Washington Unplugged: GOP Governors And The Stimulus
"Barack Obama gets a grand total of three Republican votes for the stimulus package, all three of them from the Senate, and yet you have Republican governors coming to town that are saying, 'well, you know we are sort of philosophically opposed to this but there is going to be some money out there on the table and I guess we better take it,'" he said.
The comment prompted laughs from roundtable guests Nancy Cordes, the CBS News Capitol Hill correspondent, and Washington Post National Political Reporter Perry Bacon Jr.
"It is sort of the opposite of not in my back yard, right? It's only okay if it's in my back yard," Cordes said. She then asked what type of reaction constituents would have if their governors passed on the stimulus money.
"It's gonna take a tough guy to say, 'Hey folks there is a bunch of money out there that we can use to keep from firing policemen and firemen and cutting down school construction, but philosophically I am going to be against taking that,'" Schieffer responded.
Bacon then suggested that "a month into the Obama administration the 2012 Republican primary has already started."
That's why, he said, "Bobby Jindal of Louisiana and Mark Sanford of South Carolina, people who are considering running for president are saying, 'I don't like the stimulus.'"
Governor Sanford (R-S.C), Bacon pointed out, actually changed his stance on CBS News' 'The Early Show' and admitted he would be accepting the money allotted to his state.
"My prediction is they will take the money," Schieffer said with a grin.
Earlier in the Washington Unplugged roundtable, Cordes said that Ray LaHood, the new transportation secretary, said he is committed to getting all of his department's money out door in 120 days.
"He said he has a 'go team' that has been working on this since before the stimulus was even passed," Cordes explained.
Bacon chimed in, saying that a major challenge for these government agencies charged with disseminating the stimulus money is that the leadership is less than a month old and in some cases support for the secretaries have not even been hired yet.
"A lot of the secretaries of these cabinet agencies have been hired...but the deputies under them have not been picked yet," Bacon said. "Some of the departments are going to have a lot of troubles spending the money so quickly."
Speaking of the Treasury Department, Bob Schieffer said "there is just nobody over there at the office."
"Obama is trying to do some much early on, in terms of housing, in terms of stimulus, that it is going to be a real challenge implementing these programs," Bacon said.
Watch Washington Unplugged this week. In addition to the roundtable check out Bob Schieffer's interview with Senior Pentagon Official Bryan Whitman and a chat with a self-proclaimed "rebel economist."