Shady Tactics in the South Carolina Senate

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by WILL FOLKS

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South Carolina politicians are incredibly adept at hiding the ball – of concealing the true nature of their actions and the reality of their intentions.

How else would the most liberal “Republican” legislature in America – a faux “supermajority” in both the House and Senate – manage to run for office as “conservative” after recklessly ballooning bureaucracy, providing anemic “tax relief,” neglecting core government functions, enabling rampant crony capitalism and engaging in unchecked corruption?

Because it’s all smoke and mirrors. Bait and switch. Shell games.

We saw this duplicity on display in the S.C. Senate last week when fiscally conservative senator Wes Climer of York County took to the well of the chamber to introduce a budget amendment regarding the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC).

Climer had hoped to create a joint legislative-executive panel to “study the feasibility of separating the educational components of MUSC and the various components that provide healthcare services to the public for a fee.”

Climer’s panel would have identified and delineated MUSC’s various organizational components (including its assets and liabilities), determining which of them were academic in nature and which should be part of a “newly created not-for-profit, private healthcare system.”

One that does not receive government funding…

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RELATED | DON’T PAY TWICE FOR HEALTHCARE

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Climer’s panel would have submitted its findings to legislative and executive branch leaders no later than January 2027.

FITSNews has extensively documented MUSC’s chronic mission creep. Along the way, we’ve consistently argued the taxpayer-funded system’s government-subsidized expansions – and purchases of private sector hospitals – fell well outside of its core functions.

“MUSC was never intended to unfairly compete with private health care systems,” I noted last fall.

Climer and other lawmakers are seeking to refocus MUSC on its core mission, with the goal of this panel to present state leaders with a specific plan on how to segregate the entity’s educational and health care functions to ensure it isn’t using tax dollars to engage in market manipulation.

Not surprisingly, the status quo fought back.

Democrat Senate leader Brad Hutto moved quickly to shut down Climer’s proposal – a procedural move known as “tabling” the amendment. His attempt to kill the measure was soundly defeated on a 26–17 vote, though. Shockingly, seven “Republicans” – including senate president Thomas Alexander, Chip Campsen, Ronnie Cromer, Michael Gambrell, Carlisle Kennedy, Luke Rankin and Danny Verdin – voted with Democrats to kill the proposal.

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What happened next, though, was pure procedural pusillanimousness…

After voting on the record not to kill Climer’s amendment – by a nine-vote margin no less – the Senate proceeded to kill it on a voice vote.

That’s right… literally minutes after casting a recorded vote to preserve Climer’s panel, senators flip-flopped and killed it (without going on the record).

“Having failed to receive the necessary vote, the amendment was not adopted,” the Senate journal noted.

Here’s how it went down on the Senate floor…

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Dirty dealings in the @SCSenateGOP… a coalition of Democrats and seven “Republicans” who out-yelled the 26-vote majority was inexplicably allowed to carry the day. This was a major amendment tied to ?@MUSChealth?’s mission creep. Awful, antiquated governance. pic.twitter.com/Fb6Jqj1Kyx

— FITSNews (@fitsnews) April 27, 2026

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What in the hell?

I’m sorry… but as much as the current state of discourse might wish us to believe otherwise, democracy is not a shouting match. Just because seventeen people who oppose something yell louder than 26 people who support it doesn’t mean their view should carry the day.

That’s especially true in this case considering the chamber had just voted on the record in the opposite direction.

Climer and his allies attempted to have the controversial voice vote on the adoption of the amendment reconsidered, but the rules of the chamber prohibited such requests on budget amendments.

“If you ask after they voted, it’s too late,” a Senate source confirmed.

Making the whole charade even shadier was the fact Alexander – who ruled that the “noes have it” – was one of the seventeen senators who voted to kill the amendment in the first place. In other words, having expressed his preference he proceeded to act as judge and jury on the matter – while refusing to permit an appeal.

Again, this is not democracy… this is status quo preservation at all costs. And this particular status quo (MUSC) is costing our citizens and taxpayers to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

“South Carolina’s leaders need to stop giving MUSC a blank check – and start taking action to protect the taxpayers,” I noted last fall. “That means not only rethinking MUSC’s current acquisition plans – but questioning whether the entity deserves to continue receiving hundreds of millions of dollars from the state to keep competing against private sector providers.”

Unfortunately, legislative leaders are making it abundantly clear they have no intention of holding MUSC accountable… whether the votes are there to do so or not.

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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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