Fake DOGE: South Carolina Lawmakers Jump On Populist Bandwagon

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If we’ve learned one thing about South Carolina “Republican” leaders over the years, it’s that they are more concerned with appearing to do things than they are with actually doing them.

Smoke, mirrors, lies and misdirection… these are the calling cards of the Palmetto State’s ruling “supermajority,” which has continued to generate abysmal results with regard to academics, employment, infrastructure, public safety and virtually every other metric that matters in South Carolina.

In recent months, a new political movement has formed committed to calling out the chronic failures of the bureaucratic-regulatory state – particularly its increasingly expensive denials and deprivals of our liberty and property. DOGE SC – founded by Isle of Palms businessman Rom Reddy – has emerged as a new force in Palmetto politics, one totally unafraid to piss off status quo lawmakers.

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Meanwhile, Reddy has emerged as a one-man wrecking crew – taking the fight for the sovereign citizen directly to the Columbia machine.

With Reddy making waves, “Republicans” in Columbia have decided to jump aboard the DOGE bandwagon – with state senators passing a bill this week to establish their own cost-cutting entity.

Sponsored by fiscally liberal senator Stephen Goldfinch, the so-called “Delivery of Government Efficiency Commission Act” (S. 318) tasks lawmakers with forming a new panel to “conduct a survey of the structure and funding of state government to determine how to modernize it so that state government is less costly and more efficient for our state’s taxpayers.”

Goldfinch’s panel would include three representatives named by the governor’s office, three appointed by the speaker of the House and three tapped by the president of the Senate – with the leader of the S.C. Department of Administration (SCDOA) serving as its chairman.

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Per the bill, this panel would undertake a “review of appropriations in the state budget to identify areas where spending reductions are appropriate” and then “identify the amount of recommended reductions and identify the source of the reductions as specifically as possible.”

Once that work is done, the commission would present its findings to legislative leaders, who at that point may decide to allow these recommendations to be presented “at a regular meeting of the relevant budget subcommittee or of the full standing committee.”

Wait… what?

That’s it?

In other words, the same fiscally liberal lawmakers who have ballooned state spending (and government debt) in recent years – who have enabled and empowered all manner of crony capitalist misadventures and bureaucratic invasions of our liberty and prosperity – want to put on a dog-and-pony routine during an election year to fool us into thinking they are serious about restraining government?

What does the real DOGE SC think of this utter farce?

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RELATED | ROM REDDY TAKES ON THE BUREAUCRATIC STATE

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“Who created the 59% growth in the general fund over the last four years?” Reddy said in a statement. “So, the folks who created this now want to make this more efficient with a commission?”

“Legislative commissions create reports that go nowhere,” Reddy continued. “Talking points with no action. DOGESC does not have commissions and studies. We have a grass roots movement committed to returning money and power to the people. Instead of studies, we are developing AI tools that will identify where the money is coming from and going to in a fraction of the time.”

“DOGESC is the voice of the citizen that will result in actual transformation,” Reddy concluded.

He’s absolutely correct.

South Carolina doesn’t need any more studies. It doesn’t need any more special commissions, select committees or “blue-ribbon panels.” In short, it doesn’t need any more talk.

What South Carolina needs is action from people like Reddy who know what it takes to deliver results – and who will not rest until those results have been achieved.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR…

Will Folks is the founding editor of the news outlet you are currently reading. Prior to founding FITSNews, he served as press secretary to the governor of South Carolina. He lives in the Midlands region of the state with his wife and eight children.

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