ANALYSIS | Perhaps attempting to make up for the gaffes made a week ago, presidential candidate Michele Bachmann was in South Carolina again Thursday evening, presiding over a town hall meeting in North Charleston. According to CNN, she was haranguing President Obama’s economic policies when it was announced that an “undecided voter named Nikki” had a question for her. Surprising everyone in the audience, South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who has yet to endorse a Republican candidate for president, stepped out onto the stage to pitch Bachmann an audience-pleasing softball.
Gov. Haley, speaking to the National Labor Relations Board’s lawsuit against Boeing for moving an airplane construction plant from Washington state to South Carolina allegedly to punish union workers (which, if true, would be a violation of law), stated: “It’s the most un-American thing I’ve ever seen.” She then asked, “If you were president – knowing he is saying he can’t do anything because it’s an independent agency, what would you do?”
Bachmann, fully aware of the NLRB case and its significance to the area (the Boeing plant is located in North Charleston), was ready with an answer. “If the NRLB would also be continuing their current stance,” she said, “they may not last very long. Once they see what I do to the EPA, they may shape up.”
Presidential campaigning has centered around unemployment of late, what with the economy being at a virtual standstill and the national unemployment rate pegging 9.1 percent. But in South Carolina, it is worse, standing at 10.9 percent for the month of July (as noted in the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report). The state has the fourth highest unemployment rate in the nation.
The NLRB question and answer was designed to bring two major Republican themes to the fore at the town hall meeting: the high unemployment rate (both national and state) and economic doldrums the U. S. currently faces and the idea that the federal government is too intrusive on the private lives of its citizens. The themes work well in South Carolina, which is predominantly conservative, not to mention a right-to-work state (where unionization is optional).
Bachmann’s solution? Big government and its intrusions into the businesses and personal lives of Americans can be handled by dismantling federal departments, agencies, and programs?
Bachmann has had no problem pushing herself as the “abolish big government” candidate. Thus far she has promised to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency (too anti-jobs and business restrictive), repeal the Affordable Health Care Act and defund its programs (too intrusive, socialistic, and a “jobs killer”), and abolish the Departments of Energy and Commerce (provides programs that can be handled by private sector). She also advocates abolishing or overhauling the Department of Education, Social Security Administration, and the Medicare/Medicaid programs, all of which she maintains can be privatized.
With all the planned dismantling, getting rid of an agency like the National Labor Relations Board should be relatively simple for someone as adroit at future elimination as Rep. Bachmann.
But will her ideas to eliminate catch hold? There is a possibility it could find resonance in areas hit by high unemployment, where government oversight and regulations could be seen as business restrictive. But Bachmann has a lot of work to do selling her plans of abolishment. National polls show her sliding into fourth place contention as Texas governor Rick Perry, touting his “Texas miracle” jobs programs, entered the race. The last poll taken in South Carolina indicates she has work to do there as well, which could explain her continued presence in the state in the last few weeks.
South Carolina holds the important position of being the first state in the South to hold a primary and is considered pivotal in winning the Republican nomination.