The SC Attorney General issued an opinion that only the Governor could request the money. A massive rally was held on the statehouse grounds Wednesday afternoon encouraging the Governor to take the money. Then on Thursday the Senate spent most of its session debating the action, or inaction, of the Governor on the stimulus budget and its impact on the state budget.

Governor Sanford said he wants and intends to use all of the stimulus money. However, he says he will not exercise his power to use the money until state lawmakers agree to spend the entire $700 million of the $2.8 billion federal stimulus package on state debt repayment.  The question I have is exactly what sort of strings will be attached to this money by the federal government?  Will we end up like GM or AIG?  I fear that this will be the case.  In the long run this is going to do far more harm to our school systems and way of life.  This action will set a precedent with far reaching repercussions.

Sanford will only be able to accomplish his goal in two ways.  The first is to ignore two letters from the Obama administration that specifically said the federal money could not be used for debt repayment. The second is to  take the $700 billion out of the state budget for debt repayment and then replace the same budget funds with federal stimulus money.

Do ordinary people in South Carolina not understand that this $700 billion is just not a free gift?  These are funds that will put this state into deeper debt.  Sometimes you have to sacrifice in order to gain.  We live in a society where all we want is “more” and we don’t care that we have to borrow from our grandchildren to get it.