BENTON -- Calling Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. a person who "caused people to make a choice," Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Monday that the best leaders make tough decisions.
"Great leaders inspire people to act, to make a choice," Hutchinson said. "The greatest leaders that we have are not always the most popular leaders."
Hutchinson faces several key moments in his second week as Arkansas governor. He will give a speech on healthcare Thursday in which he's expected to announce what he will do with the state's "private option" plan using federal dollars to buy insurance for Arkansas' poor. He will also present his budget proposal this week.
More than 200,000 Arkansans are insured under the "private option," but several Republicans elected to this year's Legislature campaigned on a promise to repeal it.
Reauthorizing the plan requires at least three-fourths support of the House and the Senate.
Speaking to a Martin Luther King Day audience in Benton, the Republican governor did not discuss healthcare or the budget, and he did not take questions afterward.
Instead, he touted his tax-cut plan currently in the Arkansas Senate and his proposal to add computer science education in every high school in the state.
"How many of you know how to write computer code?" Hutchinson said. "How many of you would like to learn how to write computer code? If it was offered in your high school, would any of you take computer science?"
Hutchinson also described the unpopularity faced at times by both President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush. He worked for the Bush administrator first as Drug Enforcement Administration administrator and then an undersecretary in the Department of Homeland Security.
"You look at President Obama," Hutchinson said. "You can agree or disagree with his leadership, but he has caused people to make choices, and to act. And it has caused his poll numbers to go down. History will judge whether these are good decisions or not."
State Desk on 01/20/2015