Bill O'Reilly Blames Addicts for Hawaii's Debt

Fox News host Bill O'Reilly has been making some dubious on-air claims [below] about why the state of Hawaii is in debt. "Hawaii is one of my favorite places in the world. It's beautiful," he declared on The O'Reilly Factor last night. "But the state is in enormous debt." And the reason for that? "...a lot of social problems. When you says it's the biggest homeless thing, it's because of the addiction." He claimed, "The addiction is rampant, all over the place, because they don't enforce the drug laws." And this apparently surprises him—for a rather surprising reason: "you know what's shocking? 35% of the Hawaiian population is Asian, and Asian people are not liberal, you know, by nature. They're usually more industrious and hard-working." While O'Reilly's stereotyping of Asians, for one thing, is highly questionable, it is true that Hawaii ranks among the top 10 states for illicit drug use. The DEA ended helicopter pot eradication when Hawaiian citizens—Asians included—voted in November to make marijuana the lowest priority for law enforcement. But when it comes to discussion of the state's debt, the blame more typically falls on either high tax rates or excessive state employee benefit plans.