Action Alert: Stop NSA Snooping with the LIBERT-E Act

Source Article from http://www.rlc.org/action-alert-stop-nsa-snooping-with-the-libert-e-act/

The post Action Alert: Stop NSA Snooping with the LIBERT-E Act appeared first on Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.

South Carolina, along with the rest of our Republic, is in the 11th hour. We are standing in the shadow of the next phase of Obamacare’s implementation in January. At this year’s SCGOP Convention, you told the delegation that “we will not allow Obamacare to enter into our state.” Last month, the SC House Republicans overwhelmingly passed Rep.Bill Chumley’s H3101, The Freedom of Health Care Protection Act. The Senate Finance Committee sat on the bill for the remainder of the month, expecting it to die. But Senator Kevin Bryant, along with the help of Lee Bright, Shane Martin, and other Senate Republicans, resurrected the bill from the dead last week with a recall. Amazingly, the Senate Republicans voted H3101 into Special Order the next day. All this happened because citizens like me called, emailed, Tweeted, and took time off work to attend hearings in Columbia to make H3101 happen. We The People expect this work to be completed. This is the last week of the SC General Assembly session. If the SC Senate Republicans fail to pass H3101 this week, please call for an Executive Session, giving the SC Senate additional time to insure the bill passes & makes it to your desk. Thank you for your promise to stop Obamacare in South Carolina.

Sincerely,
Robbie W. Bowen
Vice-Chairman
Republican Liberty Caucus
SC Upstate Chapter

The post An Open Letter to Nikki Haley appeared first on Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.

Thank you for publicly urging South Carolina Republicans to contact their state Senators last week in opposition of Obama’s expanded pre-kindergarten plan.  It is our duty as a party to be vigilant and actively hold elected Republican officials accountable when they stray from our platform.  I believe that starts with leadership, and I commend you for taking the initiative.

In your email, you described the SC Senate as “the place where good legislation goes to die.”  As I’m sure you are well aware, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Hugh Leatherman has yet to schedule a subcommittee hearing for Rep. Bill Chumley’s H3101, the SC Freedom of Healthcare Protection Act.  The bill was passed overwhelmingly by House Republicans on May 1.  The bill arrived in the Senate the next day.  It currently sits on Senator Leatherman’s desk, where it will die if his committee does not move it along for a Senate floor vote in the next three weeks.

Obama’s Patient Protection & Affordable Care Act is fast upon us.  Currently there is nothing preventing South Carolina from opening a state-based exchange, allowing citizens to enroll in government-subsidized healthcare plans effective in September..  Nor is there any current legislation protecting South Carolinians from being  fined for lack of federally-approved healthcare coverage, effective in January of next year.  South Carolina has no mechanism in place to prevent new federal regulations on health insurance providers, which many expect to triple healthcare costs in our state & place unnecessary burdens on providers and patients alike.  These draconian mandates will also be implemented in January of next year.  Senator Jim Demint referred to “ObamaCare” as a “bureaucratic nightmare” of “159 federal agencies” to run health care in America.

Chairman Connelly, I’m calling on you to take the lead once again on this issue.  Send a strong, public message to all South Carolina Republicans, urging them to contact Senator Leatherman’s office immediately at  (803) 212-6640, SFinComm@scsenate.gov, and  @hughkleatherman demanding a Senate Finance Subcommittee hearing on H3101.  Tell them also to contact their Senators at (803) 212-6200, scstatehouse.gov, or @scsenategop and ask each and every one of them to put H3101 on special order for a full Senate vote.  Lastly, Chairman Connelly, I ask that you personally contact Governor Nikki Haley as well as each member of our South Carolina Republican delegation in Washington, DC and ask them to publicly urge the SC Senate to allow a full vote on H3101.

South Carolina, along with the rest of this great nation, is in the 11th hour of a looming crisis that will shape the future of our Republic.  ObamaCare is coming soon, Chairman Connelly.  I’m asking you to lead this party in a battle for individual liberty, the free market, and limited government in the state of South Carolina.  I eagerly await your response to this dire request.  Thanks again.

