Haley Still Won't Confirm Re-Election Plans, Slams Obamacare

While it’s all but a foregone conclusion that she’ll seek re-election—she did raise more than $600,000 last quarter and has more than $2 million in her campaign account—Gov. Nikki Haley said she still hasn’t decided for certain whether or not she’ll stay in the public eye.

At a media availability after a tour of FN Manufacturing in Columbia, Haley said she considers herself a mother first to two children and noted that her husband is deployed overseas and that her parents are aging.

FN is a manufacturer of guns and as part of the tour Haley confirmed that she did fire guns and take target practice. She joked that she imagined a lot of different targets but that it was in fact blank.

Haley extolled the improving business climate in the state, particularly for manufacturers and said, “We tell companies that if they come to South Carolina they don’t have to conform the workforce, the workforce will conform to them.”

The governor said FN has a partnership with Midlands Technical College to help train employees and, in some cases, will pay for classes to help employees improve their skills.

Haley also discussed Obamacare, the exchange for which will launch on Oct 1. Earlier this week, the second largest provider of individual insurance in South Carolina announced it would stop doing business in the state on Dec. 31 as a result of Obamacare.

“The conversations states are having about health care is that it is too fast and too heavy,” Haley said. “What government is not good at is pushing something through when it’s not practical. There is a reason why they have to solve the employer mandate. There is a reason why I think they’re going to have to install the individual mandate. This is going to fall under its own weight.”

Haley said that one of the problems with Obamacare is that it was a “closed-minded process, an 'our way or no way' situation. They forced everyone to go along.”