A Modest Proposal for Balancing the State Budget

by: SC New Democrats

Thu Mar 04, 2010 at 10:14:02 AM EST

SC New Democrats are all about Big Ideas, and we think some of the recent proposals to come through the Statehouse are on the right track, but they don't go far enough.  In SCND President Phil Noble's op-ed in today's The State, we lay out a few big ideas of our own to start with that we think we can really get SC back on track.

From The State (3/4/10):

We all know South Carolina is going through tough times. Moreover, we all know how hard the Republican Legislature and governor are struggling to deal with falling tax revenues and forced budget cuts.

Some of these Republicans have come up with some innovative ideas - but they don't go far enough. The Republicans are just too timid.

For instance, a Republican-controlled committee recently passed a measure to let schools cut five teacher work days off the school year to help make up for a $563 million shortfall. This is a small step in the right direction, of course, but we say go all the way. Let's just eliminate all funding for schools in South Carolina.

Yes, I know that this sounds like a drastic idea. But let's look at the bigger picture.

It's not as if our children can't get an education elsewhere. There are lots of first-rate programs on TV. The History Channel is good. The Weather Channel is sort of like science. There are plenty of Bible-thumping TV preachers to tell them all they need to know about family values and how the world was created. And it's all included in the price of $29-a-month basic cable package. That's a lot less than the $12,000 a year per kid we now spend.

If that is too radical for you, we could adopt a more gradual approach. Instead of eliminating all funding at once, we could just continue to cut the number of teachers. Then, when the number of students crammed into every classroom jumps to 50 or 60, the remaining teachers will be so overwhelmed they will go crazy and quit. And when they quit, we don't have to pay their unemployment benefits. Talk about a win-win.

The possibilities don't stop there. Think, for example, of all the school buses that will no longer be needed. We could just park them along the side of the road and let homeless families move in. If they took the seats out and put up some pretty little curtains, it could be cozy.

Eliminating education would also take a lot of stress off legislators. They would not have to make any more hard policy choices or ever say no to their special-interest friends. No one would care when they gave away $2.7 billion in sales tax exemptions in exchange for campaign contributions. No longer would they even have to think of eliminating the sales tax cap on yachts and luxury cars. All would be good.

Plus, with no schools, there are no school lunches, so Andre Bauer would not have to spend time worrying about feeding all the strays.

More importantly, the Legislature would be able to spend its time on the really big issues facing our state.

In the past few weeks alone, Republican legislators have demonstrated their willingness to tackle these big problems by introducing bills to ban the sale of liquor on Thanksgiving and Christmas, expand the range of golf carts on public roads and lower the legal age for getting a tattoo.

These courageous efforts pale, however, in comparison to the work being done by Republican Rep. Mike Pitts of Laurens, whose latest bill surely will solve all of our state's financial problems - forever.

Rep. Pitts' bill would require South Carolina to abandon U.S. currency as legal tender. What a great idea! We could simply hire a smart kid to fire up the Photoshop program on his computer and whip us up some nifty new money designs. There might even be some good ones still left lying around from the last time we tried this in 1860. We could call them Palmetto Bucks.

Then we could pay off all those pesky state debts, and any time we ran low, we could just tell Republican state Treasurer Converse Chellis to run down to the local Kinko's speedy quick and run off a few hundred million more.

So, to all you soft-headed cry babies who think we actually have any real problems in our state, we say think big. And special thanks to S.C. Republicans for reminding us that fortune never favors the faint-hearted, and that extremism in the defense of ignorance is no vice.

Originally printed in The State, cross-posted on the SC New Dems blog.

For more from the SC New Democrats, visit SCNewDemocrats.org. And don't forget to join us on Twitter and Facebook.

Subversive Registration in South Carolina

by: wjhamilton 29464

Wed Feb 10, 2010 at 10:02:24 AM EST

Edited, February 15 to reflect new bill proposing to repeal this law.

