Way To Go, “Republicans”
LET’S NOT PAT OURSELVES ON THE BACK OVER THE STATE BUDGET JUST YET
FITSNews - March 14, 2008 - Members of South Carolina’s GOP Caucus have been high-fiving themselves all week after passing a budget that allegedly “cuts” state spending by 4.5% … like we’re supposed to ignore the massive explosion in government growth that they saddled our state with over the last three years.
Since that government boom effectively crippled our state economy, legislators simply don’t have the revenue to blow this year that they’ve had in years past, and we refuse to give credit to these idiots for ”showing restraint” when it comes to not spending money that doesn’t exist.
Yet lost within the “numbers game” that House Republicans are attempting to play with their newly-minted state budget is a much bigger, more important question. Specifically, what should (and shouldn’t) government be spending your money on? And buried deep within that debate - hiding beneath the dozens of roll call votes that took place on the House floor this week - we found a particularly revealing example of just how far many South Carolina “Republicans” have strayed from their duty to the taxpayers of this state.
During the entirely ceremonial debate on the budget this week, State Rep. Thad Viers put up an amendment that would have prohibited public funds from going to pay for a public school district’s dues to the S.C. School Boards Association, a so-called “private” group which as of yesterday’s ethics filings pays the salaries of two full-time lobbyists.
Similar to the point raised in a lawsuit filed this week against another so-called “private” group - one that also uses taxpayer funds to lobby the legislature - Viers’ amendment was all about drawing a line in the sand.
Simply put, should our tax dollars go to pay for a group that is clearly advancing a narrow (not to mention failed) political agenda? Or should that money be spent on something more important, or better yet, given back to the taxpayers?
Unfortunately, twenty-five “Republicans” voted to continue allowing our tax dollars to fund the misleading political operations of the S.C. School Boards Association.
And since we’ve got unlimited “column inches” and aren’t afraid to call people out, here’s a list of those twenty-five “Republican” legislators:
Kenny Bingham
Don Bowen
Joan Brady
Harry Cato
Dan Cooper
Bill Cotty
Tom Dantzler
Mike Gambrell
Carl Gullick
Glenn Hamilton
Davey Hiott
Keith Kelly
Bob Leach
Lanny Littlejohn
Jay Lucas
Joe Mahaffey
Skipper Perry
Gene Pinson
Bill Sandifer
B.R. Skelton
Don Smith
Garry Smith
Roland Smith
Adam Taylor
Bill Whitmire
Way to go, guys. And in case it isn’t obvious at this point, “way to go” is intended to be sarcastic.
Comments
By Janus on March 14th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
Well, Glenn’s retiring, of course his son Dan will be running for his seat. How far did the apple fall from the tree?
By Mr. Blackwell on March 14th, 2008 at 9:01 pm
None of these “Republicans’” votes surprise me except for Garry Smith. He’s usually a very solid conservative but absolutely wrong on this issue.
I do not want my tax dollars paying for lobbyists whose sole job it is to get more of my tax dollars every year for their clients, be it one of the many school beaurocracy groups, city governments, any state agency and on and on.
Sanford is right on this issue. Jim Merrill used to push to ban taxpayer funded lobbyists, but hasn’t seemed to really stand up for much reform in awhile.
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