Another Litmus Vote

Last week, a coalition of common sense S.C. lawmakers stripped a big government Trojan Horse of nearly every one of its potentially debilitating planks, a rare fiscal conservative victory in a state known for riding roughshod over the taxpayers’ best interests.

The conservative evisceration of Sen. Hugh Leatherman’s Tax Realignment Commission (TRAC) was not complete, however.

In taking their sledgehammers to this latest example of legislative incompetence, special interest subservience and backdoor “revenue enhancing,” the “Back Row Boys” who are suddenly driving the debate in the S.C. Senate were denied one key victory – a guarantee that Leatherman’s commission not raise taxes.

An amendment that would have accomplished that objective – introduced by Sen. Kevin Bryant (R-Anderson) – failed by one vote.

Which means that if any one of five “Republican” Senators had voted the other way, South Carolina taxpayers would have a little extra protection right now against government jacking taxes in the middle of the worst economic climate maybe ever.

Here are the five GOP Senators who voted against protecting the taxpayers:

Thomas Alexander
Ray Cleary
Ronnie Cromer
Hugh Leatherman
Billy O’Dell

Yup, just click on any one of those names and you can e-mail those Senators directly and tell them exactly what you think of their vote.

We wouldn’t recommend wasting your keystrokes on Leatherman, obviously, but you might consider firing off a missive to Sen. O’Dell, who harbors fantasies of replacing Gresham Barrett as South Carolina’s Third District Representative in the U.S. Congress.

Or Sen. Cromer, who is reportedly contemplating a statwide bit in 2010.

All we can say is “good luck with that” if these Senators keep this sort of left-leaning voting record up.

Seriously, even RINO’s like Luke Rankin, Jake Knotts and John Courson got this vote right … as did Democrat Dick Elliot.

Not surprisingly, South Carolina’s “tax-and-spend” mouthpiece (a.k.a. The State newspaper’s editorial board) is already working hard to rebuild Leatherman’s Trojan Horse – pinning its hopes on big government master craftsman Bobby Harrell.

Taxpayer advocates at the S.C. Club for Growth, on the other hand, are doing the Lord’s work and calling out these Republicans for their ill-advised vote on this amendment, as well as their support of the ongoing failed socialist experiment at our state-run ports system.

Good for them.

Truth is, Alexander, Cleary, Cromer, Leatherman and O’Dell should just switch parties and save everybody the trouble.

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