In case you missed it … don’t worry, you didn’t miss anything.
The S.C. General Assembly didn’t do jack squat this year … well, aside from spending $20.6 billion of your money (the second highest appropriation ever) in the worst budget year on record.
You know, since “times are tough.”
Did we get transparency? No. And as a result, S.C. lawmakers once again voted to approve millions in new spending, recurring programs and new taxes and fees in secret. And if that wasn’t bad enough, this year we learned that the official legislative record of the few votes that these greedy jokers do take on the record can … wait for it … be changed in secret, too.
Moving on …
Did we get a tax cut this year? Of course not. Times were “too tough” on government bureaucracies for hurting taxpayers to get any relief.
What about a spending caps? Nope. That would obviously have interfered with lawmakers doling out all of that debt-exploding “manna from Washington.”
Tort reform? Nope.
Workers’ comp reform? Nope.
Government restructuring? Hell no. In fact, lawmakers actually went backward on restructuring this year, further splintering what’s already one of the weakest executive branches in the nation.
Parental choice? Keep dreaming … for yet another year, South Carolina’s worst-in-the-nation school system (which in this tough budget year is being funded at its highest level ever) will just have to do.
These are just a few of the many reasons why we’re calling the first session of the 118th General Assembly the “do-nothing” legislature, which sadly isn’t the first time we’ve had to use that designation. And probably won’t be the last …
So thank you, Speaker Bobby Harrell. Much obliged, Senate President Glenn McConnell. Here’s looking at you, Senate Finance Chairman Hugh Leatherman. Couldn’t have done it without you, House Ways & Means Chairman Dan “Egg-tooth” Cooper.
Oh, and let’s not forget the cheerleaders, GOP “Majority” Leaders Harvey Peeler and Kenny Bingham, and their little “leadership” helpers, Sen. Mike Fair, Rep. Annette Young, Sen. John Courson, Sen. Paul Campbell, Rep. Alan Clemmons, Rep. Joan Brady, Sen. Jake Knotts, Rep. Bill Sandifer, Rep. Harry Cato, Sen. Thomas Alexander, Rep. Bruce Bannister, Sen. Larry Martin, Rep. Carl Gullick (who doesn’t even live here anymore), Sen. David Thomas, Rep. Nelson Hardwick, Sen. Luke Rankin … and the list of RINOs, sadly, goes on and on and on …
None of these RINO lawmakers (or dozens of others like them) lifted a finger for businesses, taxpayers or parents this year.
Not a damn one of them … not one damn finger.
All they did was pump a bunch of money into the same old failed programs – money that won’t be there in two years, at which point they’ll come back and (re)pimp the politics of fear – conveniently neglecting the fact that there was (is, and will always be) more than enough money to perform government’s core functions.
Anyway, while most of these “Republican” leaders have had the good sense to keep quiet following such an abysmal session, Harrell – fresh off of one of the biggest defeats of his career (and one of the costliest ever for taxpayers) – took pen to paper to try and put a good face on things.
Here, in its entirety, is Harrell’s Sendero Luminoso:
Dear Friends,
Times are tough. But from the beginning of this legislative session, the South Carolina House Republican Caucus has been committed to growing South Carolina’s economy, creating jobs and making government more efficient.
That’s why I’m writing you today.
In 2009, House Republicans passed legislation that would prevent voter fraud, safeguard religious freedom in South Carolina, reduce cumbersome red tape regulation of small businesses, protect the unborn and protect workers’ rights against big labor bosses. I am proud of these accomplishments and others.
As you know, this year marked one of the most difficult budget years our state has ever faced. Hardworking families across South Carolina are feeling the pinch. And like any family, House Republicans prioritized our state budget and made responsible fiscal decisions that reflect our conservative values.
House Republicans were determined to balance the budget – and do so by cutting government spending instead of raising taxes. That’s precisely what we did by cutting waste and increasing efficiencies, even as Democrats fought us tooth and nail.
We took other measures to save taxpayers across South Carolina. By adjourning early and taking 5 additional furlough weeks, the House saved taxpayers over $400,000. This – combined with a hiring freeze, staff furloughs and salary cuts, printing cost reductions, utilization of Internet services, and many other cost saving measures – greatly reduced operating costs and saved taxpayers well over $1 million.
I would be remiss if I didn’t address the debate surrounding the so-called stimulus bill that passed the Democrat Congress. A vast majority of House Republicans strongly opposed the ‘so-called’ stimulus bill. If I’d been in Congress, I would’ve joined our Republican congressional delegation in voting against it. But the fact remains that it passed, and lawmakers decided to utilize these funds marked for education and law enforcement instead of sending South Carolina’s money to other states because our citizens would have to pay it back either way.
Many of us thought the idea of paying off debt was a good one, but we have been told twice in writing from Washington that would not be allowed, and our money would end up going to other states if we did not use it in the budget. That’s why we chose to use it primarily for education and law enforcement.
Because of our actions our students will have teachers in their classrooms, police will remain on the streets and prisoners will stay behind bars. With South Carolinians responsible for the repayment of this money, we owed it to our students, teachers, police officers and citizens to make this responsible decision.
