—– Gov. Sanford Offers Unemployed South Carolina Resident “Prayers” Instead Of Stimulus Funds (Ben Armbruster/ThinkProgress.org; Feb 23)

Following the lead of a number of his fellow Republican governors, Gov. Mark Sanford (R-SC) has given some indication that he will not accept some of the money slated for South Carolina in the $787 billion economic recovery bill President Obama signed into law last week. “At times it sounds like the Soviet grain quotas of Stalin’s time,” Sanford said yesterday on Fox News.

On C-SPAN’ Washington Journal this morning, Sanford received a call from a Charleston resident who said he lost his job because he has been taking care of mother and sister, both of whom have serious illnesses. The caller told Sanford he is “wrong” to decline the money. “A lot of people in South Carolina are hurting. And if this money can come and help us out we need it.” In response, Sanford could offer him only his prayers:

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, the people that need 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.

[The video version is included with the original article.]

Sanford offered no other alternative solution for his constituent and instead argued that the state could not accept money to extend unemployment benefits because “increasing the tax on unemployment insurance” would negatively “impact the caller’s family” (although he didn’t say how).

Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-SC) – who sponsored an amendment to the stimulus bill that would allow state legislatures to “accept stimulus funding over the objections of conservative governors” – chastised Sanford on MSNBC this morning. “This program is an opportunity for Governor Sanford to target” the “chronically unemployed” and “chronically sick” communities in South Carolina. “I have got to believe that he is willing…to help these communities,” Clyburn said, asking, “Why won’t he?”

As near as I can tell, Sanford hasn’t changed his mind much since this story first appeared.

Wikipedia identifies Sanford as an Episcopalian and provides this additional background information:

While in Congress, Sanford was a staunch conservative (he garnered a lifetime rating of 92 from the American Conservative Union), but displayed an occasional independent streak. He often would be one of two members of Congress, along with Ron Paul, voting against bills that otherwise got unanimous support. For example, he voted against a bill that preserved sites linked to the Underground Railroad…. Sanford has sometimes had a contentious relationship with the South Carolina General Assembly, even though it is controlled by his party. The Republican-led SC House of Representatives overrode 105 of Sanford’s 106 budget vetoes on May 26, 2004. The following day, Sanford brought live pigs into the House chamber as a visual protest against “pork projects”. Sanford rejected the Assembly’s entire budget on June 13, 2006. Had this veto stood, the state government would have shut down on July 1…. A Time Magazine article critical of Sanford, cited that some “fear his thrift has brought the state’s economy to a standstill.”… After the passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which Governor Sanford strongly opposed and publicly criticized before and after its passage by Congress and presidential signing, Sanford initially indicated he might not accept all of the funds allotted by the spending law to South Carolina. He was criticized by many Democrats and some moderate Republicans both in his state and outside who noted South Carolina’s 9.5% unemployment rate (one of the highest in the country) and complained that Sanford wasn’t doing enough to improve economic conditions in his state…. Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican governor of California, suggested that if Sanford or other governors rejected their portion of stimulus funds, he would be “happy” to take them instead…. As early as January 2008, there has been anticipation that Mark Sanford would run for President in 2012, and online support groups have sprung up voluntarily on virtual social networks like Facebook in support of a Sanford ticket. Many supporters of Texas Congressman Ron Paul have also began to accept the notion of supporting Sanford, if Paul (who would be 77 by election day) does not run in 2012. Further boosting Sanford’s profile in advance of a potential candidacy, which the governor has neither ruled out nor expressly hinted at, he was elected as Chairman of the Republican Governors Association in November 2008 and was cited by Michael S. Steele, the Chairman of the Republican Party as one of four “rising stars” in the GOP (alongside Governors Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Sarah Palin of Alaska, and Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota) in February 2009.