Pat McCrory is holding a press conference in Charlotte at 2 PM. My guess is that he’s going to announce he’s suspending the Syrian refugee program in North Carolina. If he does, then he’ll join four other governors in four other states – Bentley in Alabama, Snyder in Michigan, Jindal in Louisiana, and Hutchinson in Arkansas. And who knows, he might get beat to the punch for being Governor #5.
If McCrory does announce the suspension of the program, it could be a good move politically for him. It would also possibly draw a sharp contrast between him and Attorney General Roy Cooper, who covets McCrory’s position. Accepting Syrian refugees has never been overwhelmingly popular with Americans and in the wake of the Paris attacks, support has probably plummeted. Simply put, most people sympathize with the plight of those fleeing the mess in the Middle East but their sympathies do not outweigh the reasonable concern that we might be letting in some dangerous people who wish to harm us.
Now, if McCrory isn’t going to address the refugee crisis in his press conference, that’s another story entirely. But I can’t imagine that he doesn’t join the parade of governors soon. If he doesn’t, the pressure to do so from the base will be immense. It’d be easier for him to get away with expanding Medicaid than doing nothing on the refugees.
Notably, none of the other governors who have made statements refusing refugees are imperiled politically. McCrory is. Strategically, it’s a golden opportunity for him to reestablish his relationship with the conservative base while also staking out a position that is almost assuredly a winning won with mainstream North Carolina voters. For that reason, I’d be shocked if he doesn’t take it.
John Wynne is the “conservative voice” at PoliticsNC, where he also provides polling analysis and commentary on legislative campaigns. When not writing about politics, he enjoys gardening and listening to opera. Contact: johncwynne@gmail.com.
Gee, Ebrun–
I can’t imagine why businesses wouldn’t want to move to a state where wages are low, the workforce is somewhat educated but docile/desperate, corporate taxes negligible, pollution viewed benignly or ignored altogether, and the state government is willing to pay you more to relocate than it will ever get back from you in taxes–until some redder state offers a better deal, of course. Certainly sounds like paradise to me–or it would if I were a right-wing CEO. Just add hiring out prisoners to do the worst jobs, and it will be a capitalist’s paradise.
Does McCrory actually have any power to keep refugees out of NC? Every time I hear this kind of bigotry, I’m one step closer to offering my unused upstairs apartment to a Syrian refugee family. Can our so-called governor actually keep me from doing so, or is he just right-standing as usual?
Hey, Ebrun. NC’s just-announcement unemployment rate is 5.7%, hardly a needle-move from last month’s 5.8%. Still significantly above the national average of 5%, and exceeding more than half the other states, all the other southern states, and rated “disappointing” to most economic analysts. The state’s jobless rate has been worse than the national average since April
Thought you’d want to know. But go ahead, tell us how wonderful this “Carolina Comeback” is, especially for the middle and lower economic class worker. Please go ahead…….
When the economy enters a period of sustained growth, jobless workers heretofore unemployed re-enter the labor market causing the unemployment rate to tick up for awhile. From September ’14 to September ’15, employment in NC increased by 107,600. Only four much larger states realized more new jobs than NC during that period. The surge in new jobs also increased in migration of workers from other states to NC seeking employment.
I don’t have to tell you how successful NC has been in bolstering economic growth over the past couple of years. The influx of new residents and new jobs tell the story. Liberals will continue to criticize GOP policies and bad mouth the state, but the folks aren’t buying it and the data don’t support their partisan attacks.
No matter what the economy does or what the NCGOP done, Ebrn has a rose-colored answer. Now even though experts are calling NC’s economy less active and positive than expected, Ebrun has his blinders on and gives a “spun” explanation.
I note that your response makes no mention of who those workers are, and how so many of those jobs are low-wage and/or part-time.
You also throw the in-migration figure around without any specificity. If you looked deeper into NC in-migration figures, your see that “domestic in-migration” (from other states to NC) has not returned to its pre-recession levels. A greater proportion now comes from other nations or from military actions, which also have less to do with people coming here specifically for employment. In addition, growing segments of NC’s in-migrants are made up of retirees (not job-hunters) and those moving for family-related reasons–again, these are not cohorts attracted primarily by any perception or reality of job availability.