Sincerely,
Robbie W.Bowen
Vice-Chairman
Republican Liberty Caucus
South Carolina Upstate Chapter

The post Open Letter to Chairman Chad Connelly appeared first on Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.

Please join us on Wednesday, June 5th, 2013 for our Bastiat Society meeting with Dr. Scott Pearson featuring his talk entitled:

“Microfinance Meets the Market”

Dr. R. Scott Pearson is Assistant Professor and Chair of Business & Economics at Charleston Southern University. He is also President of Value View Financial Corp., an investment advisory firm.

Many see Microfinance as a panacea for reducing poverty, but can it survive the turmoil that market forces are likely to bring? Modern microfinance began in Bangladesh, when U.S.-trained economist Dr. Muhammed Yunus took it upon himself to lend miniscule amounts of money to the very poor to build businesses. Over the years, millions in the developing world have benefited from these micro loans and risen from grinding poverty. But as the industry has grown, it has experienced growing pains, and competition has entered the scene. Can microfinance continue to reach the very poor amidst these new challenges? Are poverty fighters prepared for change? What’s in store for micro finance as market forces remake the idea?

More about Scott Pearson:

SCOTT PEARSON is Asst. Professor and Chair of Business & Economics at Charleston Southern University and also President of Value View Financial Corp., an investment advisory firm. In addition, he has worked with microfinance organizations in the developing world, offering consultation on future trends in the industry. Dr. Pearson earned his B.A. from Samford University, his M.B.A. with a concentration in Entrepreneurship from the University of South Florida and M.A. and Ph.D. in Economics and Development Economics from The Ohio State University. He has previously taught at Washington College, Capital University, Webster University, and the University of South Florida. His areas of research interest include micro finance, micro-enterprise development, crowd funding, and investment markets.

The post Bastiat Society Event with Scott Pearson (Chairman) appeared first on Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.

Yesterday, I received an unsolicited email with the above image in it, asking me for donations for SC Senate Republicans. This image makes the extraordinary claim that the South Carolina Senate Republicans stopped Obamacare. In the spirit of the current NBA Finals, this is a flagrant foul of the worst kind.

The truth of the matter is that SC Senate Republicans are currently sitting on and blocking the one measure at their disposal that actually would stop Obamacare, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care (unconstitutional) Act: H.3101, the Freedom of Healthcare Protection Act, which passed the SC House with an overwhelming vote of 65-39, with most (if not all) House Republicans voting for it. Unfortunately, this bill is currently in the SC Senate Finance Committee, where bills generally go to die. Hugh Leatherman refuses to let it out of committee, or even have a hearing on it, for reasons unknown. The SC Senate Republicans could in fact vote to overrule the committee and bring it to the floor, then vote to stop Obamacare, but they refuse to do so!

You can put pressure on them by calling the members of the committee, and the members of the SC Senate. I would encourage everyone to do so. Let them know that their lies aren’t fooling anyone. If they don’t act quickly, we will lose our most fundamental rights, the ability to choose how we take care of ourselves. The same IRS that is embroiled in corruption and political targeting scandals will be making determinations on whether or not you get life-saving medical procedures. How does that make you feel?

You should be outraged. The fact is, the only thing the SC Senate Republicans did was block an effort by Democrats to expand medicaid in this state. By the way, there is a Republican plan to do basically the same thing that has not been killed yet. Either way, this does nothing to stop Obamacare. This is one small piece of Obamacare, and the fact is that if the legislation goes into effect then there will be federal healthcare exchanges that will simply overrule whatever our state government does. H.3101 puts in place the framework for resistance, the ability for us to say “No!” to those new exchanges and regulations and taxes. The only way the SC Senate can stop Obamacare is to pass H3101.

The post SC Senate Republicans Are Lying to You appeared first on Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.