I look forward to hearing from you. Your voice drives debate in Columbia. Please don’t hesitate to contact me anytime I can be of assistance.
Sincerely,
Bobby Harrell
Speaker, S.C. House of Representatives
(look for lightning strikes in the Charleston, S.C. area tonight, incidentally …)
Yeah … Bobby strenuously objected to the “stimulus,” didn’t he? He couldn’t stand the thought of all that reckless, irresponsible “stimulus” money being dropped into his pack-n-play, could he?
That big, bad, socialist “stimulus” – he wanted nothing to do with it, right?
In a word? “Whatever.”
Harrell looked at that stimulus with all the restraint of a lioness about to pounce … and devour.
In fact, the “stimulus” is not unlike dozens of other big spending, Democratic ideas that Harrell and his fellow RINOs voted for … err sorry, “fought tooth and nail against” during the legislative session.
The bills Harrell references – with the exception of the right-to-work bill – are meaningless. Look at the roll call votes on vetoes to see where these politicians really stand with respect to your money.
Trust us, it’s one of the few times all year that the mask gets peeled back on these buffoons – which is one reason they hate Gov. Mark Sanford with such an abiding passion. And while Sanford may not win many fights, but he exposes the “victors” for what they are – which is something that’s desperately needed in this state.
Seriously, if you believe even a single word of this massive pile of vomit that Harrell just blasted out to kingdom come, odds are you live in a room with padded walls and haven’t eaten anything buy PB&J in years …
Sheesh.
Like we say everytime this guy steps to the mike, careful not to step in the “Harrell …”
By Liberty May 29, 2009 at 5:23 pm
typical from this guy.
Palmetto State Pharmecuiticals anyone?
Bobby Harrell #fail
By Gen. Longstreet May 29, 2009 at 5:35 pm
The two gentlemen seem a bit wee in stature. What is the scale, sir? I am guessing 1″ = 1′. Correct?
By CNSYD May 29, 2009 at 7:32 pm
Buffoon Sanford gets what he deserves. In ALL legislative bodies you have to talk and make compromises. Sanford thinks he is absolute ruler of the kingdom and all his wishes must be obeyed. What a jerk. BTW all these folk you are complaining about will be reelected by large margins because their home folk like the job they do. Surprise, surprise they are not there to please you.
By Ron May 29, 2009 at 7:56 pm
Will,
The SC Policy Council reported today that “the 2009 General Assembly voted anonymously 75% of the time”. As we all know, 25% transparency is an F. The SC General Assembly flunked transparency in 09. Hopefully our “conservative General Assembly” will find a way to pass this test in 2010. Then again, if we’re 49th in education, our General Assembly may be a reflection of this dismal performance. The SC General Assembly’s rank in transparency is about the same as in education, DEAD LAST. Apparently our lawmakers believe that “WHAT THE VOTERS DON’T KNOW WON’T HURT THEM”. WE THE PEOPLE OF SC are counting on our lawmakers in the General Assembly to give us more transparency next session, NOT LESS! Obviously their on the record voting rules were largely ignored. FELLOW SOUTH CAROLINIANS WE MUST DEMAND THAT OUR LAWMAKERS CODIFY STRICTER RECORDED VOTING STANDARDS INTO LAW NEXT SESSSION.
Sincere thanks,
Ron Turner
We The People of SC
By marvin May 29, 2009 at 9:16 pm
These guys are so darn cute together!
By Rafe Hollister May 29, 2009 at 9:24 pm
Will, you certainly appear to be an angry young man or did Marky Mark ghost write this for you? Your list of grievances looks like it came from a Sawyer press release. Tort Reform?–DONE a couple of years ago.
Workers Comp Reform?—DONE in 2007. Government Restructuring?—its demise can be linked directly to MS’s crappy—make that nonexistent
relationship with 90% of the General Assembly–in 2011 it will be signed into law by Mark’s successor. Parental Choice —-have you stopped to consider maybe there’s just no overwhelming desire by our state’s parents for this effort to move forward? This rant is somewhat uncharacteristic for you. I wouldn’t get my hopes up for next year either after Mark’s stimulus stunt. Getting 10-12 votes in the Senate and 18-20 in the House will never come close to making a dent.
By BIN News Editorial Staff May 29, 2009 at 10:45 pm
sic(k) willie,
If you Google for the reason SC limits the power of its gub’ner you’ll find a picture of markie mark sanfraud.
He’s working hard to be personally responsible for a Brazillion percentage jump in unemployment in S.C. as school districts lay off teachers.
And that would make Howie and his voucher scam carpetbuggers so happy.
Thanks heavens for Speaker Harrell, Senate President McConnell, Senate Finance Chairman Leatherman, House Ways & Means Chairman Cooper, GOP Majority Leaders Peeler and Bingham, and Sen. Fair, Rep. Young, Sen. Courson, Sen. Campbell, Rep. Clemmons, Rep. Brady, Sen. Jake “Midlands’ Elected Official” Knotts, Rep. Sandifer, Rep. Cato, Sen. Alexander, Rep. Bannister, Sen. Martin, Rep. Gullick, Sen. Thomas, Rep. Hardwick, Sen. Rankin … and all of their supporters. Keep up the good work!
