Sunday, February 22, 2009

The famine can't be far behind

The state of current Republican party orthodoxy: this quote from South Carolina governor Mark Sanford on Fox News Sunday --

Governor Sanford, South Carolina has the third highest unemployment rate in the country. Under the package, you would get $8 billion that the White House says would create 50,000 jobs in your state, and yet you say you may not accept all of the money, including some of the money for unemployment benefits. Why not?

SANFORD: Two reasons. One, at times it sounds like the Soviet grain quotas of Stalin’s time -- X number of jobs will be created because Washington says so. And that’s not the way that jobs get created.


UPDATE: And here's a reminder from Russia (in the course of a historical dispute with Ukraine) about the impact of Stalin's grain quotas.

FINAL UPDATE 12 MARCH: Sanford moves from grain quota comparisons to Mugabe hyperinflation comparisons.

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