Taxes distort the price system and always alter behavior away from the free-market ideal. That is why, as J.B. Say said, the best tax is always the lowest tax. But in recent years, state and local governments have been using the tax system, along with direct subsidies of all sorts, to influence where particular firms locate, all in an effort to generate more growth and thus more tax revenue. Can states and localities really “buy growth” for themselves through this means?

The National Association of State Development Agency claims that every state has made the attraction, retention, and expansion of business a part of their basic operations. States are pursuing “investment strategies” with an unrivaled intensity and sophistication.

In 1992, South Carolina’s state government offered BMW $100 million in incentives to build a plant. In 1993, Alabama’s state government gave Mercedes Benz a $250 million subsidy to build a new plant. That same year, Indiana presented United Airlines with a $300 million deal to build a facility. Also, in 1993, Kentucky lured a Toyota plant away from Missouri by providing a $125 million tax incentive.

Kentucky acquired a new steel plant with $140 million in tax credits. New Mexico has lured business away from California using tax incentives.

These numbers only include direct costs. When a new business is subsidized to enter a rural area, for example, there are new roads to build, new schools to fund, and new utilities of all sorts to provide. State and local government stand ready to provide all of these services at taxpayer expense. What has led to this so-called “economic war between the states”? Dwight Lee and Richard McKenzie in their book Quicksilver Capital claim that technological advances, starting in the 1980s, have allowed firms greater choice over locations. Firms compare corporate and property tax rates of various states to decide where to locate.

If true, this would generate tax competition between states. Firms will locate in one state over another to take advantage of the tax differential. The process of competition in the market place would place constraints on the taxing power of state governments. We might even see declining tax rates at both the corporate and personal level.

Alas, marginal tax rates among the states are not declining. Instead, we see competition among state development agencies not to lower taxes to all firms and encourage economic growth, but to offer direct support or direct financial incentives to selected firms. This is called “industry targeting,” and anecdotal evidence suggests it can be effective in attracting investment. State officials claim that the government’s objective is economic growth. However, state government officials act for their own benefit, and the bureaucratic motivation for using direct financial incentives is something other than enhancing state economic growth. State governments want to maximize their tax revenue.

In the early 1980s, it appeared that states would begin lowering taxes due to market pressure. Very quickly, however, another method emerged. By using direct financial incentives, a state can target a particular manufacturing firm and offer it incentives and tax exemptions without reducing existing revenue. That way the state government can claim that it has “created jobs” and promoted economic growth for the state.

The use of direct financial incentives can serve another purpose to politicians. It allows state spending on development to be conducted off-budget. In most cases, state development agencies issue the direct financial incentives. The operating expenditures of the agency are part of the budget, but the expenditures associated with the direct financial incentives are not. This allows the state to circumvent public approval and still “balance the budget.”

The practice of offering state financial incentives is nothing new in American history. It was popular during the railroad era, between 1830 and 1880, too. Cities subsidized the railroad industry to guarantee a connection along the railway. But public outrage at the inevitable political corruption led to constitutional provisions that prohibited state lending or investment in the capital stock of private firms.

The use of financial incentives by state and local industrial development agencies became common again during the New Deal. Federal agencies encouraged states to issue industrial development bonds. The first to do so was Mississippi in 1936. Today, every state now has some type of development agency, each a living testament to FDR’s baneful political legacy. In the 1980s, state and local governments developed new types of direct financial incentives to avoid federal regulations and state constitutional constraints.

These schemes do not generate economic growth; they only cause firms to change their locations, not their production plans. State governments are causing firms to shift resources not based on market conditions but on distorted prices due to state incentive policies. One should recall the famous “Lesson” of Henry Hazlitt: what economic development would have occurred if state development agencies had not intervened in the first place?

Some economists claim that so long as incentives are directing firms to areas with high unemployment, these policies are wonderful. In fact, the free market already does this, directing resources to where they are in greatest demand and cheapest to employ. State financial packages can only distort prices and resource allocation.

