The Rapid City Journal is reporting that South Dakota Governor Dennis Daugaard was in Rapid City to “defend” the Northern Beef scandal.

Gov. Dennis Daugaard told a group of Rapid City dignitaries Monday that the state has not been actively soliciting any new EB-5 investor money since September.

Elements of South Dakota’s EB-5 program — which allows foreign investors green cards if they invest $500,000 into new or expanding businesses — has been under investigation by state and federal authorities.

It is interesting that, if claims that nothing wrong was done in the Northern Beef/EB-5 scandal, the EB-5 program has been on ice since this scandal broke in September.

Daugaard said the state invested between $2 million and $3 million in grant and loan money in the Northern Beef packing plant in Aberdeen that it did not get back.

But the governor called the shuttered Aberdeen slaughterhouse, an EB-5 project that cost about $100 million, largely from investors, a vital addition to the state despite the fallout over the immigration investment funding.

“I see that plant as a very important move in our economic development efforts,” he said, adding later, “having no slaughter plant in South Dakota makes no sense at all.”

I agree that more business in the state is a good thing. But is it really the role of government to invest between $2 million and $3 million of the taxpayer’s money to start a business? I thought Republicans understood that it is the role of private interests to start a business, and that the best thing government can do is create a clean regulatory and tax environment to facilitate economic development. Apparently many “Republicans” do NOT know this.

Some of Governor Daugaard’s “doubts” were also telling:

Daugaard said, however, that he isn’t sure that the EB-5 program should be used to fund new development.

“I’m not sure whether we need to go to foreign sources to get (funding),” he said. “But I don’t think we should exclude it, necessarily.”

The governor also conceded that his New South Dakotans initiative, which was established to lure new workers to the state, had not panned out as expected. The plan, which cost the state about $1 million, was intended to bring 1,000 new workers to South Dakota but only attracted about 100.

“It didn’t work out as well as we thought,” he said after the luncheon.

It would seem that recent events have forced Daugaard to reconsider the wisdom of funneling foreign money around to fund economic development in South Dakota…though perhaps not strongly enough, since he still isn’t willing to rule it out. Let’s hope he gives it more thought, as well as more thought to spending the taxpayer’s money on private business investments that never should have been made in the first place.

This isn’t the only time the taxpayers have been on the hook for failed boondoggles in South Dakota. The Knight & Carver manufacturing plant in Howard, SD shut down after receiving hundreds of thousands of dollars from the state; here the state was involved with another troubled enterprise. Nor is this the first time we’ve had problems with the EB-5 program and foreign investors.

While Mike Rounds was governor when the Northern Beef/EB-5 scandal events were taking place, Dennis Daugaard was Lt. Governor. So while Daugaard was certainly in a position to know what was going on,

it is really U.S. Senate Candidate Mike Rounds who should be answering for this mess.

Out of this debacle, we have money from communist Chinese, a loss for the taxpayers of South Dakota, half a million dollars improperly diverted, double-billing travel expenses, and the suspicious death of Richard Benda, Secretary of Tourism and State Development and loan monitor for Northern Beef Packers under Mike Rounds. A state investigation has ruled his death a suicide, but many people find it extremely curious that Benda supposedly chose to commit suicide by shooting himself in the stomach–not the head or chest, but in the stomach–with a shotgun, using a stick to push the trigger. This is far from a normal method of suicide, and it leads reasonable people to ask whether he committed suicide over the embarrassment of this scandal…or was silenced by someone with a lot to lose over it.

Of course, the Mike Rounds campaign blog is busy spinning any calls to find out what really happened (especially when they come from Republicans who believe in Republican principles) to smear those who are calling for answers.

I am a Republican, and have been since I was a teenager. You will have to look hard to find someone who more staunchly defends Republican values and principles than I. Will Democrats try to spin this to their political advantage? Of course. But we, the Republican Party, gave them the opening by betraying Republican principles and playing fast and loose with the taxpayer’s interest. The leaders of our party brought this mess upon us and on the people of South Dakota by failing to act responsibly and failing to exercise restraint.

When you have millions of the taxpayer’s dollars going down the toilet, investments from communist Chinese, and the suspicious death of a former state official, the people of South Dakota deserve to know the facts–and they deserve to know the truth without the cloud of political insider cover-ups hovering over everything. With the way the political establishment has closed ranks and erected a wall of silence over this whole affair, we won’t be able to have that clarity and lack of doubt until we hear from a thorough independent investigation.

Have you ever been around a meat plant, especially in warmer weather? They often put off quite a stench…as the Northern Beef plant currently is.

This enterprise also seems it was not only intended as a slaughterhouse for cattle, but a slaughterhouse for Republican principles and integrity.

Republicans should know that it is not the role of government to pick winners and losers in the business community.

Republicans should know that it is not the role of government to help businesses with taxpayer money, but rather to simply get government out of the way (i.e. regulation and heavy taxes) of people and businesses.

Republicans should know better than to get involved with a communist regime that oppresses its own people.

Republicans should know better, but it seems few do anymore.

*** Bob Ellis *** Is a conservative writer and Life and Liberty News contributor

More commentary from Bob Ellis can be seen daily on the American Clarion