Beebe to Abolish National Guard and Our Kids First

Governor Mike Beebe Explains the Principle Behind "The Beebe Doctrine":

“We are not going to do the federal government’s job or raise taxes on Arkansans for duties they are already paying taxes to the federal government to accomplish,” Governor Mike Beebe is quoted as saying in this Democrat Gazette article this week.

The National Guard is run by the state with a combination of state and federal funds. Since the defense of this country is the job of the Federal government, and Arkansans are already paying taxes to the federal government to do this job, it seems clear that the Arkansas National Guard stands afoul of the Governor's new guiding principle. Our Federal Government has an Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, Coast Guard, and about a dozen quasi-military law-enforcement agencies. Why tax Arkansans again for a national guard to assist those federal organizations to do jobs that the feds are supposed to do?

In the same way, Our Kids First is an Arkansas initiative which overlaps with the federal Medicaid program. It seems to be another instance where the state is augmenting the federal government's efforts with a program of its own. According to the Beebe doctrine, such efforts should not be made.

Of course, Beebe did not actually apply his principle to our partnership efforts with the Federal Government as regards to national defense, nor did he apply it to our partnership efforts with the Federal government for health care for poor children, nor for the partnership effort with the federal government in education. Actually, it seems he only wants his guiding principle to apply only to one narrow area. His scope here was narrowed to law enforcement. He did not want to expend any Arkansas dollars or effort on law enforcement jobs that Arkansans are already paying taxes to the Federal government for.

So does that mean state law enforcement will no longer cooperate on Federal Drug Task Forces? If there is a terrorist suspect around will they not cooperate with the Department of Homeland Security? If one of the FBI's ten most wanted is in Arkansas, will they not aid the FBI in apprehending them?

Well, actually that was not what he meant either. Think narrower. The Governor meant to apply "The Beebe Principle" to only one very narrow area of the already narrow area of law enforcement. He does not want to do ANYTHING to reduce the amount of illegal immigration, as he sees this as the exclusive duty of the Federal government. With every other issue under the sun, he has no problem partnering with the Federal government, or even having a duplicate program that does the same job they are trying to do but better. Only on this single issue- illegal immigration, does the Governor take his stand, promulgate the "Beebe Doctrine", and on principle refuse to lift a finger!

It turns out the State Police have signed up for some federal training in how to recognize fraudulent ID documents, of the type most frequently used by illegal aliens. The press asked the Governor if this meant that the state was going to take advantage of the law passed in 06 which made it legal for state police to enforce federal immigration law via means of a Memorandum of Understanding with ICE. While the law made it legal to do so, nobody in state government has taken advantage of that law and none of them seem to want to do anything.

Beebe about fell over himself explaining that he did not want state law enforcement doing anything about violations of immigration law. Neither did the state police. Spokesman Bill Sadler said that they decided arresting illegal aliens "was a matter best left to federal authorities" and that officers would arrest illegal aliens "only if they have committed a serious crime".

Meanwhile, Oklahoma and other states have begun very successful law enforcement efforts against illegal aliens. While other states are doing it, the powerful illegal alien lobby is still insisting that it can't be done at the state level and that it shouldn't be done. Big businesses like the poultry industry that have successfully depressed wages by using illegal aliens still have more pull in state government than the average citizen who is tired of seeing his/her town overrun with illegal aliens.

So just to recap, the principle behind the "Beebe Doctrine" is not as wide as the headline of this article would indicate. The principle behind the "Beebe Doctrine" is applied only to such a conveniently narrow slice of life that one could fairly conclude that there is in fact no principle behind it at all.