You don’t have to tell me “how successful NC has been in bolstering economic growth over the past couple of years” because you really can’t. NC has not returned to its pre-recession position in economic growth or employment. There is no evidence that any actions/policies the NCGOP has taken since 2009 has spurred any outstanding economic developments. Rather, the state has simply benefited from national economic trends, its sunbelt location, and its residual (and fast diminishing) good reputation as a place to live.
Despite the intense efforts by the left and the Democrat Party to smear the state’s reputation under GOP control, NC continues to outpace the national averages in new job creation, personal income growth and population in migration. Spin any way you want, but you and other liberals are in denial.
This is not “spin”:
NC exceeds the national average and the other southern states in its unemployment rate. Period.
The NCGOP has failed to get a major manufacturer on the order of a Volvo, BMW, Kia, Honda, Electrolux, Boeing, Airbus, Mercedes, Hyundai, Austal, GE, Nissan, Yokohama, Toyo to locate here. Those manufacturers instead have selected Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia over NC. The state struck out big-time to SC on Volvo earlier this year.
The article below tells it like it really is, and is not blinded nor swayed by any partisan mindset and narrative. Why? Because it uses facts, not fantasy:
http://www.bizjournals.com/triangle/news/2015/06/11/nc-economy-growth-lukewarm-gdp-bea-usa-southeast.html
-“The growth in North Carolina’s economy can best be described as lukewarm.
According to final figures released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, North Carolina’s real gross domestic product increased by 1.4 percent in 2014. That ranks this state 25th in the nation and seventh among the 12 Southeastern states.”
-“Compared to the average growth, however, North Carolina comes up shorter. The 1.4 percent growth here is behind both the Southeast’s 1.7 percent and the nation’s 2.2 percent growth in 2014.”
-“In real terms, North Carolina’s GDP hit $440 billion in 2014, which is up 4.3 percent from 2011 when the GDP was $422 billion. Even that figure trails both the region and state as the Southeast GDP has grown 4.4 percent in that time and the nation has grown 6.3 percent. The nation’s GDP hit $15.8 trillion last year. To be sure, North Carolina has the second-largest economy in the Southeast, and percentage figures can sometimes skew due to size. However both the largest economy – Florida – and third-largest – Georgia – posted larger percentage growth figures than North Carolina, with Florida’s 2.7 percent nearly doubling the growth rate of North Carolina.”
-“
I guess you want to ignore the latest data for the first eight months of 2015. Employment growth in NC was 25% faster than the national and regional average from August 2014 to August 2015, according to BLS. And personal income growth from the 2nd quarter 2014 through the 2nd quarter 2015 was over 12% higher that the national and regional averages, according to BEA.
Only six states were in the top ten in both employment and personal income growth during this period from mid ’14 to ‘mid ’15. NC was one of the six. Oh, and BTW, this was about the time that the GOP-sponsored state income tax cuts begin to take full effect.
He’s deaf. So, repeating, again:
The unemployment rate in NC still exceeds the national unemployment rate.
North Carolina continues to be in the bottom five states in expenditures per student and the bottom 10 in average teacher salary, lagging behind other Southeastern states.”
Pat McCrory and the rest of these cowardly governors are a bunch of spineless weasels who have zero authority to tell people where they can live.
You right-wing zealots are pathetic – conservatives you are not. Point in fact, the US. CIA created the mess now going on in Syria to covertly destabilize the country with foreign terrorist insurgents in an effort to bring down the Assad government. The CIA used the same script in Libya using the exact same terrorist insurgents. Calling for regime change is interference in the sovereign affairs of independent nations and is a
gross violation of international law , as well as a war crime. To not offer safe haven to the very people subjected to the wanton policies of our own federal government is a further crime against humanity. The despicable nature of republican zealots makes the Statue of Liberty ill-suited to stand in the harbor of New York City.