BIN News Editorial Staff
Flair and Balanced
By liz May 30, 2009 at 7:23 am
South Carolina is also subsidizing fraudulent Medicare Part D accounts.
By statehouse watcher May 30, 2009 at 7:58 am
Damn, those two guys should get a room. This just in: a picture of the two taken about 15 seconds later has Hugh bending Bobby over his senate desk.
By elroy jetson May 30, 2009 at 10:03 am
That would be “Raif” Hollister
By CNSYD May 30, 2009 at 10:21 am
State government restructuring under BMW Campbell lumped professional regulatory boards into a jumbled up mess. As a result investigation of fradulent practice has gone to about zero. Witness what happened on Wall Street when regulation was removed. So why then do we want MORE restructuring, putting all your eggs in the Governor’s basket?
By marvin May 30, 2009 at 1:44 pm
No, CNSYD. Just a real separation of powers. Democracy isn’t about one branch deciding if it likes the governor enough to give him/her more power. It is about checks and balances. The legislature controls every aspect of government, from legislating to executing to interpreting. You happen to like the big-government crowd in charge now, but what if you didn’t? Then you’d hope there was an executive branch to keep them in check.
Corruption happens when one body has all the power. I don’t care who the governor is or the Speaker, as long as there is always power in the hands of the public to change the system. Can’t do that in our state, period.
By CNSYD May 30, 2009 at 2:56 pm
Marvin those changes were put in years ago. In the “old days” three people ran the state. Edgar Brown, Sol Blatt and whoever was Governor. The rules were changed and it ain’t that way anymore. My point is this. Each profession used to have its own regulatory board who in turn paid for its activities thru licensure fees. They also had their own dedicated investigators and attorneys. In the false name of restructuring BMW Campbell talked the legislators into combining all these boards into a huge bureaucracy known as LLR. No longer did the boards have their own attorney or investigators. They went into a pool. An investigator may be investigating barbers one day and architects the next. But the real thing Campbell wanted was the money which now is folded into the general fund. You want more of this? Less regulation did wonders on Wall Street didn’t it?
By marvin May 30, 2009 at 3:19 pm
CNSYD — I agree 100% about Campbell. His “economic development” plan was not anything like a free market economic strategy. It was just the opposite. It was government subsidizing a big company, essentially paying BMW to come here out of the pockets of small businesses. Agreed. As for Wall Street, etc….the reason we are in this mess is because government meddled in the economy too much, not too little.
I want a separation of powers that provides checks and balances at all levels. Let the governor run LLR. Let the legislature audit it anytime it wants. And vice-versa. The real issue is why in the hell we have anyone paid to investigate barbers…unless they are doing something illegal, who the hell cares whether they are cutting hair in a state-mandated fashion? Any law that ever gets passed that creates a bureacracy is the result of the legislature. Hell, those guys control most of the boards with their appointees anyway!
I want the public to be able to hold lawmakers accountable for bad laws, tax increases, etc. I want the public to hold the governor accountable for a badly run state government. That is democracy. Not perfect, but better than anything else that has ever been tried.
By CNSYD May 30, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Marvin, while I agree with you on barbers, I would never agree on architects, accountants, engineers, doctors, dentists, etc. I used barbers to show the ridiculous nature of the “pool” system. Audits by the legislature probably will not work as they will be too uneven and can be stalled by the group being audited. To my knowledge the vast majority of, if not all, appointees to regulatory boards are made by the Governor.
By Rafe Hollister May 30, 2009 at 10:36 pm
The biggest improvement at LLR with the consolidation of professional agencies is the sharp decrease in “boondoggle” trips and conventions
that most of the “commissioners” used to take advantage of on the public dime. Also, if you were paying attention you would have heard that LLR had nearly $40 million in carry forward funds this year (that’s about a year’s worth of funding)
PS–To elroy jetson: it is “Rafe” Pls check IMDB or mayberry.com.
By BIN News Editorial Staff May 31, 2009 at 12:25 am
Ron, Your “We The People” group can have a state meeting in a phone booth and still have room for a cash bar, jukebox and three stools. What a joke.
By Just the Facts Ma'am May 31, 2009 at 7:19 am
Let’s not forget the delays brought on by the Gang of 12 in the back rows of the senate. Their temper tantrums and delaying tactics brought an end to debate on serious issues so that social issues would reign. Funny how they get overlooked when fingers start pointing….
By CNSYD May 31, 2009 at 10:22 am
Rafe, the professional board of which I am most familar used to always operate in the black and was efficiently run. Now the fees they take in go the general fund and they have to beg for the budget they get. They no longer get to choose their employees. They are sent from central casting no matter how unsuitable they may be. The so called boondoggles are the twice a year meetings of the 50 state boards of like regulation. It is 2-3 days of sessions to bring everyone up to date on problems and solutions. One thing hasn’t changed. Governors still appoint members based on their party. Do you choose the professionals you hire that way?