… for the House, that is. Thanks to the traditional intransigence of the Senate, little got done for South Carolina. There was this, of course…
They did one good thing: “Haley, others laud new domestic violence law” http://t.co/X4spILR7df
— Brad Warthen (@BradWarthen) June 5, 2015
… for which I congratulate lawmakers — and The Post and Courier.
But not much else.
Still, as Lynn Teague pointed out earlier today, Lucas did a good job turning around a body traumatized by the last days of Bobby Harrell.
He’s right to be proud of his record this year, which he describes thusly:
Speaker Lucas Statement on Sine Die
House Adjourns Regular Legislative Session for 2015
(Columbia, SC) – House Speaker Jay Lucas (District 65-Darlington) released the following statement after the House adjourned Sine Die. By law, the South Carolina General Assembly is required to complete its legislative business by 5pm on the first Thursday in June. The adopted Sine Die resolution recognizes the completion of business, but allows the House of Representatives to return in the coming weeks to debate and consider gubernatorial vetoes, conference reports and budgetary matters.
At the beginning of the year, Speaker Lucas outlined four priorities for this year’s legislative session: (1) Infrastructure reform, (2) Ethics reform, (3) Criminal domestic violence reform, and (4) Education reform.
“The House of Representatives kept our promises to the people of South Carolina and we did everything we said we would do. We overwhelmingly passed a three-part roads bill that reforms the Department of Transportation and puts forth a responsible plan to fix our roads. We rallied around domestic violence survivors by working with the Senate to pass a bill that protects our citizens from senseless abuse. We reformed our ethics laws to restore public confidence in elected officials. And we continue to work on an education improvement package so that every child in every part of our state will be given access to a twenty-first century education. The progress made on these issues is a reflection of the steadfast efforts our members put forth over the last nine months.
“Based on the Senate’s inability to address a majority of these issues, it is my hope that our colleagues in the other Chamber will take action on these items next year. The people of South Carolina do not want these issues to fall through the cracks due to inaction.”
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In contrast to that, let’s turn to some amazingly empty partisan rhetoric — check out this appalling nonsense from the Democrats:
To read that, you’d think that the Democrats were out there at the start of the session pointing out the smart, responsible, courageous path to fixing our roads, only to have their brilliant plan stomped on by those awful Republicans.
When the truth is, the Democrats were probably the most feckless bunch out there. You would think that a minority party, which knows it’s going to continue to BE the minority party for the foreseeable future, would justify its existence by playing the role of the little boy in “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” With all the Republicans afraid (at first) to stand up to the governor’s towering foolishness, the Democrats, having nothing to lose, should have stepped forward and stated the obvious: “We need to raise the gas tax, people.”
But no. Their brilliant plan was to pay for it with more legalized gambling. Really. They were pathetic. And obviously, they still are…
And you’ll notice that in all the words in that release, there’s not one mention of what the Democrats had wanted to do. I’d like to think that’s because they KNOW how pathetic their proposal was. But perhaps I’m being overly optimistic…
“Empty partisan rhetoric.” “Feckless.” Examine your own rhetoric. If you don’t understand or refuse to admit that Republicans have a stranglehold on both houses to go along with the governorship, you seem to me either out-of touch or strangely dishonest. It’s not partisan rhetoric to complain loudly that the Governor and her allies (few though they may be) have made nearly as many attempts as her predecessor to starve the government of needed resources (opposing sensible tax increases, doctrinaire blocking of federal resources), favor the wealthiest citizens of our state (income tax proposals) , negate efforts to help the working poor (as in expanded medical care), and opposing a relatively clean tax bill to help toward road repair. Assigning equal, much less majority blame for the irresponsible manner our legislature has governed to Democrats is pretty far out there. If Democrats in office told things as they really see them, you would probably really go off on them. Why don’t you try talking to some in private and see what they have to say.
