Budkin

One of the goals of the stimulus is to extend unemployment benefits, and the Republican governors just can't stand the thought of regular unemployed people getting handouts. Their rich Wall Street friends - fine, but regular joes should be able to pick themselves up by the bootstraps and win one for the gipper - or something. In fact the Republican governor of South Carolina said this the other day to a caller on C-SPAN:

CALLER: I hope you all are not playing politics with this. People in South Carolina are hurting. You know how unemployment rates are high right now and going up higher. We are running out of money in the unemployment bank -- we need money for that, thepeople thatneed help. And I'm one of them, I can't get no help. [...]

SANFORD: Well I'd say hello to Charleston because its home and I'd say hello to this fellow this morning and say that my prayers are going to be with him and his family because it sounds like he is in an awfully tough spot.

That's it... nothing else, he didn't even acknowledge the caller's question. People don't need financial help when they have prayers.