Brad Warthen thinks her presser was a sign of growth and maturity in the job- kinda sorta taking ownership of the massive tax data hack she let happen on her watch, but Waldo heard nothing but more blather from our own Mini-Mitt.
Back in February Waldo drilled deep to find out from her various statements what Mrs Governor Haley means when she talks about the "core functions of government". It was a tiny, and highly idiosyncratic, list.
Data security, it seems, wasn't a core function of government:
"Could South Carolina have done a better job?" the governor asked, Louis XIV-style.
"Absolutely. We did not do enough."
And, it turns out, data security still isn't a core function of Mrs. Governor Haley's government:
"Mrs. Haley said similar attacks would probably happen in other states if security was not enhanced. She called on the Internal Revenue Service and Congress to adopt new protocols for state tax agencies," The New York Times reported November 21.
Keep in mind this is the potential GOP presidential candidate who declared in August, ""The hardest part of my job continues to be this federal government, this administration and this president."
All she was willing to do was dip in a toe. "Every state needs to be looking at this. It is a new part of any governor's role to make sure this data is secure."
And the way to do that is...to ask the feds to come in and make her government do it right. Just as she has punted the Obamacare state health exchange back to DC. Health care isn't a core function of her government, so let someone else do it for the South Carolinians whose tax money she will still collect and spend on her other priorities.
Very insightful, Waldo. She certainly has no problem with the federal government when it suits her purposes, does she?
ReplyDeleteAllow me to add my two cents, as someone who attended the press conference as an observer:
Haley started the event off by, rather oddly, by stating she had just gotten off the phone with the grandmother of a South Carolina soldier who had been killed in Afghanistan, and she asked that we "life their family up in prayer." The cynic in me finds it odd that Haley would begin a press conference in which she is going to reveal more bad news with something that would attempt to divert media attention.
Haley is obviously now trying to position herself as *the* advocate for cyber security, demanding that the IRS do more and that other states get their acts together. She handed out a letter at the press conference that she had written to the IRS calling for more security of citizens' information, or something along those lines (I didn't read it too closely, having had my fill of propaganda already). This apparently is her attempt to turn her administration's failure to properly secure data of South Carolinians into positive.
She admitted that 5.7 million social security numbers have been compromised, not 3.9 million as earlier stated. This is because her folks are now counting the social security numbers of dependents, rather than just filers. Since anyone who has ever filled out an income tax return and has children knows that you list your children's SSNs, it would seem that Haley's office is either daft or deliberately withheld this bit of information. Of course, it could be both with this bunch.
Finally, when asked what it's costing to upgrade the computer system at the Department of Revenue to keep this from happening again, Haley tried to evade the question, then finally said, and I'm paraphrasing: $160,000 and we've hired six FTEs.
I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt here and assume I simply misunderstood her response, because if this entire fiasco could have been avoided for $160,000 and the hire of half a dozen employees, than Haley herself should be canned.
There were a number of other non-sequiturs thrown out by the governor, but it was hard to keep them all straight. That's the great thing about a Haley press conference - you come away knowing less than when it started.