Earlier this week the realization erupted that the State of South Carolina had a program and legal requirement for subversive organizations to file a registration form with the SC Secretary of State’s Office.   This little tidbit was picked up by the Huffington Post and made the rounds on Twitter and facebook.  It telegraphed through the right wing videoverse on YouTube.

Since it fits in well with the South Carolina as running national joke storyline that our elected leaders regularly sustain with trips to Argentina and plans to starve stray school children, it transmitted well through the blogosphere.  See the Huffington Post note here.

I called the SC Secretary of State’s office to find out what was going on.  The clerk I spoke to had never heard of the form in question, though she found a PDF of it on the office’s server.  She pulled it up and admitted she had never saeen it before.  See the form here.

I asked them to call back when they got to the bottom of it.

READ THE EXTENDED TEXT BELOW TO SEE IF YOU NEED TO FILE

Let's Light One Up for Education!

by: robertdobbs

Tue Feb 02, 2010 at 15:01:39 PM EST

This is in consideration of the plan put forward by Jim Rex, candidate for South Carolina Governor concerning the use of an increase in the cigarette tax to pay for education first and then health care.

While this is a out of the box idea, you have to watch out on funding education from a sales based activity. This thought process has gotten South Carolina into a lot of trouble by basing service funding off of sales based taxes. What's worse, if you read the article, Governor Sanford will allow an increase in the cigarette tax but offset it with a decrease in income or other taxes. How idiotic of Republicans once again, the State is in dire straits already and this would make it worse.

This entire thought process is unimagineable by the Republican Leadership and the question that has to be asked, are you kidding me? The basics of revenue generation for the government is not rocket science but the Republicans in South Carolina somehow missed those classes when they went to college.

What should be done is the increase in the cigarette tax would fund Human Services, Medicaid, and Tobacco use reduction programs, all of these areas are under stress from the smoking related health issues anyway. This would fund these services from these additional funds and create less stress on general income tax revenues, which could be redirected into education.

Education should be funded fully off of the property tax, without being exempted as currently. But a more targeted approach can provide property tax relief and also improve state funding for public education, according to this new report by Daphne A. Kenyon, a visiting fellow at the Lincoln Institute. State governments who have tried to reduce property taxes and improve school performance at the same time have not met with much success according to the report. Arguing that the use of property tax revenue for schools is fundamentally sound, the report points out that increasing state aid for education does not necessarily result in lower property taxes, and it cautions against switching to greater reliance on a sales tax to fund schools. The report also recommends a targeted approach, distributing state aid for public education to the neediest school districts, schools, and students.

We have to all agree it makes no sense to allow cigarettes in South Carolina to have the lowest tax when smoking related illnesses in the State put a strain on the health services in the State.

How Can South Carolina Change Its Tax System and Save Itself!

by: robertdobbs

Thu Jan 07, 2010 at 18:56:47 PM EST

The Republicans (and some DINO's) would have South Carolinians believe that schools have more money now.  South Carolina don't believe it, this didn't happen!  The General Assembly added property tax relief to the existing state aid to schools through EFA (Education Finance Act), EIA (Education Improvement Act), and state grants.  This didn't create a situation in which schools had more money, but that residential property owners had more money.  These additional funds weren’t going to be used on improving the quality of K-12 education because the funds are not in the system anymore. South Carolina's renters and businesses also didn’t get tax relief either.

Republicans would have South Carolinians believe they have a lower tax rate than many other States in the nation, true but not entirely.  South Carolina may be ranked in the lower quadrant of taxation but ranks 14th in the U.S. in per capita fees and charges.  These fees are regressive, make the revenue system less equitable, and do not fund public schools.  What property owners need to understand is that with a higher value property, there is an association with a higher income and a higher ability to pay those property taxes.  These higher home values help create good quality schools, which in turn help increase the value of homes in those areas, not to mention better communities and more opportunities for businesses.

So let's look at the reliance on sales taxes as opposed to income and property taxes.  By South Carolina putting a larger reliance on sales taxes, they exposed themselves to any economic downturn in the economy and consumer spending.  What higher sales tax rates do facilitate is that South Carolinians turn to internet, catalog, and neighbor state shopping.  This creates losses of revenue for local merchants, small businesses, and local governments, in addition to the loss of revenues for the State of South Carolina.

