Gop Needs To Make Its Election Sweep Count

The big story of the week is how Republicans regained control of the U.S. Senate because voters across America are just plain mad.
In fact in South Carolina, they’re so mad that they voted to return every single Republican incumbent on the ballot to Columbia to continue to run state government. Yes, the state GOP benefited from voter anger — even though Republicans have been running the legislature and governor’s office for the last 12 years.
With all of the problems across South Carolina, it’s pretty remarkable that voters wanted to keep Republicans in control instead of trying something new. Those coattails of anger must run pretty deep.
So as a state, we’re going to start off next year in pretty much the same fix as we’ve had since 2003. We’re going to start out with folks in charge who know how to win elections, but have a hard time putting pen to paper and actually governing.
Governing means that the GOP should recognize that balloons come in more colors than red, as one Facebook wag noted. Governing means that state Republicans need to get out of a self-serving campaign mode and do what they were elected to do — the hard work to make government work better for all people in the Palmetto State, not just Republicans in South Carolina.
This shouldn’t be a novel concept, but it seems that those in power in Columbia still don’t understand what it means to make the state run effectively, efficiently and fairly.
Governing means actually doing something to fix our state’s crumbling road infrastructure, not just talking about what might happen. It does not mean promising to come up with a plan after the election (thanks Gov. Nikki Haley) or borrowing a little bit when the bill that is due for fixing roads is upwards of $40 billion.
Governing means funding public education as required by the law, not steering a half billion dollars a year away from students by fiddling with formulas, as has been done for the last six years. Governing means coming up with innovative education solutions, not refusing federal money or accepting the low court-defined requirement of the state’s role to provide only a “minimally adequate” education. Folks, if we don’t have educated workers, how in the world do you think we can continue to compete in the global economy? It’s in our self-interest to put more into public education, not less.
Governing means implementing real and comprehensive tax reform, not forming another study committee to write a report that will gather dust on a shelf. Governing is not crafting a public law to shift the tax burden away from the rich to the middle class and businesses. If next year’s legislators really want to accomplish anything for the greater good of the people of the state, they will make the tax code fairer to all, starting with broadening the tax base, lowering rates, eliminating a boatload of sales tax exemptions, restructuring income tax brackets and revamping the failing policy of lowering property taxes for a few and raising sales taxes on all.
Governing means passing ethics reform, not succumbing to cynicism and failing to do whatever it takes to clean up South Carolina’s culture of backroom deals, soft money, and opaque with the amount allocated every year in the budget process. It means doing more than the state Supreme Court’s finding to provide a “minimally adequate” education.
Governing means making sure that people are healthier, not posturing and grandstanding over federal help to expand Medicaid to 200,000 of the state’s poorest. Republican governors from all over the country have accepted federal Obamacare money and, despite what many closed ears want to hear, the program is dropping the rates of uninsured people like gangbusters and keeping down health costs.
Regardless of political party, governing means taking responsibility for what happens and working to make things better. It’s time for Columbia’s politicians to stop all of the blather and nonsense and actually do something … for a change.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report. He can be reached at: brack@statehousereport.com.