S.C. exports are not as rosy as Mulvaney reports

U.S. Rep. Mick Mulvaney’s recent article  (Sept. 7 Carolina Gateway) is yet another example of partisanship at its best.
The dictionary defines the word “partisan” as “one exhibiting blind, prejudiced and unreasoning allegiance.” Our politicians are partisan at the expense of you and me and they have allegiance to only their party, again at our expense.
Our two-party system creates partisanship because a politician must be loyal to their respective party. Most Americans don’t have the personal finances, resources or power to run without party support. Parties have organization, power, resources and money. It is almost impossible to get elected or re-elected unless you have the financial backing and resources of a party. So our politicians resort to partisanship to get elected and remain in office.
I was born, raised and educated in the Low Country of South Carolina. I now live in the 5th District. My father was a first-generation American, but my mother immigrated from Eastern Europe.
They were successful in instilling in me a deep love for the United States and an appreciation of the freedoms we have. My mother in particular told me the horror she lived through as a child and what her parents had to endure just to survive.
They both stressed my freedom to receive an education, to think for myself, the right to vote my mind and to serve my country. We do not have to follow people who do not have our best interests at heart.
Mr. Mulvaney’s update on the state of South Carolina and the nation disturbs me, not because of what he says, but what he doesn’t say.
Parenthetically, this is standard fare for politicians. That is why it is important for each of us to know the facts and make decisions that are good for us and the nation and not to follow blindly one party or person. History shows that this has portended badly for those countries who failed to take politicians to task and followed them blindly.
In Mr. Mulvaney’s update, he leads us to believe that South Carolina is making great progress with exports. He spends the largest part of his update explaining that “we are doing a great job with exports.” He states that “You’d be hard pressed to find another part of the state’s economy the grew by 23 percent last year.”
The 23 percent increase he referenced was U.S. Census Bureau data representing an increase of S.C. export dollars from 2009 to 2010. Those dollars do not necessarily represent South Carolina jobs.
They represent the dollar value of items exported (originated movement) from South Carolina to the rest of the world, regardless of where they were produced.
The Census Bureau is careful to warn the reader that this doesn’t represent items made in South Carolina. It does represent the amount moved from the state to the world.
Every state in the union, except Arkansas, reported similar data from 2009 to 2010.
Most states grew as much or more than South Carolina. We were somewhere in the middle of the pack, with percentages ranging from single digits to more than 50 percent.
Another way to view South Carolina’s export position is as a percentage of total U.S. exports. In 2007, South Carolina moved 1.4 percent of all U.S. exports. In 2008, it was 1.5 percent; 2009, 1.6 percent; and, in 2010, 1.6 percent. That does not show significant growth, relative to the rest of the United States.
Mr. Mulvaney, please explain why you take credit for improving our jobs and state exports by using data to your advantage. Are you giving us the real picture? Is this a public relations move to make us think we are benefitting from your representation?
It appears the state has only maintained its overall export position relative to the United Sates. I don’t see the rosy picture you paint.  
By the way, early in this article, I purposely tried to mislead the reader into believing that I have lived in South Carolina my entire life. I haven’t lived in the state for many years and only recently returned. Without clarification, my personal history could be misleading. That is a small example of how our politicians play with words to possibly mislead some readers.

Leroy Rosenberg is an Indian Land  
resident.