SC

South Carolina’s “Secret Squirrel” Caucus

THE WEEK THAT CHANGED HOW SOUTH CAROLINA BUDGETS ARE WRITTEN …  || By FITSNEWS ||  Last week was a bad one for S.C. Rep. Bruce Bannister.   The “Republican” majority leader was widely blamed for failing to keep GOP troops in line during a chaotic budget battle in the S.C. House…

THE WEEK THAT CHANGED HOW SOUTH CAROLINA BUDGETS ARE WRITTEN … 

|| By FITSNEWS ||  Last week was a bad one for S.C. Rep. Bruce Bannister.   The “Republican” majority leader was widely blamed for failing to keep GOP troops in line during a chaotic budget battle in the S.C. House of Representatives.  As a result, many lawmakers are speculating as to whether he will soon be out of a job.

Also taking some flak?  Newly elected S.C. Speaker of the House Jay Lucas … who was chided by several House Democrats for taking a “hands-off” approach to the budget battle, choosing to let his caucus battle it out.

Are those criticisms fair?

Eh … after doing some extensive digging, we’ve uncovered a far more compelling culprit for the implosion: The so-called “Secret Squirrel” caucus.

Wait … huh?

What in the hell is the “Secret Squirrel” caucus?  And how can something with such a ridiculous-sounding name be responsible for anything other than giggles?  Or a future date as roadkill in the middle of a poorly maintained Palmetto highway?

Glad you asked: According to our sources, the “Secret Squirrel” caucus is the name given to S.C. House ways and means chairman Brian White and his budget subcommittee leaders – including “Republican” lawmakers Kenny Bingham, Chip LimehouseJimmy Merrill, Mike Pitts and Murrell Smith.

Why “Secret Squirrel?”

“Because they hide the nuts,” one lawmaker explained, referring to specific spending items tucked away within the state’s $25.7 billion (at last estimate) spending plan.  “And they hide them well.”

Not so well lately, though …

In years past, White and his fellow budget writers could count on their spending plans sailing through the full S.C. House.  Most of the specific negotiations took place at the committee level (well, behind closed doors prior to committee hearings, to be precise).  That meant budget week – the week the budget got “debated” on the floor of the S.C. House – was nothing but carefully orchestrated political theater (watched by a handful of “reporters” and a few hundred people on state-run television).

This year?  Things got out of hand.

Lawmakers tell FITS White and his “Secret Squirrels” blindsided them with a $500 million bond proposal – one which quickly drew a veto threat from S.C. governor Nikki Haley.  The governor – who has been spoiling for a fight with lawmakers this session – has previously supported such deficit spending, but this year she’s got her eye on the national stage and is eager to position herself to the right of the House on fiscal issues.

The bond proposal gave her precisely such an opportunity … and the failure of the “Squirrels” to share their plan with the rank-and-file provided her with plenty of willing soldiers.

“The half billion dollar bond bill no one knew about until a few days before the budget,” one lawmaker explained to FITS.

Another lawmaker told FITS rank-and-file “Republican” members were so upset they would have voted down the bond proposal even if it was ex-governor Mark Sanford making a stink over it.

“Haley is getting all the credit but she may have actually cost us a few votes with her grandstanding,” the lawmaker said.

Whoever gets the credit, the end result is much bigger than just $500 million worth of deficit spending being cut from a $25.7 billion budget.

The budget process in the Palmetto State will never be the same, lawmakers say.

“The days of ways and means’ budgets just sailing through the House are over,” one lawmaker told us bluntly.  “That will never happen again.”

Good …

As far as we’re concerned, the more debate on a spending plan – the better.

***

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43 comments

just another guy March 16, 2015 at 3:33 pm

What is this, Big Brother 17?

Reply
Cocky March 16, 2015 at 4:40 pm

It’s SC. With the level of incest there, calling it Big Brother is kind of redundant.

Reply
GrandTango March 16, 2015 at 4:05 pm

Illuminati…Secretly, they are everywhere…..

Yet the Liberals bend FITS and screw him in plain sight…and we hear not a whimper…LMAO…

Reply
Dick Cheney March 16, 2015 at 4:32 pm

What’s the polar opposite of the Illuminati? That’s GT & Flip’s group.

Reply
GrandTango March 16, 2015 at 5:04 pm

What the example of a simple-minded lemming?….You…

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Emily Peterkin March 16, 2015 at 6:40 pm

Your alter ego??

Reply
Fake Girlfriend March 16, 2015 at 4:43 pm

Not that you ever have, but whimpering probably would be the sound you would associate with getting screwed.

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GrandTango March 16, 2015 at 5:03 pm

Dumb@$$ much?

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GT's last brain cell March 16, 2015 at 5:13 pm

Yes, you do dumb@$$ much. Like, all the fucking time!

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Emily Peterkin March 16, 2015 at 6:40 pm

Yeah, notice the hat we got in first grade?

Reply
NWO March 16, 2015 at 4:44 pm

Are you drunk again?

Reply
GrandTango March 16, 2015 at 5:00 pm

Vapid much?

Reply
Popov March 16, 2015 at 5:14 pm

That’s a yes. Wonder what cheap, shitty ass booze he drinks?

