Nikki Haley: Jobless On Drugs Claim From Bad Information

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley (R) has admitted that she has no evidence backing her claim that half of job applicants at a local government facility flunked a drug test. She'd used the claim to push for requiring the jobless to pass a drug test to be eligible for benefits.

"I've never felt like I had to back up what people tell me. You assume that you're given good information," Haley told Jim Davenport of the Associated Press. "And now I'm learning through you guys that I have to be careful before I say something."

Haley said two weeks ago she'd been told that of hundreds of job applicants at the Savannah River Site, a nuclear reservation owned by the U.S. Energy Department, half failed a drug test. But Jim Giusti, a spokesman for Energy Department, told HuffPost that of the workers hired over the past few years, less than 1 percent failed a test. Additionally, only new hires -- not applicants -- have to submit to testing in the first place.

"We are pleased that Gov. Haley retracted her claims about so many unemployed workers being able to pass drug tests," said Judy Conti, a lobbyist for the National Employment Law Project, a nonprofit research group that advocates for workers. "For too long, politicians have tried to scapegoat the unemployed, as if the current jobs crisis is their fault. Such claims do nothing to further the discourse we need to have about real solutions to the problems our country is facing, and they scapegoat good people who are doing their best just to survive in these tough times."

Haley told AP she'd used the anecdote "a million times" to promote drug-testing for the jobless. "It is the reason you're hearing me look into whether we can do drug testing," she said.

Yet, even though the claim has proven false and Haley has promised not to repeat it, the governor said she still wants drug tests tied to jobless benefits and a revamped job training program, according to AP.

A Haley spokesman told HuffPost Tuesday he'd let the governor's words speak for themselves.

Arthur Delaney is the author of "A People's History of the Great Recession," HuffPost's first e-book.

Comments

[Barb Hatfield]

11:45 AM on 09/25/2011

I think the feds should walk in and surprise drug test every freaking elected official in this whole country right this second! I'm willing to bet a pay check more than half can't pass! It would probably be the best thing that ever happen to this country if most of congress and half of our governors went to prison for failing to live up to their own standards for the rest of us.

[gypsynomad]

12:49 PM on 09/24/2011

Interesting how these so called Republican pretty girls are so fuzzy up in the grey areas ..scary actually.

[catbyte]

10:01 AM on 09/23/2011

"I've never felt like I had to back up what people tell me. You assume that you're given good information," Haley told Jim Davenport of the Associated Press. "And now I'm learning through you guys that I have to be careful before I say something."

Is she serious? And she's the governor of an actual state? I suppose if someone came up to her and said that the moon was made out of green cheese, she'd say, Oh, OK!"

In the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, "What a maroon!"

[Jack Kalpakian]

09:36 AM on 09/23/2011

Retraction after the damage is already done. We have millions of mind numbed TEA Party supporters believing this nonsense already. I would like TEA Party supporters to volunteer for drug tests, and if any of them get government benefits of any kind, volunteer to give them up should they fail.

[Veeve]

08:33 AM on 09/23/2011

It is the everlasting shame of all Americans of Indian or part Indian ancestry like myself that we brought you Bobby Jindal and Nikki Haley. Both definitely know better, but their cynicism and ambition know no boundaries.

[janeyre]

09:19 AM on 09/23/2011

Oh Veeve, both of them want to be White... It will never happen though...

[Veeve]

11:50 AM on 09/27/2011

Sadly, I think you are 100% right. There is nothing sadder to me in this world than people who loathe their very skin.

[sids04]

05:56 AM on 09/23/2011

It's time for her to pee in a cup.. She has to be on something.

[numnuts]

05:08 AM on 09/23/2011

Why would anyone vote for this loser? As a taxpayer, I think we should demand that all politicians be drug tested. Who do they think are going to pay for the drug testing of the unemployed? You're all in debt Niki girl.

[Max Load]

04:00 AM on 09/23/2011

How do you spell T-O-O-L? Insult to injury, it's the GOP way.

[Jim Fourniadis]

03:24 AM on 09/23/2011

Yawn.

[Jmaximus Spartacus]

02:13 AM on 09/23/2011

She is the one that needs a drug test, along with an IQ test.

[Lulo]

01:49 AM on 09/23/2011

Savannah River Site is more like a nuclear superfund.

[George Global]

01:02 AM on 09/23/2011

Huge pronouncement...quiet retraction...with caveats.

That's how the republic party works...do the damage with lies and quietly admit the truth.
Keeping hypocrites honest...one silent retraction at a time...thanks republic party people.

[amd02148]

12:38 AM on 09/23/2011

So when Nikki Haley isn't re-elected we should assume it was because she is on drugs?

[pat2 718]

11:26 PM on 09/22/2011

Right wingers claim they're in favor of individual rights but in fact are only in favor of their own rights. They also say they're in favor of small government, but are just fine with using the mechanism of government to attack those they don't like.

[Jmaximus Spartacus]

02:15 AM on 09/23/2011

They only want limited government for the rich and powerful, but are all for the police state for the little people. That's why America is the prison capital of the world.

[Kerry the pizza make]

10:57 PM on 09/22/2011

Nikki didn't mean to suggest that the unemployed are all on drugs. She meant, instead, that they're mentally challenged from vaccines inflicted upon them in middle school. Nikki apologizes for the confusion.