Well, I made it out to the Tax Day Tea Party at the South Carolina Statehouse. Overall, it was much smaller than last years Tea Party event. Don’t know what to make of that. Could be that people attended more local events instead of driving to Columbia or it could be that there really weren’t a lot of big name speakers at the event other than Gov. Sanford (and while he did get applause, there were one to two hecklers in the crowd that were telling him to step down). Or, possibly, people are just tired of protesting since Washington seems to just do whatever they want anyways (see Health Care Reform).
Anyways, here are some pictures from the event including some interesting signage. One thing I did find interesting was that at one point during Sanford’s speech, a police officer came up to where I was standing on the Statehouse steps and use binoculars to scan the crowd for a while. There is a pictures of that in there as well.
Today, a Tea Party rally took place at the South Carolina Statehouse in Columbia, South Carolina. Senator Jim DeMint and Mark Sanford made statements. I was able to get the last half of Sen. DeMint’s speech:
Also, here is Governor Sanford’s speech:
In addition to that, here are some pictures from the rally:
The Crowd
Senator Jim DeMint
Governor Mark Sanford
This guy was plain awesome.
And my personal favorite…
If you want larger prints of the above photos, click this link.
Also, here is a slide show that include the above photos as well as some others:
South Carolina’s General Assembly is having an emergency session to dea with the budget shortfall. The cuts have been proposed in House Bill 5300 and as of right now, there are 11 amendments that have been proposed. These amendments will be debated today which means that it could be a long.
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On an interesting note, 7 of those amendments have been proposed by James Smith.
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UPDATE
Amendment #4 proposes that Suth Carolina only spend based on the previous year’s collection. The House voted 59-49 to table the amendment to later debate.
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UPDATE 2
Amendment #8 proposes that South Carolina affix a stamp to cigarettes that help to track the collections of cigarette taxes (doesn’t raise the tax). The House voted 68-39 to table the amendment.
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UPDATE 3
Amendment #9 proposes the identical cigarette tax increase that was passed by the House and Senate but vetoed by the Gov. Sanford this past spring. This tax increase will supposedly cover roughly 1/3 of the budget shortfall. Voice vote tabled the amendment.
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UPDATE 4
Amendment #10 proposes that if state agencies have to lay off employees, the state has to re-employ these members if the economy rebounds. Amendment was tabled because there is a law like this already on the books.
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UPDATE 5
Amendment #11 proposes that the nonprofit Protection and Advocacy for the Handicapped, which got a 100% funding cut, get roughly a 14% cut instead which leaves roughly $249,000 for funding. The House voted 66-50 to table the amendment.
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UPDATE 6
Amendment #13 proposes that the cuts for the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities be lowered to 3.6% since these schools receive no local funding. House voted to table the amendment 80-31.
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UPDATE 7
Amendment #17 proposes to transfer $1,000,000 to the Department of Health and Environmental Control for HIV Prevention from the Department of Health and Human Services. Voice vote tabled the amendment.
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UPDATE 8
I’m heading to class for a bit but I should be back up there a little later to give more coverage.
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UPDATE 9
Well it seems that the House passed the Budget Cut Bill overwhelmingly with only one amendment addressing some number errors.
I’m considering cutting back the amount of posts I have on this website because of time constraints. Between my college courses and doing things for SC Statehouse Blog among other project I have, I don’t know if I have enough time to fully devote to this site without taking away from my other endeavors.
Now, I know that I have never really been a prolific blogger but I have enjoyed doing stories on this site. I’m definitely not going to stop blogging and who knows, maybe the frequency of my posts won’t decrease that much. However, I just wanted to let everyone know that this site has now been relegated to a much lower level of importance.
With that in mind, I’m hoping to up the level of posts and interviews on SC Statehouse Blog so if your from South Carolina and want to keep in the know with some of the topics being discussed in the legislature, be sure to check it out.
Other than that, you can count on me to bring you articles dealing with algae biofuel, global warming, South Carolina politics and other random stories that I find interesting and would like to pass along.
Last night I attended a debate between former DNC Chairman Don Fowler and current RNC Committeeman Glenn McCall. This event was advertised as a “post presidential debate debate” and mainly consisted of a moderator asking each representative to pick apart the presidential candidate’s statements from the third and final debate.
Overall, I thought the debate was well done. Both Fowler and McCall actually answered the questions and the moderator actually asked good follow up questions along with making sure each participant answered the original question.
The following is the debate in whole in chronological order, which I broke it into eight parts with each part dealing with a certain topic/question. It might be good to watch the first video just so you know the set up and the introductions, otherwise you can jump around from video to video. Just to let you know who is who, Don Fowler is located on the right and Glenn McCall is located on the left of the moderator.
First topic, after the introductions were made, was their thoughts on the Bailout.
Next, the moderator asked about ‘Joe the Plumber’ who’s name each candidate invoked during the debate.
Following that, each participant spoke about the idea of allowing the President line item veto power.
Next they discussed energy policy and in particular offshore oil drilling and nuclear. (Both Fowler and McCall are pro-nuclear).
They each discussed the idea of negative campaigning in this election and how it compared to past elections.
Next they discussed fair trade policy.
Education was tackled next with Glenn McCall giving some interesting insight into the problem.