Well, McCroney’s xenophobia made an impression one me: I’ve offered to house a Syrian refugee family in the unused upper floor of my home. Need to check the local zoning codes, but I doubt it would be a problem. Will let you know if anything results.
“I was a stranger and you welcomed me” — Jesus (Matther 25:43)
“F’ you” – Pat McCrory
Mr. Wynne thinks the Governor can stake out a winning position “with mainstream North Carolina voters.” Probably true, but the liberals commenting here apparently believe that McCory and mainstream NC voters are a bigger threat than ISIS terrorists.
Ebrun, the governor and current NCGA are a threat to NC. Please don’t use that old straw man argument trying to make our opposition to them the same as our opposition to ISIS. Two different playing fields.
Ok Brad, but you need to stop using that new canard that the Governor and the NCGA are a threat to NC.
Employment and personal income growth rates in NC are exceeding the national average, the business tax climate has moved up from 44th to 15th according to the Tax Foundation, personal income taxes have been reduced while tax revenue collections have exceeded projections, the state unemployment compensation trust fund is once again solvent reducing the tax burden on NC businesses, per pupil spending for public education is the highest since before the recession and a new Opportunity Scholarship Program has been started to enable “school choice” for low income students and their parents. Theres’s no “threat” in any of these current trends except to liberal advocates of more state spending and higher state taxes.
The unemployment rate in NC still exceeds the national unemployment rate.
Items/services in NC now hit with sales taxes have increased.
Balancing the state’s unemployment compensation trust fund, made necessary because businesses were not paying into it at necessary/adequate levels, was accomplished by throwing tens of thousands of NC’ers off unemployment assistance during a bad recession.
2014-15 tax receipts exceeded revenue projections only because the NCGOP tax reform severely reduced those revenue projections by lowering income taxes on corporations and the wealthiest households.
North Carolina continues to be in the bottom five states in expenditures per student and the bottom 10 in average teacher salary, lagging behind other Southeastern states.
Private school vouchers (a.k.a.Opportuntiy Scholarships) and charter school funding reduced the amount of fiscal resources that could be allocated to the state’s regular public schools; vouchers and charters are tools used by conservatives to abandon the state’s obligation and commitment to its traditional public education system.
Oh my, things must really seem bleak to liberal Democrats in NC these days. Lower taxes, higher revenue collections, employment growth fifth fastest in the Nation, and personal income growth in the top ten among the 50 states. And a major dent has been put on the stranglehold the education bureaucracy has had on public education policy. Combined with election and regulatory reforms, this has to be a liberal’s worst nightmare.
And that, folks, is another good example of what Ebrun does whenever his misrepresentations are challenged with actual facts. He ignores the counterpoints, repeats his distortions, and launches the ad hominems.
You see, he cannot deal with any truisms that don’t fit his narrative, facts like “The unemployment rate in NC still exceeds the national unemployment rate, ” or “North Carolina continues to be in the bottom five states in expenditures per student and the bottom 10 in average teacher salary, lagging behind other Southeastern states.” He has no response to those realities.
You continue to ignore or downplay positive actual trends, i.e., FACTS. Our state’s economy is now experiencing steady growth rates above the national average in personal income and employment all while personal and corporate income taxes have been reduced. The state is also experiencing population in migration and a rate faster than out migration. How do you explain the FACT that more people are moving to NC than are leaving if conditions here are as bad as you allege?
And you’re off base about the unemployment compensation fund. Under Democrat control, the state ran up a huge debt to the federal government through generous unemployment benefits. This debt has now been paid back relieving NC employers of onerous sur charges to pay off the debt. And isn’t it interesting that when the state cut the eligibility time for unemployment benefits and the employment compensation tax on employers was reduced, job growth in the state begin to surge.
