Statement from Gov. Nikki Haley on Dr. King holiday

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Nikki Haley today released the following statement:

“Everybody can be great…because anybody can serve.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Gov. Haley said, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. challenged each of us to serve – to use the power of our voice to improve our state each and every day. Michael and I are proud to join people across our state in honoring Dr. King, a man whose service to others and vision of a South Carolina – and an America – where everyone enjoys equality and opportunity continue to inspire us.”

-###-

Newsmax: Ron Paul Tells Newsmax: I Support Israel By: Doug Wead
In an exclusive Newsmax interview, Congressman and Republican presidential candidate Ron Paul confirmed his support for Israel, but cautioned that while the United States should be a “friend” of the Jewish state, America should not be the “master” of Israel. Paul also says the United States should not dictate Israel’s borders or try to “buy her allegiance” with massive amounts of foreign aid. He argued that foreign aid has actually hurt – not helped – the Jewish state. The interview was conducted by Newsmax contributor Doug Wead, a presidential historian and New York Times best-selling author. Paul has recently come under fire from some Jewish groups in America. The Republican Jewish Coalition banned Paul from a debate on Jewish issues in Washington this week because of his “misguided and extreme views,” according to the group’s executive director, Matt Brooks. Newsmax chatted with Paul to get his side of the issue as the Texas Republican is surging in some presidential polls.

A new Washington Post-ABC News survey in Iowa shows him threatening Mitt Romney as the second-leading candidate behind Newt Gingrich. Paul is now tied with Romney in the early caucus state with 18 percent of the vote, behind Gingrich’s 33 percent. Rep. Paul’s interview with Newsmax follows: Newsmax: What should our relationship be with Israel? Ron Paul: We should be their friend and their trading partner. They are a democracy and we share many values with them. But we should not be their master. We should not dictate where their borders will be nor should we have veto power over their foreign policy. This is not just about Israel, by the way, this is about how we should conduct ourselves with other countries around the world.

Newsmax: But Israel is not like other countries. We have a large Jewish population in America. What do you say to those who criticize your policy toward Israel?

Ron Paul: I think that some not only misunderstand the American Constitution and the role we should have in the world, they also misunderstand Zionism. Part of the original idea of Zionism, as I understand it, was that there should be Jewish independence and Jewish self-reliance. Today, America doesn’t want anyone to be self-reliant. We want to rule the world and be the saviors of the world and we are going broke in the process.

Newsmax: Some object to your policy of cutting foreign aid to Israel.

Ron Paul: I have objected to all foreign aid. I define foreign aid as taking money from poor people in rich countries and giving it to rich people in poor countries. We just can’t keep doing this. We don’t have the money anymore. Stop and consider America’s policy: We give $3 billion a year to Israel in loans; and we give $12 billion or more in assistance to Israel’s self-declared enemies. Some of these are countries that say they will drive Israel into the sea.

Newsmax: What do you say to evangelical Christians who want that aid to continue?

Ron Paul: I say to them that our aid in the region is out of balance and it is wrong. Foreign aid does not help Israel. It is a net disadvantage. I say to them that “the borrower is servant to the lender” and America should never be the master of Israel and its fate. We should be her friend. In October, 1981, most of the world and most of the Congress voiced outrage over Israel’s attack on Iraq and their nuclear development. I was one of the few who defended her right to make her own decisions on foreign policy and to act in her own self-interest.

Newsmax: What then, if anything, should we do for Israel?

Ron Paul: We should share intelligence for mutually agreed-upon goals. We should honor our pledge to refuse any arms sales that would undermine Israel’s qualitative military edge in the region. But we should stop interfering with them. We should not announce bargaining positions even before she begins her negotiations. We should not dictate what she can and cannot do. We should stop trying to buy her allegiance. And Israel should stop sacrificing their sovereignty as an independent state to us or anybody else, no matter how well-intentioned.

Sens. Lee Bright, Larry Grooms, Danny Verdin, and myself got a chance to visit with Dr. Ron Paul this afternoon after a very boisterous rally with freedom loving South Carolinians.

Video: Gov. Nikki Haley, Attorney General Alan Wilson, House Speaker Bobby Harrell, State Sen. Kevin Bryant discuss Voter ID

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Nikki Haley, Attorney General Alan Wilson, House Speaker Bobby Harrell and State Sen. Kevin Bryant today discussed South Carolina’s fight to protect the integrity of the election process and the state’s response to the federal government’s latest attempt to block South Carolina’s Voter ID law during a Statehouse press conference.

Video of today’s press conference is available here.

Gov. Haley said, “This is a very important and pressing issue. We were fortunate enough to have the members of the House and members of the Senate listen to the will of the people – that we want to protect the integrity of our voting process. If you have to show a picture ID to buy Sudafed, if you have to show a picture ID to get on a plane, you should have to show a picture ID to do that one thing that is so important to us – vote. There is nothing we want more than to make sure every person in South Carolina can vote. And we’re not just talking about it, we did something about it.”