I don’t see any statement where Brad is assigning either equal or majority blame to the Democrats. However, he recognizes that the political dynamics at the State House are much more complex than a straightforward R vs. D battle, both within and between the individual bodies. Partisan rhetoric that describes the situation as a battle between Good and Evil is not realistic, although it is useful for partisan purposes. I say this as someone who shares your concerns about getting medical insurance for the working poor, an equitable tax system, and repairing our roads.
“an equitable tax system”
Which I hope means that everyone who supports it pays more. How much more are you willing to pay to get medical insurance for the poor and repairing the roads? Are you in for $1000 a year? $2000? What is it worth TO YOU to get what you want?
Unrelated to medical coverage, change the upside-down car sales tax system. Exempt the first, say $8K and tax the rest, roll back most of the act 388 property tax exemption, add a $50-80 annual road fee for hybrid owners like me, push the top income bracket threshold up to about 20k and make the rate about 7.25%, raise state gasoline taxes about 10 cents per gallon -stuff like that.
Harry, look at what I said. Look at what I’m reacting to…
A release saying the reason we don’t have a roads solution is because of Republicans. My complaint is that this is an empty argument in light of the fact that Democrats didn’t want to do right by roads, either.
If they were out there being a principled opposition and put forth realistic, sensible alternatives, I could respect the release. But they’ve been worthless in this, having put forth a ridiculous plan that they knew had no chance of passage. If it had been a GOOD plan and didn’t pass because of Republican control, they’d have a point. But it wasn’t, and they don’t.
And they know it. If they thought they’d had a good plan, the release would have mentioned what it was.
As a party, they’ve been useless in this debate.
I am most assuredly NOT “Assigning equal, much less majority blame for the irresponsible manner our legislature has governed to Democrats,” because the Democrats basically didn’t contribute to the debate — except to oppose DOT reform in the Senate.
If they’d been out there from day one loudly pushing, as you say, “a relatively clean tax bill to help toward road repair,” nobody would be applauding them more loudly than I. I might even, under those circumstances,say, “Maybe white South Carolinians should reconsider voting Republican all the time,” because Democrats would be a viable alternative.
But the course they chose on this makes them even more irrelevant than usual.
You know what surprises me? It surprises me that Democrats, and folks who lean Democratic, aren’t the ones complaining about this. Why aren’t they saying they want their party to stand up against the nihilistic government-haters and say, “You know what, people? We HAVE a mechanism for paying for roads. It’s called a gasoline tax, and ours is among the lowest in the country. It’s time we raised it.”
If I were a Democrat, that’s what I would want my party to do. I’d want it to have some guts. I’d want it to stand for something, and I’d want that something to be good government.
There are Republicans out there who took on political risk by backing the gas tax increase. That REALLY ought to shame Democrats. Instead, they contribute nothing, and sit back and criticize. And they criticize in the most brainless possible way, the standard partisan way: All Republicans (including those who had more guts than they did, standing up for the things Democrats ought to stand up for) are bad, and all Democrats are good. Which no one with any sense should believe for a moment, yet parties assume that’s just what people will believe.
Ever since they became a minority party, they’ve become more tax-shy than Republicans.
When they want to do something for schools, they propose a lottery (which basically does next to nothing for K-12 schools). When roads are in disrepair, they pointedly ignore the straight route to paying to fix them, and say, “Let’s legalize casinos!”
What’s next? Magic beans?
The Republicans were awful again this year in the legislature- mainly the Senate. I’ve told Bob Peeler that. He knows how I feel. I don’t think he cares how anyone feels though.
But the Democrats? I wish they would give me a reason to vote for them. I’d probably do it on a statewide level. But they offer no alternative worth considering.
Edit – Harvey Peeler – not Bob.
I THOUGHT that was what you meant…
I’ll bet Bob cares even LESS… 🙂
Speaker Lucas has provided a good summary of the work of the House this past year. What is more, they did much of it with strong bipartisan votes. A combination of positive leadership and members who were willing to work together to do something, not just stop something, added up to a successful year. I liked many of the things they did, and didn’t like others, but that is inevitable in the real world. Thanks to Speaker Lucas and the members of the House for doing their work honestly and well.