Who pays the most as far as income taxes in South Carolina, well to put it simply the lower income and middle class?  In an analysis by the Institute on Taxation & Economic Policy – November 2009:

• South Carolinians earning less than $16,000 pay 7.1 percent;

• Middle-income South Carolinians earning between $27,000 and $44,000, pay 7.9 percent;

• Upper-middle income South Carolinians earning between $44,000 and $74,000 pay 8.2 percent and those earning between $74,000 and $150,000 pay 8.5 percent.

So who pays the least, of course the upper income levels in South Carolina.  In the same study as above:

• South Carolinians earning between $150,000 and $390,000 pay 7.4 percent which is lower than any other level other than those earning less than $16,000;

• South Carolinians earning above $390,000 pay only 6.4 percent, the lowest of all levels.

In this same study, Vermont’s tax system is among the least regressive in the nation because it has a highly progressive income tax and low sales and excise taxes. Vermont’s tax system is also made less unfair by the state’s refundable Earned income Tax Credit (EITC).

So South Carolina Republicans, how do you expect your system of government to function when those with the financial resources pay the least and those who don't have the financial resources pay the most?  It is a widely known fact that states that have a disproportionate reliance on sales and excise taxes make their taxes among the highest in the entire nation on low-income families.

So what do the citizens and voters of South Carolina need to do? 

First you have to understand the entire tax system needs to be restructured and this means some will pound the drums that taxes are going up.  Well they will, but for those who are currently getting away with paying less, these should change to be more equitable. 

Secondly, everyone should understand this process will take some time but the results will be better for education, lower income and middle class families, and help government properly fund services. 

Everyone wants government to be there and provide services for them, but don't want to pay for it.  The goal is to make South Carolina not a poor state anymore but one helps all become successful and earn more money, which in turn helps everyone.

Here are some facts to consider about South Carolina from the US Census Bureau:

• Of the 133,563 South Carolina families with 2006 income below the federal poverty level, two-thirds had one or more workers.
 
• In 2006, 22% of South Carolina’s children lived in poverty – below $20,444 for a two-parent family with 2 children.

• Forty-four percent of South Carolina children in 2006 lived in families with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Out in the Silence - Trailer

by: JamieSanderson

Tue Jan 05, 2010 at 21:48:08 PM EST

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Allow Debate on Senate Amendment 2837!

by: robertdobbs

Fri Dec 11, 2009 at 02:10:41 AM EST

The American public strongly supports the idea of creating a government-run health insurance plan to compete with private insurance companies in order to keep them honest.  

However the public option, or as it has become to be known "Medicare for Everyone", is under attack in the U.S. Senate thanks to millions of dollars from the health insurance industry.  

The health insurance industry is scared that it won't be able to compete and these corporations are lobbying hard to block the public option.  

I call upon Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to allow debate and a vote on Senate Amendment 2837, the single payer amendment as introduced by Senator Bernie Sanders.

On December 10, 2009, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid spoke to the media confirming the public option will be dropped in favor of a combination of a "nonprofit" arrangement and lowering the eligible age for Medicare to 55.  The new nonprofit plan would see private insurance companies operating under the oversight of the Office of Personnel Management.

When the public option was dropped, this was and is not health care reform.  The Democrats in the Senate will be putting the "fox in charge of the hen house" by allowing the health insurance industry to control health care in America, which is what we have already.  

In a December 10, 2009, CNN poll, 61% of those polled oppose the Senate plan without the public option while 53% support a public health insurance option administered by the federal government.  The Democrats in the Senate need to wake up and put aside the interests of the health insurance corporations and their monetary donations.

The Congress and President, past and present, have no problem spending almost $1 trillion on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, but won't allow Americans an option for real health care reform.  

To date, $915.1 billion dollars have been allocated to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  In addition to this approved amount, the FY2010 budget shows a $130 billion request for more war spending. This would bring total war spending in Iraq and Afghanistan to more than $1 trillion.  

