COLUMBIA (WACH) - Governor Nikki Haley walked away from reporters Thursday after a Budget and Control Board meeting that lasted less than a half hour.
Haley didn't answer questions about an executive order she signed in March creating a commission to study implementing federal healthcare reform in South Carolina.
In an email to her staff a few weeks later Haley wrote: "The whole point of this commission should be to figure out how to opt out, and how to avoid a federal takeover, not create a state (health care) exchange."
"All these people who gave all these hundreds of hours of time to coming and having discussions about things and it turns out all of that was a sham,” said President of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber Frank Knapp.
Knapp says the federal government could ask the state to repay the grant money, if it wasn’t used for its intended purpose.
Haley’s actions appear to contradict what she said behind closed doors. Shortly before her inauguration she directed health and human services director Tony Keck to find "conservative solutions" to implement federal health care reform.
Haley Spokesman Rob Godfrey told WACH-Fox in an email, the governor couldn't answer questions from the media Thursday because she had another meeting to get to.
Also on Thursday, South Carolina Democrats lashed out at the governor in a youtube video chronicling what they call her failures during her first year in office.
“After only one year, Republican Nikki Haley has embarrassed the state with her lies, misrepresentations, and law breaking,” said party chairman Dick Harpootlian.
The video parodied a video released earlier this week by the Haley camp which highlighted the numerous job announcements made in South Carolina since Gov. Haley took office last January.
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