MORE “REPUBLICAN” RULE …
|| By FITSNEWS || By an overwhelming margin, the “Republican-controlled” S.C. Senate Finance committee approved a massive gasoline tax on South Carolina motorists – shortly after rejecting an effort by S.C. Senator Tom Davis to attach an income tax relief provision to the bill.
Liberal “Republican” Senators Thomas Alexander, Ray Cleary, Wes Hayes, Billy O’Dell and Hugh Leatherman – the powerful chairman of the committee – joined Democrats in shooting down the tax cut.
All of those “Republicans” – including S.C. Senator Paul Campbell – also approved the gas tax hike, which would raise this levy by 71 percent over three years. The bill would also double the cost of drivers’ license renewal (from $25 to $50) and double the sales tax cap on vehicle purchases (from $300 to $600).
Add it all up and it’s an $800 million tax hike – compared to the $427 million tax hike passed earlier this month by the “Republican-controlled” S.C. House of Representatives.
Davis argued passionately for the income tax relief – arguing (correctly) that South Carolina’s strategy of bribing big companies to locate in the Palmetto State was not a successful method of “economic development.”
Specifically, Davis accused his “Republican” colleagues of falling victim to the “broken window fallacy,” a term popularized by French economist Frédéric Bastiat in the mid-nineteenth century.
“You can’t see the opportunities we are missing,” Davis said, referring to the punitive economic impact of the state’s seven percent top marginal income tax rate.
Unfortunately for Davis, he was advocating a position put forward by S.C. governor Nikki Haley – who has spent the last few months bashing lawmakers. That’s a curious conversion seeing as Haley accommodated lawmakers’ big government ideology for the entirety of her first term in office.
Haley supports a gas tax hike – but only in exchange for the promise of future income tax reductions.
Shortly after the gas tax hike passed, though, S.C. Senator Kevin Bryant placed what’s known as a “minority report” on the legislation – meaning State Senators will have to work overtime if they want to get the bill placed on the Senate’s calendar (for more on that process, click HERE).
Last week Bryant placed a similar “minority report” on a massive deficit spending bill approved by Leatherman’s finance committee.
We oppose the gas tax hike … if for no other reason that dirt poor South Carolinians already pay a higher percentage of their income on fuel costs than residents of any other state (save Mississippi and West Virginia).
Yeah … they don’t tell people that when they poll the question, do they? No … they do not.
As we’ve stated repeatedly, the “Republicans” who voted for this tax hike have approved billions of dollars in new spending on South Carolina’s worst-in-the-nation government-run school system, its duplicative and inefficient higher education system, bailouts for wealthy corporations, shady ‘economic development‘ deals and … lest we forget … dozens of exorbitantly expensive and totally unnecessary highway projects.
They have the money to fix our roads and bridges without raising taxes … they are simply choosing not to do so.
64 comments
“Specifically, Davis accused his “Republican” colleagues of falling victim to the “broken window fallacy,””
I really, REALLY appreciate Davis arguing against the income tax and agree with most of his sentiment according to this write up.
However, I can’t understand the context under which he was arguing the “broken window fallacy”, which basically as Bastiat argued it, was that it’s not good for property to be damaged in the name of creating work to fix said property. Economists at the time were suggesting things like earthquakes, or wars(sound familiar?), were actually a form of economic stimulus- which to any thinking person is lunacy….but I fail to see how he argued this point.
Is there context missing?
These Dumb@$$#$ were just trying to show off…no matter they look stupid using it inappropriately….
PS: FLAGGED as inappropriate. LMAO…
*flagged as inappropriate*
“flagged as inappropriate” and stupid.
flagged for being offside
Unsportsmanlike Conduct
Roughing the kicker (of his ass)
ineligible receiver
Why bother trying to explain that to Fits. I’ve tried several times explaining the that the “labor participation rate” includes employed and job searchers, while the “employment ratio” only includes people with jobs. He get it wrong every time.
The only thing I can guess, is that Davis is suggesting that the higher taxes to non gov’t favored business is “damaging” them in the name of economic stimulus to the Boeing’s, BMW’s, etc…..
It’s kind of a stretch to apply it to the broken window fallacy…
What’s happening is that gov’t is simply choosing to break the leg of one prisoner while ignoring another.
“Fairness” isn’t calling for gov’t to break the legs of those it ignores, it’s to get them to stop breaking legs altogether.
“Flagged as being fucking STUPID”
I’m flattered to have a stalker.
FITS..when you sit on your @$$ all day BASHING SC – everything from its roads to its beaches – you give politicians ALL the cover they need to ‘FIX’ the problems you – and the liberals – manufacture…w/ your constant B!t*hing that there is no Utopia…and how backward we are…
YOUR Republicans are trying to raise OUR taxes you jerk.