The public option, especially single payer, will help all Americans, along with small businesses, and provide true health care reform.  Senator Reid and fellow Democrats don’t undercut real health care reform, allow debate and a vote on Senate Amendment 2837!

The New Republican Party!

by: robertdobbs

Fri Nov 06, 2009 at 17:13:23 PM EST

All we have to do is look at some of the recent hot political issues: health care, unemployment extension, immigration reform, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Health Care Reform:

We have been waiting for months for the Republicans to come up with a Health Care Reform package in writing to back up all of the rhetoric they have put forward against the plan being floated by the Democratic Leadership.  Well we now have that plan in writing and believe it or not, it doesn't save as much money nor does it cover more people than the Democrat plan.

Unemployment Extension

The unemployment extension bill was held up for 7 weeks by the Republicans so they can argue about ACORN, again, and attempt to get a Real Estate Extension Tax Credit.  Two issues that should have been seperate from the unemployment extension bill.  

Immigration Reform:

Health Care Reform is now making the Administration and Congress address this important issue and how illegal immigration deals with the health care reform debate. Congress, along with the current and prior Presidents, have not been forceful enough to create a true immigration reform package to end illegal immigration and put all illegal immigrants either on the books or out of the country. We cannot move forward on any true reform with health care or immigration unless both issues are addressed.  However the Republicans want an all or nothing solution to the immmigration issue.

Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

Taxpayers in South Carolina will pay $6.7 billion for total Iraq and Afghanistan war spending since 2001. For the same amount of money, the following could have been provided:

3,594,955 People with Health Care for One Year OR
4,866,884 Homes with Renewable Electricity for One Year OR
179,567 Public Safety Officers for One year OR
127,932 Music and Arts Teachers for One Year OR
858,968 Scholarships for University Students for One Year OR
1,253,611 Students receiving Pell Grants of $5350 OR
65,587 Affordable Housing Units OR
3,894,311 Children with Health Care for One Year OR
1,006,577 Head Start Places for Children for One Year OR
129,600 Elementary School Teachers for One Year OR
89,350 Port Container Inspectors for One year

So what does the Republican Party use as the litmus test (another word for discrimination):

Does the candidate support gay rights;

Is the candidate against the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan;

Does the candidate support public option;

Does the candidate support environmental regulation?

The list goes on and on.  Doesn't sound like an inclusive political party.

"You Lie" Rep. Joe Wilson Blames Obama for H1N1 Vaccine Shortage!

by: robertdobbs

Mon Nov 02, 2009 at 23:47:23 PM EST

Is this guy for real!  Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) says President Obama has endangered American lives by not doing more to alleviate the nation's short supply of H1N1 vaccine.

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) stated in an interview with CNSNews.com concerning the shortage of H1N1 vaccine, "The current administration is solely responsible. They can't blame this on any prior administration," said Wilson. "This is the responsibility of the current administration. They've put the lives of Americans at risk."

http://www.eyeblast.tv/public/checker.aspx?v=Gd6USU4zIr

Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) voted against a bill in June which contained special funding to combat H1N1 both domestically and internationally.  However, Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) forgets this fact, even thoug he felt compelled to make the infamous "You Lie" comment during the President's address to Congress in September and now this ridiculous comment. The "Party of No" and Joe Wilson once again has to pull its foot out of its mouth. 

Needless to say Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) was campaigning in New Jersey for Chris Christie in the Governor's race at a rally and fund-raiser sponsored by NJ Tea Party.  However during an interview on Fox News Chris Christie denied the claim that Rep. Joe Wilson (R-SC) was campaigning in New Jersey for him, telling Fox News, "There was no campaigning with Joe Wilson."  I don't blame him, being that close in the polls Christie doesn't need the baggage of Joe Wilson. 

Doesn't look good for Joe Wilson when his own party's candidates won't admit to his assistance.

