Palin to Reject Half of Stimulus

One by one, the most diehard of the GOP's state governors announced their right-wing bonafides by threatening to reject their states' portions of the stimulus. On Thursday former VP candidate Sarah Palin announced the precise amount of Alaska's stimulus she wants to reject: $514 million, approximately 45 percent of the $940.7 million the federal government appropriated for the wintry state. Palin explained, "We won't be bound by federal strings in exchange for dollars, nor will we dig ourselves a deeper hole in two years when these federal funds are gone." The governor also said she wanted to avoid "unrealistic expectation that the state will continue these programs when the federal funds are no longer available," and said Alaska needed to "foster a discussion" about "growth of government."