Commentary: Now is the time to leave ideology behind

We need help.

As was reported today, South Carolina’s unemployment rate hit 11 percent, which still puts our corner of the South second nationally, behind the captain of the Rust Belt, Michigan.

We need new ideas, infusions of capital, something, anything to get people back into work and companies growing, not closing down. And, there lies the rub. With apologies to some of our elected officials, we need the stimulus dollars coming to the Palmetto State, because, and it should be blatantly obvious at this point, South Carolina needs to be stimulated.

Our economy is like a man on a gurney who is coding. He has heart issues. He may be a tad overweight. He could be a smoker. But, when he is coding, you do not deal with dietary restrictions and pamphlets on smoking cessation. You grab the paddles and shock the system back into a regular beat.

Austerity measures are not going to help. Paying down the debt will help, but not immediately. People need jobs now. People need to pay bills now. People need to provide for their families now. They do not have the luxury of waiting for policies to have an effect two, three, four, five years down the line.

Gov. Mark Sanford has that luxury. Families like mine do not. We did not have that luxury in the early 1980s, when the economy was as bad as it is now, and my parents, who both had college degrees, could not find work.

Let’s shock the system. Let’s get people back to work. The lives of South Carolinians are more important than being wedded to an economic ideology. When times get better, as they did in the 1990s, then we can go back to a trim and a haircut when it comes to budgeting. But, we are in a crisis right now, and we need to, frankly, chill the hell out and be pragmatic about it.