GOP Senators Go Down in Flames for Stalling on Major Bills in US Senate

by: robertdobbs

Thu Oct 22, 2009 at 23:44:53 PM EDT

The GOP Senators only have themselves to blame for going down in flames by their consistant stalling tactics in the US Senate.  Senate Democrats will this week try to make progress on other initiatives that have been moving at a snails pace due to the stalling tactics of Senate Republicans.

Senate Democrats are complaining and rightfull so, that an extension of unemployment benefits, a major Pentagon policy measure, the remaining spending bills and a series of nominations are being slowed by Senate Republicans who are interested in keeping Congress tied up for their own personal gain and deny Democrats any successes at legislation.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev)filed a procedural motion Wednesday night on legislation that would extend federal unemployment benefits to long term unemployed people for up to 20 weeks and will hold a procedural vote next Tuesday afternoon to proceed to legislation extending unemployment insurance nationwide.  GOP leaders stalled the unemployment extension on provisions addressing their concerns over immigration, the first time homeowner tax credit, and ACORN.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2009/10/22/796161/-GOP-Senators-Go-Down-in-Flames-for-Stalling-on-Major-Bills-in-US-Senate

GOP Senators are Blocking Extension of Unemployment Because of ACORN and Real Estate Tax Credit

by: robertdobbs

Wed Oct 21, 2009 at 01:13:41 AM EDT

That's right, the unemployment extension bill is being held up by the Republicans so they can argue about ACORN, again, and attempt to get a Real Estate Extension Tax Credit.  These two issues should be seperate from the unemployment extension bill.  

The unemployment extension bill continues to sit and good Americans, who have lost their jobs, now have to sit and wait, while their benefits are or have ran out.  These Republicans clearly don't care how the unemployed are going to feed their families, pay their necessary bills, mortgage, etc.

Why would they care, they have excellent Federal Benefits and salary.

It is time for every American to stand up to these crooks and liars and get action for the MILLIONS who need help.  They can pass cash for clunkers in 1 week, but helping millions of Americans whose unemployment benefits that have or going to run out, doesn't matter.

Here is the copy of the Democratic Senators Press Conference today:

http://nelp.3cdn.net/7b88b5c7188c9d8e79_nim6bn5rf.pdf

Friend or Foe of the Unemployment Extensions:

http://hubpages.com/hub/voting-records-on-unemployment-insurance-extensions-recession-2008-2009

Contact Your U.S. Senator:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

GOP Senators Now are Blocking Extension of Unemployment Insurance

by: robertdobbs

Wed Oct 14, 2009 at 15:21:35 PM EDT

Republican Senators are now blocking the unemployment extension that Democratic Senators were attempting to get passed this week.  Dow Jones is reporting that Senate Republicans' plan to stall debate on the bill (H.R. 3548) -- which was expected to hit the floor this week -- because they object to its primary funding mechanism: an extension of the federal unemployment surtax for an additional 18 months.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, and the Democrats in the Senate, attempted to speed up the normal chamber procedures to take a quick vote on the measure to extend unemployment compensation due to the fact that millions will exhaust their benefits without hope of employment due to the still declining job market.  However, Republicans in the Senate, lead by Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona, have now utilized stalling tactics by demanding more time to consider the bill and add amendments to it.  The main sticking point is because the Republicans object to unemployment's primary funding mechanism: an extension of the federal unemployment surtax for an additional 18 months.

These Republican Senators clearly do not care about the millions of Americans that have exhausted their unemployment benefits and have not secured employment to to regional economic conditions that have not produced additional employment as promised.  This legislation was passed by the U.S. House on September 23, 2009, and these arrogant politicians now are slowing the process down!  They have done nothing for almost 20 days and sat on this legislation.  Maybe considering they are making $174,000 plus automatic pay increases every year clouds their thinking and causes them to forget about the millions of Americans who are trying to keep their power on, food for the children, and heat their homes.  But why would they care, typical Americans cannot donate millions of dollars to their campaign coffers.

Now is time to stand up and make these Republican Senators phones, email, and faxes blow off the charts with responses.  Everyone needs to make every contact possible to every Republican U.S. Senator's Office and have your voices heard.