Reply
Emily Peterkin March 16, 2015 at 6:41 pm

No, I would say trite…

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DrunkTango March 16, 2015 at 6:57 pm

Is he ever not drunk?

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snickering March 16, 2015 at 4:55 pm

You can’t hear a whimper because of your huffing and puffing noises when you slip the tiny pickle in. OOOPPS sorry I told your secret but some of the women at the Beauty Salon were joking about it.

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GrandTango March 16, 2015 at 5:00 pm

Why do you even try if this is the best you can do…???….Sometimes being quiet at least leaves people guessing. You leave no doubt…

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Mirror March 16, 2015 at 5:15 pm

If you could only follow your own advice?

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GrandTango March 16, 2015 at 5:19 pm

Have you EVER posted an original though?
I post MANY and often…If you have NOTHING but stupidity… or just copying what I said about you…why do you even try? It makes you all look like the idiots you are…

Mirror March 16, 2015 at 6:35 pm

(Blank) much? Is not very original.

New Material Much? March 16, 2015 at 6:59 pm

He thinks it makes him witty, it took him a long time to come up with this one so let him live the dream for a little while.

Emily Peterkin March 16, 2015 at 6:35 pm

You do post often…

euwe max March 16, 2015 at 8:57 pm

LMAO! hahahahaha

GrandTango March 17, 2015 at 5:29 am

Weak-minded.

euwe max March 17, 2015 at 7:25 am

You got my point

GrandTango March 17, 2015 at 8:14 am

About the ONLY point that ANY of you ever make is that you hate me, because I slap the $#!t out of your flawed ideology, and I highlight the failure of your policies.

So yeah, I got your point…the ONLY one you’ve made for the ump-teenth time….

euwe max March 17, 2015 at 12:35 pm

I don’t hate you… any more than I hate vermin… or the odd cockroach that may end up crushed under my boot. You’re inconsequential, a laughing stock of the board.. a low-wattage pipsqueak… completely obscure but for your persistent ignorance and empty, pointless rants.

In your case, it *is* all about you, because you provide zero content. Your “analysis” is crap – you can’t even arouse support for your insipidness from your own side… even the most radical, arrogant and ignorant partisans have disowned you and your public spectacle of dimwitted, hypocritical, self-aggrandizing bullshit.

GrandTango March 17, 2015 at 1:42 pm

Trite much?

euwe max March 17, 2015 at 10:21 pm

LMAO! hahahahahahaha… much?

much?

Emily Peterkin March 16, 2015 at 6:39 pm

Or you could usek another name?

Reply
snickering March 17, 2015 at 5:03 am

Not to brag but I can really be more descriptive but I choose not too. It would be un-southern like. However if you get me a Long Island Tea (a bad decision in a glass) I’ll try to oblidge you and
I really will try to make you harder even though you don’t have a whole lot to work with.

Reply
GrandTango March 17, 2015 at 5:28 am

Bore.

snickering March 18, 2015 at 1:24 pm

Bore or Whore? The Whore would be infinitely more amusing and satisfying.

GrandTango March 18, 2015 at 2:07 pm

And it would be your ONLY chance for a piece…LMAO….

Hey: Is it true what they say about FITS, and the anatomy of liberal men..???…the inch-worm myth???

FITS by putting his business in the street provokes intimate secrets to be told…LMAO…I bet he wishes he would have kept his mouth shut now….Hahaha…..word gets around…..

G.O.B. March 16, 2015 at 4:46 pm

Can’t wait until the FBI has the nuts in a vice!

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FastEddy23 March 16, 2015 at 5:09 pm

Elephants they are not? Squirrels they are saying? The donkeys have gone and left the Rinos to playing?

While the legislators are stepping on each other’s protuberances and the castration clinics seem overworked, the now needed transvestite toilets seem to have no champions of the left … the “politically correct” cartoons may never be the same.

How many more years of matriarchy? Honey Badger Hillary is smiling.

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FastEddy23 March 16, 2015 at 5:18 pm

Fixed It! … Just change that hanging chad 7 to a 2! … Your $25.7Billion Dollar Budget becomes $25.2Billion and no need at all for that pesky bond!

Reply
Emily Peterkin March 16, 2015 at 6:47 pm

Speaking of “nuts”…I’m GT in a dress going all racist on HoPo and The State websites, hee hee.

Reply
Emily FlipTango March 16, 2015 at 6:56 pm

Emily Flip and GrandTango are all one person, a sad little troll with no life.

Reply
Caucus Man March 16, 2015 at 7:59 pm

Hey, you Forgot Gary Simrill & Bill Herbkersman are in the secret squirrel room.

Reply
goodolejoe March 16, 2015 at 9:37 pm

You guys really need to start checking into Mike Pitts more.

Reply
T-Bagger March 16, 2015 at 9:57 pm

As long as the squirrel caucus is cheeking my nuts, I guess I’m ok with it.

Reply
Atwaters Poltergeist March 17, 2015 at 11:11 am

so Sekret Squrrielz want to use, effectively, a payday loan, for continuing expenses… Have Mercy that’s a certainty these Squirrelz are NUTZ!

Reply

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