Governors rip feds in annual policy speeches

[flashl]

By John Gramlich, Stateline.org Staff Writer | February 22, 2008

If there was any doubt states are frustrated with federal policymakers, the nation’s governors provided stark reminders in "state of the state" speeches delivered during the first two months of 2008.
In the speeches — state-level versions of the president’s annual State of the Union address to the nation — governors from both political parties and all regions of the country spelled out their complaints with the Democratic Congress, the Republican administration, or both.

Virginia Gov. Tim Kaine (D) railed against a “broken federal immigration policy.”

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) blasted “heavy-handed Real ID legislation from the federal government.”

New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer (D) took issue with “continued efforts at the federal level to dismantle protections for women’s reproductive health and privacy.”

According to a Stateline.org analysis of 41 governors’ speeches given so far, 17 state chief executives — nine Republicans and eight Democrats — included specific criticisms of the federal government in their speeches. Complaints touched on subjects ranging from reductions in federal Medicaid funds (Mississippi) to an “absence of interest on the part of the federal government” in coal-based energy production (as Democratic Wyoming Gov. Dave Freudenthal put it).

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Far more common, however, were charges by governors that the federal government has fallen victim to partisan gridlock, is shirking domestic spending responsibilities and obstructing innovative state policy initiatives.

“I want politicians in Washington to stop bickering and stop posturing — so they can act,” Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell (R) said Feb. 6, urging Congress and President Bush to come to terms on an economic stimulus plan. (They eventually did.)


Stateline

It appears, “divide and conquer” is finally losing its appeal and effectiveness.