Use this link to find the Senators:

http://www.senate.gov/general/contact_information/senators_cfm.cfm

The Question of Health Care Reform and Immigration

by: robertdobbs

Wed Sep 23, 2009 at 05:23:07 AM EDT

What is now occurring involves a real debate on illegal immigration and the lack of attention to this important issue. Health Care Reform is now making the Administration and Congress address this important issue and how illegal immigration deals with the health care reform debate. Congress, along with the current and prior Presidents, have not been forceful to create a true immigration reform package to end illegal immigration and put all illegal immigrants either on the books or out of the country. We cannot move forward on any true reform with health care or immigration unless both issues are addressed.

All we have to look at an example of how to deal with the immigration issue is in Canada. In Canada they have universal health coverage, a large immigration program, and very few undocumented workers. In Canada, they do not tolerate illegal immigration because of the cost to the government guaranteed medical care. The Canadian immigration system is more difficult than the U.S. system and thereby is the gate keeper also for the Canadian health care system. Per an immigration report in 2003 from the Canadian government, the estimated number of undocumented people living in Canada is somewhere between 100,000 to 200,000, compared to 20 million in the U.S. When compared to United States, illegal immigration to Canada is less.  

There's No Free Lunch!

by: robertdobbs

Sat Jul 04, 2009 at 23:04:10 PM EDT

I seem to always end up debating this continued contentious issue with many people I come across, specifically Republicans.  It is just like in the movie "Cool Hand Luke", they just don't get it.  There is no such animal as "Free Trade", nothing is for free and there is always a catch or price to pay.  My college economics professor always said, "there's no free lunch, even if you think it is free, there is something someone always wants."

 According to U.S. Department of Commerce, the trade deficit in 2008 was about $673.3 billion.  Economists claim that the deficit with China costs American jobs and the Economic Policy Institute claims that 1.8 million manufacturing jobs have been lost since China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001.

As far as labor rights/relations, the AFL-CIO commissioned a study that has estimated the repression of labor rights by the Chinese government had lowered manufacturing wages by 47% to 86% (AFL-CIO 2006, 138).  Jobs displaced by the growing China trade deficit drain on employment in the manufacturing sector especially.  According to this website,  http://www.numberswatchdog.com/china/china%20new%20jobs.htm, South Carolina is estimated to have lost almost 30,000 jobs to China from 2000 to 2006.

So why don't our politicians have the intestinal fortitude to stand up for American workers and put the American worker before Free Trade, NAFTA, China, and WTO.  The Chinese do not care about copyright infringement, environmental standards, labor standards, working conditions, product safety, etc.  Yet no one stands up and takes them to the wood shed.

Running against Sanford

by: Laurin Manning

Wed Mar 18, 2009 at 00:00:00 AM EDT

The Democratic nominee for governor in 2010 won't be running against Henry McMaster.  Or Gresham Barrett.  Or Andre Bauer.  The Democratic nominee for governor in 2010 will run against Mark Sanford and his eight-year tenure in the State House.  

And the Democratic nominee -- whoever he or she may turn out to be -- ought to be running against Mark Sanford right now.

I was glad to see the South Carolina Democratic Party finally make an organized public effort yesterday at pushing back on Sanford and his stimulus shenanigans, but there's a much stronger case to be made than a lame press conference with predictable zingers from John Land.  Where are the press conferences with people who are actually suffering and need help?  (They are not hard to find.)

More importantly, where is their champion?  

This is a keen opportunity for some breakthrough leadership in the Palmetto State.  The case against Sanford-style governing needs to be being made, and it needs to be made now.  South Carolinians are looking for an alternative.  Red state or not, folks here know what we have now isn't working.  Sanford remains popular with Republican party activists, so no GOP gubernatorial hopeful is going to step up and criticize their standard-bearer on the brink of a party primary.  But Democratic hopefuls ought to.  And not just for the sake of aiming to win an election.  This is about understanding the pain people are suffering right now, articulating a real plan for addressing it, recognizing the sense of urgency, and pledging to actually deliver relief.

