May 21, 2012

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Haley on Rainey: He’s wasting voters’ time, he’s wasting my time

May 14, 2012 By

Rainey asked full SC House to take up his complaints

John Rainey continues the battle against Gov. Nikki Haley, asking the full South Carolina House to take up his complaint that she violated ethics laws when she worked for the Lexington Medical Center Foundation while she served Lexington in the House.

Rainey, a Republican is an attorney who led the state’s Board of Economic Advisors for eight years and was once CEO of the state-owned power utility, Santee Cooper.

He has said on many occasions that Gov. Haley lacks integrity.

This month, the House Ethics Committee dismissed Rainey’s charges as lacking evidence.  Earlier this year, a state circuit judge heard a lawsuit from Rainey on the same matter and declared that his court was not the correct venue for legislative ethics questions.

Friday, Rainey appealed to the S.C. House to reconsider the corruption complaint that was dismissed by its ethics panel.

Gov. Haley today responded to South Carolina Radio Network’s question about the renewed Rainey complaint:

“This is a political vendetta that has gone to its highest extreme. I mean, it’s embarrassing for him. The courts have dismissed it, the ethics committee has dismissed it. This is just a man that’s angry that I won and won’t stop until he gets his way. He’s wasting taxpayers’ time, he’s wasting voters’ time, he’s wasting my time and I have nothing further to say about it,” Haley said.

 

Filed Under: Featured, News, Politics & Government

Rep. Clyburn: This will be the mother of all lame duck sessions

May 14, 2012 By

Congressman Joe Wilson fought for a bill in the U.S. House to divert a massive defense budget cut set for the first of the year. The $600 million dollars defense spending cuts were triggered by a joint congressional supercommittee’s failure to reach a deal to cut federal spending.

Rep. Wilson and fellow Republicans are now facing criticism that they cut funding to programs that serve the poor in order to protect the military. The bill, H.R. 5652, which is called the “Sequester Replacement Act,” would reduce some of the cuts to defense by instead cutting from social program block grants.  Wilson says the money will come from reducing the automatic growth of some programs.

“It’s additional costs. The actual reduction is from an anticipated 125-percent increase in costs to a reduction to 123-percent…a minimal reduction but a lot of money,”says Wilson.

But the house bill is likely to fail in the Senate.

“I’m very concerned that the Senate is simply not functional,” says Wilson. “Any legislation that could be perceived as controversial doesn’t even get to a vote.”

Clyburn prepared for "the mother of all lame duck sessions"

Congressman James Clyburn, a Democratic leader who served on the supercommittee, says Congress is more likely to take up this issue after the upcoming General Election.

“What we are going to see in November after the elections is the mother of all lame ducks,” Clyburn told MSNBC Monday. “I do believe that so much of this will be worked out in a lame duck session. I know that a lot of things are on the table. I don;t believe that we’ll fix sequester for 10 years; we might do a one-year fix.”

Clyburn says Congress will need that year to get the sequestration cuts worked out for the long term.

Filed Under: Military, News, Politics & Government

Export-Import Bank extension passes House, SC reps vote 4-2

May 9, 2012 By

Congress is moving forward a federal fund that offers low interest loans to countries to buy U.S. exports.  The state’s congressional delegation has a wide range of opinions about the bill.

Rep. Wilson supported the bill

The U.S. House Wednesday passed a bill to fund the Export-Import Bank for three years and to raise its lending cap to $140 billion. The bank was set to expire at the end of this month.

Two South Carolina congressmen voted against it: Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-3rd District) and Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-5th District).  See roll call vote.

It now goes to the Senate, where one of its biggest proponents, Senator Lindsey Graham, says he is certain it will pass.

However, South Carolina’s other Senator, Jim DeMint, wants to de-fund the bank, calling it corporate welfare.

Some of South Carolina’s major manufacturers enjoy the benefits of their sales being secured by this federal bank. 

Governor Nikki Haley said Tuesday that exports from South Carolina went up 21 percent in 2011.

Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO says that without the bank,  the company would not be able to compete with other countries who have at least one Export-Import bank.

Airlines, however, say the bank benefits end-users from other countries, who can charge cheaper rates because their overhead is lower.

 

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics & Government

Senate tries to fast-track legislative fix to restore candidates to ballot

May 8, 2012 By

Knotts blamed senators for "grandstanding"

State senators are trying to both create and fast-track a bill to allow candidates a second chance to get on the primary ballot.  Last week, a South Carolina Supreme Court ruling disqualified 183 people from races because they did not file economic statements on time.

The problem, say local and state party leaders, is that both online directions and party instructions confused new candidates. Another complaint is that incumbents were simply fined for filing late, while new candidates were blocked from running.

Senate leaders are trying to remedy that by drastically amending an existing House bill (H.3392) with S. 1512 and setting up the process to get the measure passed, sent to the House, signed into law and to the Justice Department for its inspection.

