It’s ironic that Haley wants us to look within SC for answers

I missed the State of the State last night — perhaps some of y’all would like to share your observations about it — but I read the newspaper story this morning, and the headline struck me as really ironic:

Haley: Look to SC, not DC, for answers

Really? Did she say that with a straight face? The woman who hardly had a word to say about South Carolina when she was running to be governor of it, but went on and on about “Obama, Obama, Obama,” seeming to forget that her opponent was named “Sheheen”?

That Nikki Haley?

But of course, for her and other Tea Party politicians, the “look not to Washington” meme is yet another way of saying, Obama, Obama, Obama

If it weren’t, I’d be on board with the message on so many fronts. I dig subsidiarity. I think the state should fully assume the responsibility of providing an education to its citizens, for instance. Just as long as we’re willing to tax ourselves enough to get the job done properly, of course. The same goes for many other public functions, such as running a prison system, and enforcing state statutes.

But under the principle of subsidiarity, one recognizes that there are some tasks to which the smaller government is inadequate, so they properly become the responsibility of the larger entity.

Defense is one such task. Another is health care reform. The best solutions in health care are national, and far more likely to be effective on that scale. And in any case, our state has little interest in effectively addressing the problem.

When Haley and others reject Obamacare, they are really rejecting the idea of health care reform — if we understand “reform” to be finding a way for health care to be accessible and affordable for all of our citizens. I’ve seen no indication that the naysayers are willing to do what it takes to address that effectively. Have you?

That makes rejecting the imperfect solution offered by the federal government unconscionable. The governor of Arizona, no Obama fan, understands that, at least when it comes to Medicaid expansion. I’m sorry that our governor does not.

7 thoughts on “It’s ironic that Haley wants us to look within SC for answers

  1. tavis micklash

    The same governor who was off campaigning for Romney when the Dept of Revenue hacking scandal took place.

    If you want to solve big boy problems give some big boy solutions.

  2. bud

    Did you here Haley talking about MLK the other day? She talked about how it would have been unthinkable to elect an African-American to the …. Senate! But no mention of POTUS. Geez, what a piece of work that woman is.

    1. tavis micklash

      I’d argue that in the 60s the black community would think it was harder to elect a black senator of SC than a black president. This is based on the entire premise that MLK and the civil rights community’s doctrine of civil disobedience was based on the federal government intervening over the obvious social injustice of the south.

      Regardless in just 1 or 2 generations we have gone a long way.

      As for Haley you cant expect her to give any praise to her opponent in the governors race. She ran against Obama in 2010 and she will be looking forward to defeating President Obama again for Governor in 2014.

      1. Brad Warthen Post author

        I dunno. The conventional wisdom was that Barack Obama was crazy to enter the SC governor’s race in 2010, especially since he already had a bigger job.

        But despite the fact that Nikki Haley ran harder against him than I’ve ever seen anyone run against an opponent in SC, she just barely squeaked by him.

        Some would give credit to that other fellow, the one who was actually on the ballot but who to Nikki was He Who Must Not Be Named, but you’ve got to hand it to Obama, since that’s whom Nikki chose to run against.

        1. Doug Ross

          Mark this down: Nikki Haley will not have a second term. She will either decide not to run (knowing a likely loss would damage her marketability), will be defeated in a primary (based on her lousy Beasley-esque performance), or will lose to a Democrat (least likely scenario).

          She be Sarah Palin-lite. Which is close to like being filled with helium.

  3. Scout

    Yea, I wouldn’t be against the state taking complete responsibility for the education of our kids in principle, but I just don’t trust SC to do it appropriately. It seems like many things that are worthwhile about education in SC have come about as a result of some sort of federal requirement and/or are only possible with federal funding. In the same vein, did Haley ever explain how she would fix all our road problems without raising any taxes, which I think is something she proclaimed in the address? I believe she threw out a number that she was going to magically produce without raising taxes and apply to our road problems. An article in the paper discussing our road problems gave the actual amount needed and Haley’s number was a drop in the bucket, if I’m not mistaken. My husband just read me the article but I can probably find the link if anybody is interested.

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