dig a little deeper, you find out that that “freeze” only covers less than 15 percent of the total federal budget and doesn’t do anything about entitlement spending, which is the real problem.
SPY: As a governor, what concerns you about the effects of Obama’s proposals on the states?
GOV. SANFORD: I was frankly disappointed to see the President wants to push ahead on the health care overhaul that has so far stalled. If this legislation becomes law, in South Carolina alone we’d see our Medicaid roles increase by over 500,000 people – and that would cost our taxpayers better than $1 billion over the next ten years. It would also mean Medicaid would grow to almost 40 percent of the state budget in five years and mean that one in three South Carolinians would be on Medicaid. I don’t see how that would be anything but a drag on an already difficult budget year for our state and a challenging economy overall.
SPY: Can the country afford the President’s plans?
GOV. SANFORD: In short, the answer is no. Still, in fairness to President Obama, it’s not just his plans we can’t afford – we can’t afford any plans that increase the size of the federal deficit and by extension our debt. The Administration is expected to release their budget here soon with a $1.6 trillion deficit – a record.
I think, when looking at the trend lines going forward, we may well as a nation have more hard times to go through before things get better. I think that as a state, and even more so as a nation, we’ve been on a debt march for many years, and as a consequence we’re going to face a tremendous de-leveraging. Of course, I certainly hope things turn around quickly – but hope is not a strategy and until this President, or any President, faces that reality, I believe that proposing more new spending and even more new debt will only worsen the situation we find ourselves in.
Now THIS is the Mark Sanford I voted for – not that guy who keeps apologizing!!!
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He’s got good politics. I just wish he’d spent his energy and time on actually doing something–political–to bring about his vision of limited government. It’s pretty much too late now. He handed victory during his term over to the likes of Jake “Porky” Knottzi continuing to feed at the trough.
I think the best thing Sanford can possibly do is to be a political activist now, making things come about in the form of law in this state that he failed to work hard enough to get done while in office as governor.
Sanford could become a valuable teacher/speaker/leader/organizer at the volunteer level vs. holding political office. He could actually define a new role for former politicians who are also genuinely concerned citizens who want to restore liberty and be a guard against tyranny and corruption after their terms in office. He knows the system and what to look for and how to get laws passed. I see no other course for him that would redeem him in the eyes of others who have been sorely disappointed at his public office merry-making at the expense of his wife and the reform movement.