Beck, Sanford allege Obama taking over state governments

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Beck, Sanford allege Obama taking over state governments

Posted Jun 9, 2009, 9:54 AM PT by Jed Lewison • First broadcast: Jun 9, 2009
Yesterday, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford officially applied for stimulus funds as he had been ordered to do by the state’s supreme court in a decision upholding a vote by the state legislature requiring Sanford to use the funds.
After requesting the funds — as ordered by both the state court and state legislature — Sanford did the only natural thing for a guy in his position: he went on Glenn Beck’s show to complain that President Obama was engineering a federal takeover of his state.
"I mean, why have a state legislative body, why have a governor," Sanford asked, "if Washington is deciding it all?"

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The thing neither Beck nor Sanford mentioned was that it wasn’t the federal government that forced Sanford to spend the money — it was the state legislature, whose decision was enforced by the state supreme court.
Beck and Sanford make it seem like this was a dispute between South Carolina and the federal government. Wrong. It was dispute between Mark Sanford and his state’s legislature.
Far from supporting the paranoid conspiracy theory pushed by Beck and Sanford, it actually debunks it. The federal government didn’t force Sanford to do anything — it was his own state that did. The real question here is why Beck and Sanford are acting like conspiracy trolls.