Another maddening misstatement by the governor

by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, January 10, 2014.

Governor Pat McCrory is starting 2014 the way he spent much of 2013—by apparently making up facts to defend his unpopular policies.

WRAL-TV reports that McCrory told Tom Campbell of NC SPIN this week that before last summer’s draconian cuts to the state unemployment program, laid off workers  in other states had been moving to North Carolina in droves because of the state’s “generous” unemployment benefits.

McCrory made the remarks while defending his claims that the state unemployment rate has fallen because of the cuts in the program, an assertion that many economists dispute, arguing instead that the unemployment rate is lower because many discouraged workers have stopped looking for jobs and are no longer counted as part of the labor force.

McCrory has also claimed that the tax cuts for the wealthy passed last summer have spawned massive job creation that has lowered the unemployment rate, which is also not true. The state actually lost jobs in the first 11 months of 2013.

It’s not clear where McCrory came up with the idea that somehow unemployed workers from across the country were flocking to North Carolina for unemployment benefits.  He didn’t present any numbers or statistics to back up the claim. And he is apparently not familiar with the system his own Employment Security Commission manages.

The ESC website says clearly that workers who come to North Carolina from other states should apply for unemployment in the state where their bases wages were reported.

Unemployment benefits are based on previous wages earned. People who did not work in North Carolina are not and were not eligible for unemployment benefits from the state. They would have to file a claim where they worked, not where they live now.

Either McCrory simply does not understand how the unemployment system works or he is blatantly misrepresenting the facts. And it is hard to know which is more troubling.

McCrory avoiding questions about latest DHHS scandals

When McCrory isn’t making things up, he is not saying much at all. McCrory’s security team told reporters Friday morning that they would not be allowed to attend a tour of the National Guard Armory that McCrory was taking.

Normally politicians like the media along on tours to show the governor out among the people shaking hands.  Taking a tour of a military installation is an especially good photo op, but not today apparently.

McCrory must be worried he will get more questions about the latest problems at his embattled Department of Health and Human Services—and they are coming fast and furious.

Last week, the department not only sent 48,000 Medicaid cards to the wrong people, DHHS Communications Director Ricky Diaz misled the media and the public about when the department first learned of the breach of health care privacy that may result in fines or sanctions from the federal government.

Diaz then announced he was leaving his post as the end of the month to work for a consulting firm in Washington.

Thursday, Sarah Ovaska with NC Policy Watch reported that the federal government was so concerned about problems with the state’s food stamp program that it threatened in December to cut off the department’s administrative funding for the program.

Department officials have repeatedly claimed that most of the problems with the system that processes food stamps have been addressed and corrected but complaints from people about long delays in receiving their food stamps continue, and the federal government isn’t too happy about it.

No wonder he doesn’t want reporters around asking pesky questions.

The problems at DHHS are the latest in a long line of scandals at the department led by embattled Secretary Aldona Wos.

McCrory stood by Wos in the NC SPIN interview and said “he was lucky to have her.”  It’s a safe bet that many folks in the state don’t feel so fortunate about that.