Arnold Schwarzenegger

WASHINGTON– To hear Republicans in Congress tell it, the Grand Old Party is pretty much united against the deficit-spending approach to economic recovery. Don’t tell that to local GOP officials.

Faced with the most severe budget crises in decades, state and local policymakers from across the country — including a growing list of prominent Republicans — have been only too happy to accept the additional federal funding that accompanied last year’s $787 billion stimulus bill. Not only did that money prop up job markets, many say, but it kept social-service programs running strong during a period of greatest need. They don’t see stimulus spending as indebting the future. They see it as an investment in the future.

Here’s a profound idea from California GOP Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who went after congressional Republicans yesterday for criticizing the Democrats’ stimulus bill one moment, then taking credit for the money the legislation is providing their districts the next. From ABC’s “This Week:”
“I find it interesting that you have a lot of the Republicans running around [...]

Telluride second-home owner and former eBay CEO Meg Whitman is having her conservative street cred questioned for doing something that’s apparently a big no-no in the No-Bama GOP of 2009: Whitman gave money to environmental causes.
The San Jose Mercury News last week reported that Whitman, seeking the Republican nomination to succeed Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in [...]

Colorado inched closer toward fiscal sanity today.

Budget reform bill 228 passed the Senate this morning after roughly three hours of back and forth on the chamber floor, where GOP senators renewed the same objections they voiced to no effect during the vote held two weeks ago — objections that the bill is unconstitutional and will lead to greater taxes and big government, et cetera.