These are some recent headlines: “Too many poor people in our state.” “12.5 unemployment.” “28 percent have incomes below the poverty line.” All of this “in a state as poor as South Carolina.” I could go on and on about education and our low ranking in the country.

What are our political leaders in Columbia and Washington doing? They are going to fight another losing battle over health care. How many losing battles have they fought over the years? Is there a correlation between these losing battle fights and our beloved state ranking about 45th to 50th on so many things?

In Washington, our leaders are introducing a bill to repeal the new health care reform law. In Columbia, the leaders there are expending their energy to have the law declared unconstitutional. Jim Underwood, a retired professor of law from the University of South Carolina says, “That don’t seem to work when a state tries to declare federal laws unconstitutional and interpose their will on federal law at the state borders.” Charlie Fried, Attorney General for President Reagan, says it best about our Washington and Columbia leaders: “Ignorant. Deeply ignorant or just grand-standing in a preposterous way. A political ploy, and a pathetic one at that. They have zero chance of success.”

So here we go again. Expend all our energies on fighting another losing battle. Have we ever won one? I can’t recall one. Not one. Going back many years.

Our leaders fight losing battles and don’t appear to understand what our problems are. We have an unemployment problem. They attack the unemployed. We have a Medicaid cost problem. They attack those with incomes below the poverty level which qualifies them for Medicaid. They drive a wedge between the people of this state to win the next election.

How about some positive leadership toward more jobs, higher incomes? The people of this state deserve better. Couldn’t we rank in the top 10 percent on something? Perhaps if our politicians would stop fighting losing battles and spend those tax dollars fighting for jobs, better education, and opportunities for all, our state wouldn’t be ranked 45th to 50th in most important areas.

Lastly, Senators Graham and DeMint now have all the answers to health care reform. All politicians agree it is broken. My question is “Where were you, Sirs, when you controlled both houses of Congress for 12 years and 8 of those you controlled the White House? Just what did you do about health care reform when you could have fixed it your way? Could you not have achieved that expending the same energies you now expend fighting this losing battle.”

Clarence C. Gibson, Jr. is a retired textile executive.