And your allegation that tax revenue estimates were kept deliberately low is pure fabrication as there is NO Evidence to support this pernicious claim. BTW, you no doubt missed the latest news from the NCGA’s chief economist that tax revenues collections are again increasing for this year: http://www.carolinajournal.com/exclusives/display_exclusive.html?id=12544
Finally, the charge that funding for charter schools and Opportunity Scholarships is reducing funding for public schools is another big lie. State funding for K-12 public education has INCREASED every year since the GOP took over the General Assembly in 2011 with a substantial increase just approved in the last legislative session. (BTW,Charter schools are part of the state system.)
Funding for Opportunity Scholarships comes out of University system, not the K-12 budget, and will likely do more to provide a solid education for low income children than increases in K-12 public school funding, much of which is eaten up in salaries and benefits for a plethora of high paid administrators and other overhead at the Dept. of Public Instruction. ( The average cost per pupil in K-12 state schools is now over $9,000 while each Opportunity Scholarship costs the state $4,500.)
Very apt, even though the second part is not in keeping with the grandeur of the first, still fully appropriate!
I have a question…Constitutionally can McCrory or any Governor deny Syrian refugees?
I know that the GOP tin soldier dictator wannabe chicken hawks like to puff up and spout lots of stuff , and I know most of it is BS. Can they legally or constitutionally deny them ?
I suspect not. Seems to me thats right up there with closing mosques, admitting only Christians etc…I also wonder, do they listen to themselves and if they do can Republicans as a group actually look at themselves in the mirror with any pride? Do they believe that most of the crap they come out with is is the least bit…American….Christian?
Everything I read is that a governor or state cannot deny such refugee resettlement, on US constitutional grounds, which is why the governors of those states have “asked” the feds not to send the refugees. States have no rights to cross federal regulations re: immigration. The U.S. Constitution gives the federal government control over foreign affairs, including immigration, naturalization and deportation. I am not a lawyer, but that is my understanding.
Good question: I’ve been thinking about offering some unused space in my home to refugees (preferably a woman with one or two children): could McCrony or any other state official bar me from doing so? If the answer is “yes”, what would the process be, and what grounds would they be able to cite? (IMHO, disobeying an executive order doesn’t sound like a major crime to me: just wondering what sort of actions/penalties McCrony et al might be able to render/enforce. My town was founded by Quakers/abolitionists and has a largely African-American population, so I don’t foresee major opposition locally to helping refugees.)
I am behind our POTUS, who today lashed out at those in the US who would deny Syrian refugees immigration and sanctuary here, and who would apply a “religion test” to who gets admitted into the US and who doesn’t. These sorts of ill-considered reactions are un-American and just what the Daesh /ISIS hopes for.
See:
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mikegiglio/paris-attacks-stoke-fears-of-refugees-and-thats-what-isis-wa#.thojer709
Go for it , Pat!
Burnish that resume as a conservative. I’m all for your signing that “No Sanctuary” bill and those abortion-restriction bills; signing the voter I.D. bill, the tax reform bill, the magistrates recusal bill, the regulatory reform bill; and allowing passage (by not vetoing) the “Let the NCGA micro-manage the UNC System presidential hiring process” bill.
I have no objections to your having your DENR/DEQ fight federal air quality requirements; to your not expanding Medicaid; to your treating Duke-E with kid gloves on coal ash waste.
On on and on….
I am all for you, Pat, approving and advancing all the above, and any other bills, proposals, provisions, and executive actions that paint you fully as abiding by the full-blown and strident conservative platform of the NCGOP. It’s key that voters are able to distinguish the great difference between your actions and thinking and Cooper’s.
I’m with Brad.
Thanks Apply
So freaking frustrated by all of this. Hey, folks if GW Bush and Cheney had not invaded Iraq, ISIS would not exist today. They have truly opened the Gates of Hell and all we can do is complain about Obama and make sure all refugees in the future are Christians! Has our country really come to this?
Don’t even get me started about our lame ass governor. What a cosmic joke he is!
Can’t say this often enough…
Get out and vote!
Yed
Nothing like a terrorist attack from bunch of total religious
a**holes who we need to kill as soon as possible to improve election prospects of lame Republicans, McCrory in particular. You just can’t make it up. We are so screwed unless you…
Get out and vote!