Nikki Haley and Economic Development
By Paul Gable
A recent announcement by the Schaeffler Group that they would be expanding their operations in Cheraw gave Gov. Nikki Haley the opportunity to claim economic development progress as she prepares for her 2014 run for re-election.
Schaeffler is a bearing manufacturer headquartered in Germany with two significant plants already operating in Cheraw with locations in Ft. Mill and Spartanburg as well. The total number of Schaeffler employees in South Carolina already numbers 2,300.
Haley and her propaganda chief Rob Godfrey would have us believe that the announced increase of 190 jobs in Cheraw was the direct result of the governor’s trip to the Paris Air Show in 2011.
I guess the fact that Schaeffler has 2,300 employees at three locations in the state already has nothing to do with this expansion, which will add approximately 9 percent to the company’s current work force.
Overall, Haley is claiming the creation of 29,000 new jobs and ‘record setting’ investment in the state since taking office.
Really? It’s easy to make numbers say anything you want them to. Just ask the now mostly defunct Arthur Andersen accounting firm how easy it was to make Enron appear like a successful, profitable company until it collapsed.
There is no requirement for political claims to be accurate or truthful, that’s why they are not.
But it really seems over the top for Haley to try to justify aggressive use of taxpayer dollars for her visits to Paris and several other of the world’s great cities with this announcement.
The 2014 election campaign for governor is underway with Haley attempting to prove you CAN fool all the people all the time in the process.
Governor Sanford did the same thing with his trip to China (remember when he begged the Chinese to stop taking our industries because our fat American workers needed the jobs?).
And our local politicians with their trips to Germany, Canada and other places (wasn’t there a Japan trip as well) stating how it brings in so many tourists. Not sure I’ve ever heard a German or Japanese accent at the beach.
Yes, the German and Japanese trips were Liz traveling with the NESA group. They were going to bring all these golfers in from both countries. Like you say, hasn’t happened yet, but the politicians did get to go to Munich, Paris, London and Tokyo on the public dollar.