Remember Ty’Sheoma Bethea, the Dillon, S.C., girl who asked Congress for stimulus funds to rehab her dilapidated middle school? I thought she was an inspiration for America; wingnuts at the Washington Times thought she was “irresponsible” for asking government to solve her problems.

Now her governor, Mark Sanford, has taken that line of thinking one step further: He told Fox’s great poet Glenn Beck that taking stimulus funds to fix schools like Bethea’s would be “fiscal child abuse,” while rejecting the funds helps kids. No, I’m not kidding.

The folks at Think Progress have the video. Here’s the key exchange between the butt-kissing Beck and the esteemed gentleman from South Carolina:

BECK: But your point, if I’m not mistaken is, no, no, no, you’re taking care of the children in South Carolina by not taking it. Can you explain that? […]

SANFORD: Since we don’t have any of this money that’s now being dispensed from Washington, D.C.; since we’re going out and printing money and we’re issuing debt to solve a problem that was created by too much debt; since that’s taking place, and since those costs will be borne by the next generation, in fact it is sort of fiscal child abuse to do what we’re doing.

Of course it’s clear that rejecting stimulus funds disproportionately hurts South Carolina’s black community. The state’s unemployment rate is highest in black counties, and schools in the so-called corridor of shame are of course mainly African-American. Sanford cares about one set of kids, and it’s clear whose they are. The GOP’s Southern Strategy is alive and well, even if it’s only working in a handful of states. Too bad Ty’sheoma is unfortunate enough to live in one of them.

Clearly, the irresponsible teen should have had the sense to be born somewhere else, and preferably in a different color skin. Next time she’ll know better.

http://www.salon.com/opinion/walsh/politics/2009/04/01/sanford_beck/