Attorney General Wilson said, “What we intend to do is file suit…against DOJ in district court in the next week or two… and to ensure that no voter is suppressed in their right to vote and that the integrity of the electoral process is protected.”

House Speaker Harrell said, “The SCDMV has shown that over 99% of South Carolina’s voters have been issued the photo IDs required to cast a secure ballot, and the law made them free for the few people who don’t have one. These are facts the Justice Department chose to ignore when they rejected our state’s Voter ID law. Our citizens want us to exercise our constitutional right to secure our state’s election process from fraud and abuse with Voter ID. Given all the facts, it is clear how unjust President Obama’s Department of Justice has been to our state and why state lawmakers are supporting the appeal of the rejection.”

State Sen. Bryant said, “When I’m not here, I’m a pharmacist. When you come in my store, and you refill a narcotic prescription, I have to take and look at a picture ID to verify that you’re getting your prescription. Let’s talk about voter suppression. If you vote, and someone else votes fraudulently, they’ve suppressed your vote. It’s exactly the opposite of what the Obama administration has accused us of.”
-###-

JUST THE FACTS FOLKS.

Subject: Debt News 1 – save this one

The following are 27 shocking facts about U.S. debt that should set America on fire with anger….
#1 During fiscal year 2011, the U.S. government spent 3.7 trillion dollars but it only brought in 2.4 trillion dollars.
#2 When Ronald Reagan took office, the U.S. national debt was less than 1 trillion dollars. Today, the U.S. national debt is over 15.2 trillion dollars.
#3 During 2011, U.S. debt surpassed 100 percent of GDP for the first time ever.
#4 According to Wikipedia, the monetary base “consists of coins, paper money (both as bank vault cash and as currency circulating in the public), and commercial banks’ reserves with the central bank.” Currently the U.S. monetary base is sitting somewhere around 2.7 trillion dollars. So if you went out and gathered all of that money up it would only make a small dent in our national debt. But afterwards there would be no currency for anyone to use.
#5 The U.S. government spent over 454 billion dollars just on interest on the national debt during fiscal 2011.
#6 The U.S. government has total assets of 2.7 trillion dollars and has total liabilities of 17.5 trillion dollars.
#7 During the Obama administration, the U.S. government has accumulated more debt than it did from the time that George Washington took office to the time that Bill Clinton took office.
#8 It is being projected that the U.S. national debt will surpass 23 trillion dollars in 2015.
#9 According to the GAO, the U.S. government is facing 34 trillion dollars in unfunded liabilities for social insurance programs such as Social Security and Medicare.
#10 Others estimate that the unfunded liabilities of the U.S. government now total over 117 trillion dollars.
#11 According to the GAO, the ratio of debt held by the public to GDP is projected to reach 287 percent of GDP by 2086.
#12 Others are much less optimistic. A recently revised IMF policy paper entitled “An Analysis of U.S. Fiscal and Generational Imbalances: Who Will Pay and How?” projects that U.S. government debt will rise to about 400 percent of GDP by the year 2050.
#13 The United States government is responsible for more than a third of all the government debt in the entire world.
#14 If you divide up the national debt equally among all U.S. taxpayers, each taxpayer would owe approximately $134,685.
#15 Mandatory federal spending surpassed total federal revenue for the first time ever in fiscal 2011. That was not supposed to happen until 50 years from now.
#16 Between 2007 and 2010, U.S. GDP grew by only 4.26%, but the U.S. national debt soared by 61% during that same time period.
#17 During Barack Obama’s first two years in office, the U.S. government added more to the U.S. national debt than the first 100 U.S. Congresses combined.
#18 When you add up all spending by the federal government, state governments and local governments, it comes to 46.6% of GDP.
#19 Our nation is more addicted to government checks than ever before. In 1980, government transfer payments accounted for just 11.7% of all income. Today, government transfer payments account for 18.4% of all income.
#20 U.S. households are now actually receiving more money directly from the U.S. government than they are paying to the government in taxes.
#21 A staggering 48.5% of all Americans live in a household that receives some form of government benefits. Back in 1983, that number was below 30 percent.
#22 Back in 1965, only one out of every 50 Americans was on Medicaid. Today, one out of every 6 Americans is on Medicaid.
#23 In 1950, each retiree’s Social Security benefit was paid for by 16 U.S. workers. According to new data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are now only 1.75 full-time private sector workers for each person that is receiving Social Security benefits in the United States.
#24 The U.S. government now says that the Medicare trust fund will run out five years faster than they were projecting just last year.
#25 Right now, spending by the federal government accounts for about 24 percent of GDP. Back in 2001, it accounted for just 18 percent.
#26 If the U.S. government was forced to use GAAP accounting principles (like all publicly-traded corporations must), the U.S. government budget deficit would be somewhere in the neighborhood of $4 trillion to $5 trillion each and every year.
#27 The U.S. national debt is now more than 5000 times larger than it was when the Federal Reserve was created back in 1913.