One commonly proposed solution is for the federal government to declare financial incentives and firm bidding illegal. Alice Rivlin, the vice chairman of the Fed, suggests that states “make their tax policies more uniform, to compete on excellence of their services, not on the lowness of their taxes.”

But a tax harmonization similar to the European community would actually make the problem worse. Tax competition between states places constraints on government spending and lowers tax rates to allow for real economic growth. Legislating high taxes across the board will cause states to compete through state development agencies. They will not reduce taxes; they will merely subsidize and benefit one firm at everyone else’s expense.

So what is the answer? States should stop circumventing their constitutions that generally prohibit tax funds being used to benefit particular businesses. The whole institution of the state development agency needs to be scrapped as a futile and frequently corrupt effort in economic planning that only ends up redistributing other people’s money. What we need is a free market within the states and economic competition among states, not a war among state government agencies.

_______________________________________

Republished under Creative Commons Attribution License at http://mises.org/freemarket_detail.aspx?control=30

The post Can States Buy Business? appeared first on Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.

RLC of Virginia Announces Statewide Endorsements

Source Article from http://www.rlc.org/rlc-of-virginia-announces-statewide-endorsements/

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On the surface, this seems like an alarming revelation but is it really surprising? Claims that the IRS has been prone to intimidating political opponents are nothing new and have occurred under both parties. Most noteworthy are the famous claims that the Nixon administration used tax audits against political enemies. More recently, it was alleged Koch Industries (whose leadership has ties to conservative groups) had its tax records improperly accessed by a senior Obama administration official who disclosed confidential information about the company on a conference call with journalists. The IRS has a history of using its power to intimidate political opponents. There is nothing new under the sun. But that does not mean it is excusable. It is yet one more example of why the IRS should not exist in the first place.

The IRS is a destructive force at its core. As Daniel Webster said on behalf of the second Bank of the United States in McCulloch v. Maryland in 1819, “[T]he power to tax is the power to destroy.” That makes it all the more concerning that the power of the IRS continues to grow greater and greater now that it is charged with enforcement of the individual health care mandate in the Affordable Care Act. Can Americans feel confident about the objectivity of the IRS with recent reports of selective scrutiny based on political ideology? Should this agency be given yet more power as a reward for its assault on free speech?

Americans should certainly not feel confident about the IRS or its objectivity. If the power to tax is the power to destroy, then the IRS is quite simply a freedom destroying enterprise. Its entire existence is predicated on raiding the wealth of the private sector in order to feed the beast of an unproductive government. And it is no surprise that the IRS would take particular note of organizations which philosophically oppose its mission of wealth destruction.

The actions of the IRS ought to be enough to wake up reasonable Americans to ask if there is not a better way. This is not so much a partisan issue but a structural problem with the enforcement of an income tax itself. The majority of our nation’s history has occurred without a tax on income – without this desire to destroy wealth and without bureaucratic bullies targeting those who dare to speak out against this racket. There are a multitude of alternatives to raise revenue and – more importantly – reduce the need for revenue by curtailing the size and scope of government. In any case, something must be done to ensure the American people do not have to fear reprisals from their government for exercising their fundamental right to freedom of speech. Recent events merely reinforce the need to eradicate this cancer entirely from a nation that otherwise desires to be free. Let us abolish the IRS once and for all. End it; don’t mend it.

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Nye Elected RLC National Chair at 2013 Bi-Annual Convention

Source Article from http://www.rlc.org/florida-man-elected-rlc-national-chair/

The post Nye Elected RLC National Chair at 2013 Bi-Annual Convention appeared first on Republican Liberty Caucus of South Carolina.

RLC Congratulates Mark Sanford on Victory in South Carolina CD1

Source Article from http://www.rlc.org/rlc-congratulates-mark-sanford-on-victory-in-south-carolina-cd1/

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