Wow, these idiots are doing exactly what Obama wants them to do and you blame FITS for pointing it out???? Confirming what I knew about you all along. Thank you for revealing who, and what, you are.
Fuck Davis make all the rich fuckers pay just like everybody else…
Wonder if Haley will make good on her veto threat?
On both tax increases? …. Mmmmmm … I smell a “compromise” in the wind.
I hope so.
I hope so too, I want to see her get embarrassed with an override.
Creative name you have there.
Not sure how much of a difference it will make. According to The Nerve:
“The governor proposed that the state raise the gas tax 10 cents over three years, cut the income tax by 2 percent over ten years, and restructure the Department of Transportation (though there were no specifics given on what restructuring should look like). In January, The Nerve reported – using the governor’s own numbers – that her plan would only cut the average tax bill in South Carolina by $100 for the ten-year period.
When the House passed its tax hike bill last week, the bill included what some representatives are calling income tax reduction. Under their bill – which is currently in the Senate Finance Committee – the state’s income tax brackets would be increased by $280 over a two-year period, meaning each bracket would kick in at a “higher” rate of income. This would result in a $48 per year savings for the average South Carolinian.
Don’t spend it all in one place, boys and girls!”
http://thenerve.org/news/2015/04/24/murguia-column/?utm_source=The+Nerve&utm_campaign=9f1e75c2f8-Today_on_The_Nerve06_18_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b306b3032c-9f1e75c2f8-219757845&mc_cid=9f1e75c2f8&mc_eid=1c4e970ad6
How does voting down an income tax cut for the rich while raising the gas tax on the poor help the poor? You think a tax cut for the rich might help the poor? Of course not. This is a legislative sop to Haley, who doesn’t give a damn about the poor.
Since so many of the “poor” usually will not work, and don’t pay taxes …you likely have a point….I love it when liberals- like you- get F*#ked…LMAO..
I don’t pay taxes. I’m retired. Ha! Ha!
Got a car? Got a corner grocery store? Got an electric bill? …. Ha! Ha! …. Got a doctor? … Ha! Ha!
Got a baseball bat?
What the F*#k difference does that matter, you’re retired….????
You’ve represented yourself as an IGNORANT F*#k who has bought into the idea that if you can F*#k someone who actually WORKED, and has been successful, you and the Democrats have the right to rob him blind, to make yourselves feel better…and feed the greed of selfish, lazy and corrupt politicians…
F*#king over hardworking people is not a virtue…it makes you look like a slimey, uneducated, immoral and spiteful Son of a B!t*h….
And I suppose you like it when everyone get’s it in the brown eye?
It does not. Why are you not outraged at the fuel tax increase? That comes directly out of the poor’s small pocketbooks.
Where is your baseball bat?
Yeah, you could just see this one coming.
Rocky, you should be outraged! This is totally taxation of the poor and low income workers. Got a baseball bat?
It is the people who have the least amount of income it will affect the most.
“as Haley accommodated lawmakers’ big government ideology for the entirety of her first term in office.”
Why is it so difficult for Fits to understand that there is a big difference in supporting borrowing when the unemployment rate was 10.4% and now when it is 6.6% ?
why is it so difficult for you to understand that Haley has spent BILLIONS of $$$ to bribe companies here without a tax cut, but somehow she can’t figure out how to fix and maintain our roads without a massive tax cut for the rich?
Oh…I remember…you are the head Haley apologist and nothing she ever does is wrong.
Got baseball bats? …. Well?
Raising the gas tax is good for the environment.
… and good if one is dependent on a Gruberment pension.
How did Katrina vote?
She’s not on the Finance Committee.
Who remembers that old joke from middle school, the punch line being “3-5, 3-5, 3-5”? That’s what your post is Will. A jerk off
“Liberal “Republican” Senators Thomas Alexander, Ray Cleary, Wes Hayes, Billy O’Dell and Hugh Leatherman – the powerful chairman of the committee – joined Democrats in shooting down the tax cut.”
What that means is that they are smarter than Bobby Jindal, Chris Christie, Scott Walker, Sam Brownback and how many more GOP idiot governors who have set their states on the road to fiscal ruination by hanging on to discredited trickle down ‘economics’, i. e., delusion…while Tom Davis is stuck in a 35 year old time warp.
Raising the gas tax is NOT trickle down economics.
“Trickle down economics” led to the longest sustained period of growth in history. From Reagan all the way to Clinton. I sure am tired of liberal Democrats hiding behind the (R) to get elected. We need more primaries.
interesting that you advocate for policies where the Fed rate was between 8-12% for all of Reagan and Bush 1 years.
