Commentary: Don’t mortgage our children’s future
By Mark Sanford
Special to CNN

COLUMBIA, South Carolina (CNN) — When a debate as important — both in terms of policy and politics — as the one currently rolling around our nation regarding the president’s “stimulus” plan takes place, emotion often takes precedence over fact.

Words are ripped out of context, motives ascribed where none may exist, political strategies implemented with limited regard for actuality. This, then, is the playing field we step onto — as it has long been.

But, as those in South Carolina have often heard me say, it is important to disagree without being disagreeable. So let’s take a clear-eyed look at Paul Begala’s recent defense of the president, which happened to refer to me by name — because what I and others have suggested is far from “doing nothing.”