The last topic discussed was Health Care, with each participant articulating what exactly the healthcare industry will look like under their respected candidates.
South Carolina State Representatives Nathan Ballentine, Jeff Duncan, and Nikki Haley all received stellar marks (A’s and A+’s) on this year’s South Carolina Club for Growth Scorecard. Not only are these three legislators excellent examples of fiscal conservatives, but they also have helped me out a lot with my other website, SC Statehouse Blog. Thanks again for all your help and keep up the good work. We are going to need some strong fiscal conservatives while the General Assembly discusses the South Carolina’s budget cuts.
A days ago, I conducted an interview with South Carolina State Representative Nathan Ballentine about the current finantial situation. Now the situation has obviously gotten worse from Wednesday but this interview still has some good information so check it out.
- Click here for the interview
Representative Ballentine has posted on his blog the letter Governor Sanford sent the House that includes all the line-item vetoes used on South Carolina’s State Budget. You can take a look at this horribly(?) long letter here.
South Carolina Rep. Jeff Duncan has a good blog post about why he, as a conservative, cannot support this cigarette tax hike. Here is a quit excerpt from the article:
We stand at a crossroads in South Carolina as we debate the Governor’s Veto of the Cigarette Tax. There are some things that the proponents of a cigarette tax are not telling you. While I firmly agree that reducing smoking is a good idea for the citizens of this state, I think a government using its power of taxation to change behaviors is a slippery slope to it using taxation to punish unpopular activities.
The argument that it will be a deterrence to underage smoking is a ruse used to gain support. If we want to be serious about underage smoking, then let us adopt policies in this state that really penalize youthful offenders.
I would recommend reading the rest.
Being a conservative, I tend to agree that taxes aren’t the way to go for things like this. The idea that this is a slippery slope is a very real idea. Back during the midterm elections in 2006, a proposition came up about whether or not to raise the cigarette tax in Missouri and I voted against it. This ended up being the only result I was happy about.
Anywho, the slippery slope idea means that the government might start with a tax on cigarettes, which everyone mostly agrees are bad for you, but then they will start taxing other things like fast food or carbon emissions (anthropological global warming is a bunch of junk science by the way).
So instead of taxation, there are other ways like education to get people to stop smoking. I’m not one for a complete ban though. I have faith that humans are pretty smart creatures. They should know that if you smoke 3 packs a day you are in fact addicted and that addiction might end up costing you your life. As long as you aren’t affecting anyone else (aka second hand smoke, etc.), I feel it is your right to smoke yourself into oblivion.
As long as the information is out there for people to know of the risks and there are age requirements (I don’t feel that 12 year olds have the reasoning or foresight to see the long term consequences), than I don’t think the government should be trying to make them stop.
Now does this idea extend the people who say it is there right to smoke marijuana? Hmmm…I don’t know. The side affects of pot seem to have more of a chance of affecting people other than just the smoker (driving while high?).
Anyways, this post wasn’t supposed to be this long. I just wanted to point out Rep. Duncan’s stance against raising the cigarette tax and I hope every conservative will stand behind his decision.
19) The state’s personal income tax is hereby repealed, with the resulting increase in economic activity and capital investment coming into the state serving as sufficient revenue replacement.
20) The state’s income tax on businesses that employ fewer than fifty persons is hereby repealed, with the resulting increase in economic activity and capital investment coming into to the state serving as sufficient revenue replacement.
22) No private company in the State of South Carolina shall be permitted to solicit or accept union representation, engage in collective bargaining or hold a general strike.
29) An independent Commission on Best Budgeting Practices comprised of corporate leaders shall be established and charged with assigning specific rankings to each recommended disbursement of taxpayer funds in the state budget. These rankings shall be based on each budget item’s “essential and necessary value” toward achieving the broader objectives outlined in the new “zero-based, activity-specific” method of state budgeting.
34) Any spending item included in the state budget must bear the name of the individual legislator who sponsored it as well as the name of the individual legislator whose district is to benefit from it.
38) The use of taxpayer resources for the purpose of lobbying the legislature or any official of government is expressly forbidden. Public employees wishing to lobby the government must do so on their own time, using their own resources, like every other citizen.
50) The State of South Carolina shall maintain an Internet database searchable by a) elected official b) contributor (individual, corporate or other) and c) industry or lobby for all political contributions made to any elected official.
74) State colleges and universities are hereby prohibited from raising tuition at a rate exceeding the growth in population and inflation.
75) State colleges and universities and the Department of Education must immediately implement at 10% reduction in adminstrative force, while holding teachers and professors harmless.
81) South Carolina hereby refuses the acceptance of any radioactive waste within its borders that is not accompanied by a definitive timetable for removal.
86) The Ben Tillman, Jr. statue on the State House grounds is hereby removed and a permanent moratorium placed on the erection of any future memorials. Any memorials which are approved must be paid for exclusively with private funds.
89) The Confederate Flag compromise reached in 2000 shall be written into the new State Constitution and any bill which seeks to undo it shall have to be adopted as a Constitutional amendment.
94) Any South Carolinian who is 18 years of age or older and who is serving our Armed Forces may consume alcohol with a valid Military ID.
Those of just some of the few interesting ideas proposed. I would recommend reading the whole thing.