Interesting that one of the first things Reagan did was “To combat 1982 recession, the Garn-St. Germain Depository Institutions Act was passed, removing restrictions on loan-to-value ratios for Savings and Loan banks, while budget cuts reduced bank regulatory staff.” We all know how that ended…
The fact that someone your age has apparently fully consumed the Kool-Aid is disappointing…
I disappoint a lot of liberals. YES !
Even considering that Raygun tax increase. You betcha
They have to hide behind (R) to get elected.The (D) stands for taxes,abortion and perversion.
I’d point out the Reagan growth period lasted from Q4-1983 until Q2-1990. That was about 6 and half years. The Clinton growth period lasted from Q1-93 until Q4-2000 (when he left office). That was 8 years. Reagan, I would also point out, was President in 1980, some 35 years ago. And here’s what we did find. Reagan cut taxes and increased spending, a double infusion of cash into the economy. And we averaged about 3.3% growth during the entire time of his tenure. We didn’t really do anything under Bush 1 to change anything, we averaged 1.2% over four years. Clinton raised taxes on upper middle income and wealthy households and we enjoyed an average 3.7% growth rate over 8 years. In 2001 we cut taxes on wealthiest families, and gave smaller tax cuts to middle income families, and we averaged 2.2% growth over 8 years. So there is no definitive evidence that cutting taxes will result in higher growth. In fact, the years where Reagan saw the highest growth was when interest rates were declining, after having been held artificially high to combat inflation. In all likelihood the lower rates spurred more growth, not the tax changes. And spending was very high.
They all got reelected dumbass.
In the eyes of these douche bags, the voters do not exist. Maybe they need to be reminded who We The People are?
“In the eyes of these douche bags, the voters do not exist.’
In fairness to the douche bags, the mildly retarded electorate re-elects them over and over again….so “reminding” them who “The People” are is sadly encouragement for more of the same.
“Flagged as YOU are a MORON”
Pogo, please stop whining, your tears are clouding up my screen.
I find his tears delicious.
as long as they have an “R” next to their name on election day you and the rest of the brain dead voters in this state will continue to re-elect them over and over.
Raising the gas tax will raise the cost of eggs, milk and bread, etc. bc the truckers will have to charge more to pay for the increased gas price. Just want to make sure y’all know that.
Since you’re so concerned about food price inflation that may amount to a few pennies here and there, why don’t YOU tell us where the money should come from to maintain roads and build new ones to accommodate increases in population + the urban sprawl created by developers/real estate agents/bankers to get rich in real estate bubbles?
Hey Mom. We all know that, but do you know that we need better roads to get to the stores to buy those eggs, milk and bread, etc.!!! Suggest you stay in the kitchen and keep baking those pecan pies!!!!
This reminds me of that scene from 2001 when the apes are knuckle dragging around the obelisk.
The apes being the SC legislature and the obelisk being the realization that you need taxes to fund shit.
To fund shit is right. With an incredibly large emphasis on SHIT. Because that is usually all that gets funded.
Very true. It is essentially a “pass through” tax, and the old boys know that. Of course every tax government approves is essentially a double burden on the citizen.
Typical politicians using mind over matter. It ain’t my money so it don’t matter. What is interesting is all politicians like to blame others for forcing them too raise taxes but here, as in every other state, nobody speaks about the 400lb Gorilla in the room. Granted the legislature has over many decades mismanaged tax revenue however, even had they been frugal and good stewards, the gorilla would still be demanding more revenue. The Gorilla is the Federal Reserve, and its debasing of the dollar.It has been with the blessing of the federal government that the Fed has stolen the purchasing power of every state, and every individual in this once great nation forcing all to spend more just to maintain the status quot. SC should be suing the Federal government and the Federal reserve for breech of contract, and demanding they pay the difference in the purchasing power lost by the printing of fiat currency. Until the Fed is stopped the people will be forced to pay ever increasing taxes and the potholes will continue to grow with no end in sight.
Dear Jeff: Please, quietly put down the Bircher material and step away from the computer. Nobody has to get hurt here. We’ll get you the help you need
“Convoluted as it is, this legislature-dominated system is genius in its way: It leaves no one for the average South Carolinian to call and ask about specific roads. The legislature controls the entire funding system, but at no point can you find a lawmaker who will admit that he and his colleagues have a say in which roads get funded and which don’t.
Citizens are left having to call or email their House and Senate members. And why shouldn’t they? It’s lawmakers, after all, who make the important decisions. It’s not DOT Commissioners, and it’s certainly not the governor, who only has one of the eight appointments on the Commission.”
http://thenerve.org/news/2015/04/28/roads-fixed/?utm_source=The+Nerve&utm_campaign=9f1e75c2f8-Today_on_The_Nerve06_18_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_b306b3032c-9f1e75c2f8-219757845&mc_cid=9f1e75c2f8&mc_eid=1c4e970ad6
WE get what we vote for.