Gov. Mitch Daniels, who is not running for President, appeared on a news-like program to speak with Chris Wallace (who, to be fair, can actually be a decent journalist from time to time). According to an article from Niki Kelly in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette, he was for the stimulus before he was against it; he cashes federal checks; and probably most telling, takes credit for a budget made possible by federal stimulus credit dollars.
In response to a question about whether he supported federal stimulus spending:
Daniels responded, “Really don’t. You know, the – it amounts at this point in time to asking the citizens of responsible states like ours to subsidize those places who have been more reckless. It’s probably not going to help the economy.
“It’s this notion sort of a trickle-down government. You pour a few more bajillion dollars in the top of the funnel and maybe a little demand and a few private-sector jobs will fall out the bottom. It’s really not the way to do it.”
But in February, Daniels signed onto a letter with 46 other governors encouraging congressional leaders to extend enhanced federal Medicaid match rates that were part of the first stimulus bill. Medicaid is a joint state-federal program providing health care for the state’s poorest citizens.
The article also reports that Gov. Daniels was trying to talk up Indiana’s “balanced” budget but that he neglected to recognize that the budget was balanced with federal stimulus dollars — (not to mention by passing a lot of costs and taxing responsibilities to local units of government.) It would also seem to me that Indiana’s bankrupt unemployment insurance fund would also be a valid topic of discussion when bragging about a surplus.
I’m not trying to say that Indiana’s economic condition is all Gov. Daniels’ fault (or, if credit is due, it’s not all his); but I suspect he could be more forthright about Indiana’s condition and good federal policy, as he sees it, if he didn’t have 2012 on his mind.
And I suspect the whole country’d be in a much better position if this sort of ideological pandering–which seems to’ve struck Daniels about 24 hours after he proposed that tax surcharge, solidified into a campaign to use Indiana’s budget, infrastructure, and regulatory powers to shape the Daniels Legacy, at whatever cost to real people, or real future people, and, finally, into the Randian Hoodoo and devout Christianity he’s spreading now like spring manure–didn’t have a track record of winning elections.
Dunno, Doghouse. Rand was an atheist. Are you accusing this man of nuance?
Thank you, Doug, for mentioning the bankrupt unemployment trust fund! It has not been mentioned, at least that I have seen, in any stories connected with his Fox News appearance (gee, no way any of his national news media appearances are related to a future presidential run). If I have said it once, I have said it a million times — Indiana’s Department of Workforce Development has absolutely destroyed Indiana’s unemployment system the last few years with illegalities and incompetence.
The proof’s in the facts and figures (Mitch is a facts and figures sorta guy, right?) from the US Department of Labor, DWD being negatively portrayed in the news a minimum thrice weekly, the latest (and soon-to-be winning) lawsuit alleging incompetence of appeals, the at least $1.7 BILLION owed to the federal government, and the complaints upon complaints from claimants, employers, taxpayers, lawmakers and others who have found the last 5 1/2 years DWD couldn’t effectively manage a lemonade stand on a busy desert road on a mid-summer day.
There is a new commissioner there (after the old one, Teresa Voors, was kicked to the curb in May) who will hopefully reverse course, but even Mark Everson surely realizes he’s on mop-up duty to correct the problems he inherited from inept people on the “Lead Team” who are still ensconsed there due to personal loyalty, nepotism, and political favortism (“You a lock-steppingRepublican needing a job? You’re hired!”) Trust me, there are many good, knowledgable employees working there (if they haven’t been forced to retire or leave); the problem is, the Lead Team (all 8 of them when there used to be 3!) are almost completely devoid of this knowledge.
So when Citizen Mitch runs for president, as he most assuredly will, he will probably look back and regret he let DWD ruin Indiana’s unemployment program. Luckily for him, after DWD’s mismanagement ruins businesses, technically-eligible claimants’ lives, and his own presidential ambitions, he can still retire to a life of luxury built upon years of sweat, backslapping, backstabbing, and building upon the misery of poor people below him.