Senator Chip Campsen (R-Charleston) is leading the effort, along with Judiciary Chairman Larry Martin (R-Pickens). Their amendment would change the statute to set the same deadlines for incumbents and candidates. The bill would set up an amnesty date of May 18 for all candidates to refile.

Their first attempt failed in an emergency session of the Senate Judiciary Committee. After two hours of struggling over language, Senator Jake Knotts blocked the bill and offered his own to streamline how filings are done across the state. The panel discussed that it was a good idea, but too sweeping to move quickly.

“We need is a rifle shot (bill) to fix this,” observed committee member Sen. Tom Davis (R-Beaufort).

Judiciary leaders are now trying another tactic: supplant the House bill with the Campsen-Martin version. The Senate will devote Wednesday to that effort, even suspending the rules to make it easier.

York County GOP Chairman Glenn McCall observed the morning’s committee meeting, hoping for a solution for  candidates in his area who were given different dates by party and elections officials.  McCall says he left the meeting “not feeling confident”  that the Senate can correct the matter quickly, so he agrees with Democratic Senator Vincent Sheheen that the best chance will be to join in a federal lawsuit filed against the State Election Commission for delay caused in mailing out absentee ballots. The suit also claims the State Supreme Court ruling violates the federal Voting Rights law.

 ”If we don’t join in the federal lawsuit, then nothing’s going to happen and that’s just reality,” Sheheen told the panel.

 Federal Judge Cameron Currie has agreed to hear the case in Columbia Thursday.

 

Filed Under: Featured, Legislature, News, Politics & Government

U.S. House debates Export-Import Bank today, SC delegation in struggle

May 8, 2012 By

Boeing's first 6 SC-made dreamliners Ex-Im Bank financed

When Boeing Commercial Airlines recently rolled out its first SC-made 787 Dreamliner, the company’s CEO Jim Albaugh made the following request:

“The first six airplanes we are going to deliver to Air India are financed by the Ex-Im Bank and I want to thank the representives here today from South Carolina who have supported the Ex-Im reauthorization. And for those who haven’t supported it, I would ask you to,” said Albaugh.

His plea was heard by a South Carolina delegation divided over the issue.

The U.S. House  is set to take up today a bipartisan bill to reauthorize fund which secures loans at low interest rates for international customers of American-based exports. Lawmakers reached a compromise Friday to extend it until 2014.  Congressmen Joe Wilson (R-2nd District) and James Clyburn (D-6th District) support it. The four freshmen Republicans are still trying to make up their minds.

South Carolina’s GOP House members want to see it reformed, an idea supported by Sen. Lindsey Graham, an adamant supporter of reauthorizing the bank. He says Congress will make the end-of-month deadline.

“The House is going to come up with a reform package making the bank more efficient, probably less money to lend , tighter regulations, which I’m all for. But the idea of unilaterally surrendering and taking the bank off the table and telling our American manufacturers good luck is not the right answer. So I think we’re going to have a reform bank. I think it’s going to pass through the house with a big vote, and through the Senate, ” Graham told South Carolina Radio Network.

Graham says no other country would step back if the U.S. let the bank expire. “I’ll be in the NBA before that happens, he recently quipped.

“China has a bank, Germany has a bank, France has three banks, and Canada has a bank three times our size, ” he added. “We cannot throw Boeing and GE and all these other companies that make products in South Carolina sell them in the world marketplace and not have financing equivalent to other countries.”

U.S. Senator Jim Demint wants to defund the institution. In a recent editorial, he likened the bank to corporate welfare: ” Is it fair that foreign countries subsidize their companies?  No. But, America didn’t become the world’s strongest economy by trying to out-socialize Europe, and we won’t win the future by picking winners and losers with taxpayer dollars. The American way to address subsidized foreign companies is to beat them in the free market.”

Congressman Tim Scott’s (R-1st District) constituents include Boeing workers. He says he understands both senators’ arguments. He told affiliate WCRS in Greenwood Monday, “There is no question that we are in a global economy and in a global economy it’s difficult for us to make moves without considering the ramifications,” said Rep. Scott. “I find myself examining the facts. I believe the world is not perfect but that we should shoot to make it perfect from a government’s response.”

Rep. Scott says he has asked fellow House members for a clear delineation for when the bank should stop.  He says that the default rate  of below two percent is good and if the rate climbs, the bank’s guaranteed loans should be frozen.

Rep. Mick Mulvany (R-5th District) recently said, “I think it’s one of those areas where the president and leadership of my party are on the same page. This issue is not shaking out along traditional party lines. That always makes for an interesting debate in Washington.”

On the other side of the aisle, Congressman Jim Clyburn says the bank is a proven institution that will create jobs in South Carolina.

Anne Eller of affiliate WCRS in Greenwood assisted with this story.

Filed Under: Business, News, Politics & Government
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