Nikki Haley says states shouldn’t take federal help for COVID-19. She has a short memory.
Former S.C. governor and U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley says that states shouldn’t be asked to be “bailed out” from the COVID-19 crisis by the federal government. Instead, they should “tighten up, make some cuts and manage,” Haley said in a tweet last week.
The tweet reflects the latest GOP talking point in a growing debate over state shortfalls during the coronavirus crisis. On Wednesday, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell rejected calls from Democrats to give those struggling states, many of them blue, tens of billions of dollars in emergency pandemic relief legislation. Said McConnell: “There’s not going to be any desire on the Republican side to bail out state pensions by borrowing money from future generations.”
That’s rich, coming from the senator of a state, Kentucky, that takes out $148 billion more out of the federal pot than it takes in, as New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo noted Thursday.
That’s especially rich for Haley, who as North Carolina’s neighboring governor had no hesitation about federal aid when her state’s rainy day came in the form of flooding after storms in 2015. Not to mention that like Kentucky, South Carolina under Haley collected more federal money than most states.
North Carolina’s junior senator, Thom Tillis, was characteristically hard to pin down on the issue. In an interview on Fox News on Thursday, Tillis said the federal government “may play some role in helping the states and local governments,” although he warned against “filling the coffers of some states and towns that maybe had bad financials before this virus ever happened.” By Friday, in a telephone town hall, he said he was “more or less aligned with leader McConnell on the issue.” We don’t recall Tillis expressing the same ill-timed concern with the “financials” of businesses and industries he voted to help with COVID-19 assistance, but we at least appreciate his acknowledgment that law enforcement and first responders “need to be made whole” and presumably shouldn’t get tangled in COVID-19 politics.
Certainly, it’s not breaking news that Haley or any politician is inconsistent, and it’s far from unusual for both Democratic and Republican officials to have short memories regarding previous positions and actions (see gerrymandering, minority party, everywhere). It’s also not surprising that in moments of crisis, officials are inclined to move toward their ideological comfort zones. That’s why Democrats want COVID-19 assistance to focus on individuals and disadvantaged populations that are hit hardest economically by the virus, and it’s why Republicans are more comfortable directing their attention to businesses that are struggling than to direct billions toward state governments.
But at a time we most need to find collaborative approaches, Haley’s and McConnell’s remarks step past ideology into the worst kind of politics. They’re saying the quiet thing out loud - that while they don’t mind federal dollars going to some states or to organizations they like, the same isn’t true for those who are blue.
It’s plainly hypocritical for leaders like McConnell to tell cash-short states to buck up while bailing out industries that are experiencing a similar COVID-19 cratering - or helping out other cash-strapped pensions.
As for Haley, who knows exactly what it’s like when the state you govern faces a crisis out of your control? It’s galling. It’s baldly political. And in the midst of a crisis like no other, it’s distasteful.
This story was originally published April 23, 2020 at 2:25 PM.