Timing is everything in politics.  Mark Sanford knows this (and capitalizes on it) better than anyone.  It's time for a leader among Democrats to step up and leverage the opportunity Sanford has created for someone to articulate a clear alternative to him.

SC Legislative Black Caucus Takes a Stand

by: Atlas

Thu Feb 26, 2009 at 19:39:44 PM EST

Members of the South Carolina Legislative Black Caucus and some of the other members of the Democratic Caucus took a stand today. They walked off the floor of the State House in protest over a bill that would require voters to show a picture ID to prove their identities at polling places. According to WIS:

Democrats contend the measure is about suppressing the vote. They say there's no need for the proposal since there are no documented cases of voter fraud in South Carolina. "We oppose this bill because we see it as a throwback to times of people being suppressed and not given an opportunity to fully participate in the electoral process," Rep. David Weekes of Sumter County said.

SC Republican lawmakers passed the bill despite the walkout. South Carolina now joins the illustrious ranks of Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, Michigan, and South Dakota in requiring photo IDs. It's funny how our GOP lawmakers didn't care about voter fraud until black folks voted en masse for President Obama:

"This is a backlash against Obama. We have over two million registered voters in the state of South Carolina and 1.9 million voters voted in this  last election -- that's a 75 percent turnout with not one incident of reported fraud came to the Election Commission. Not one," Rep. Chris Hart of Richland County said.

If you're worried about voter fraud, Republican, then provide evidence to back up your claims. I haven't heard any of you mention specific incidents documented by the SC Election Commission. Where are the statistics?

I'm sure it hasn't gone unnoticed by Republicans across the country trying to ram these disenfranchising bills through their legislatures that people of color, rural voters,  low-income people, the elderly, individuals with disabilities, people who move often, and people in large households are disproportionately affected by voter ID legislation. And, let's not forget your screwing over college students, too. This is what the GOP calls diversity.

Despite this new law, the state cannot compel someone to buy a form of state issued identification. A fundamental principle of fairness is being violated.  This is a modern day poll tax. According to the Boston Globe:

It can cost anywhere from $5 to $23 to get a birth certificate; a passport costs between $87 and $97. To a lot of people, $97 might be the cost of a night out on the town. But any price tag on voting amounts to a poll tax, which is still illegal in this country.

Identification costs money no matter where you are in the U.S., and I don't think GOP lawmakers in South Carolina are volunteering to pay for any. Moreover, I think they need to be schooled in the principles of freedom and democracy since they obviously didn't pay attention in civics class:

Why not photo ID at the polls? Because democracy does not make any claims to protect rights to airline travel, personal banking, or a Blockbuster membership. What democracy does -- what it demands in order to live up to the name -- is to hand over power to its citizens through free elections, and to refrain from throwing obstacles in the way.

For all of the Republican lawmakers who make the specious argument about how you have to show ID to rent a movie or fly you should show ID to vote. Voting is a right, idiots. Renting a movie, flying, and all that other nonsese you are talking about are luxuries. Your claims are as irrational as Katon Dawson's lame excuse that he was trying to fight discrimination by being a member of an all-whites club for 12 years.

What makes this such an obvious ploy is that Republicans all over the country are pulling this B.S. I guess they are looking toward the future. After all, if the GOP can lose at the polls, many of the people who don't vote for you can lose at the polls, too.

Update: Realizing that it looks bad to screw over the voting rights of so many affinity groups, Republicans are going to mostly screw over rural South Carolinians. Reportedly, they are going to make state IDs free. However, the money that comes from IDs are used to improve rural roads. So, you can get a free ID to vote, but the rough roads might give you a flat tire before you get to the polling place. Great idea to kill a revenue stream in the middle of a recession and a state deficit that you help create.

Also, I wonder if the SCGOP plans to advertise these free IDs before the next election? Probably not. You would rather see all of us poor, uneducated, unemployed, and disenfranchised as long as you can stay in power. Change your moniker from SCGOP to SCSOB.