Every so often a “gut check” vote comes along which lets you know whether a politician is the real deal or “all talk.”
Such a vote happened at the federal level last year when aircraft manufacturer Boeing successfully pushed the reauthorization of the U.S. Export-Import Bank – which enables foreign competitors to get low interest loans on Boeing jets (which has the adverse effect of making them more competitive against U.S.-based airlines).
Only two South Carolina Congressmen – U.S. Reps. Mick Mulvaney and Jeff Duncan – had the stones to vote against this crony capitalist handout.
Who flaked? Then U.S. Rep. (now Senator) Tim Scott – along with Reps. Trey Gowdy and Joe Wilson.
Another “gut check” vote happened at the state level this week – and again it involved a handout for Boeing.
As is the case on most votes in the S.C. Senate, a flood of “Republicans in Name Only” aligned with Democrats to give the fiscally liberal position an overwhelming majority over the fiscally conservative view – in this case a whopping 37-6 margin.
On the line? An estimated $120 million in taxpayer-funded incentives – on top of the estimated $900 million the company has already secured.
Anyway, we expected this vote to sail through the S.C. Senate – but it was profoundly disappointing to see so many so-called “conservatives” hop in bed with
First, we were shocked to see that S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy – a so-called fiscal conservative who received this website’s endorsement over her “Republican in Name Only” opponent – cast her vote for this bailout. Talk about a stab in the back.
Same for S.C. Sen. Larry Grooms – whose congressional candidacy we endorsed just last week – and Shane Massey, who continues to masquerade as a “conservative” Republican from Aiken, S.C.
We were also incredibly disappointed to see an “aye” vote on the latest Boeing bailout from new S.C. Sen. Paul Thurmond – who pretended to be a fiscal conservative in this interview with FITS a year ago.
Again … talk is cheap. Votes matter. Especially the ones which require political courage.
While sellouts by Shealy and Thurmond were profoundly disappointing, the most pathetic vote in this whole sad charade was cast by S.C. Sen. Chip Campsen (RINO-Charleston). An insufferable holier-than-thou social conservative, Campsen voted “present” on the Boeing deal.
That’s right … “present.”
Clearly he’s forgotten the Biblical admonition from the Gospel of Matthew about letting one’s “yes be yes” or one’s “no be no.” Or the admonition from the Book of Revelation about what happens to those among us who are lukewarm.
Anyway, while we expected this sort of behavior from fiscally liberal “Republicans” like Senate President John Courson, finance chairman Hugh Leatherman and “majority” leader Harvey Peeler (all of whom voted in favor of the handout), we expected better from the likes of Shealy, Grooms, Massey, Thurmond and Campsen.
ROLL CALL VOTE ON BOEING HANDOUT
***
28 comments
I am sure that my good friend Senator Chip Campsen must have misunderstood the roll call and fully intended to vote No
As for your castigation of Senators Shealy, Grooms, Massey, Thurmond it appears to be a tad unfair and illogical
I am one to believe that these Senators are privy to information that is not readily available to the common taxpayers and based on such information they voted in the best interest of all taxpayers
Taxpayers of this State are truly blessed to have Senators like Campsen, Shealy, Grooms, Massey and Thurmond covering our six
Okaaaaaay. Yeah, they have the best interest of the taxpayers at heart. Just trust them. Got it.
I am sure that my good friend Senator Chip Campsen must have misunderstood the roll call and fully intended to vote No
As for your castigation of Senators Shealy, Grooms, Massey, Thurmond it appears to be a tad unfair and illogical
I am one to believe that these Senators are privy to information that is not readily available to the common taxpayers and based on such information they voted in the best interest of all taxpayers
Taxpayers of this State are truly blessed to have Senators like Campsen, Shealy, Grooms, Massey and Thurmond covering our six
Okaaaaaay. Yeah, they have the best interest of the taxpayers at heart. Just trust them. Got it.
Overlooked in your rant is the $80,000,000 in paychecks per year that will be created by this bailout, sellout, handout.
I’ll bet if I had access to the actual relevant and truthful information to the figure you just cited that I could blow it apart in 30 minutes. Do you really think that 80 million in SC resident paychecks are coming out of Boeing in a year?
Har, Har, Har…..I don’t think so. Let’s look at your figure for a moment. Let’s say that the average salary of Boeing is going to be $100k per SC resident. HIGHLY DOUBTFUL, but let’s run with it:
Is Boeing going to employ 8000 people this year? No, here’s an article saying they have 6000 now:
http://www.thestate.com/2013/04/10/2717454/boeing-incentives-receive-preliminary.html
Now, let’s reflect reality and say their jobs are going to average $50K a year. 16,000 people? What a load of bullshit.
I’ll bet that was the figure generated by a Boeing accountant(under orders from his bosses) and spread around the Statehouse as gospel “truth” for all to vote on.
Now all that being said, I don’t have a problem with tax breaks…but I have a major problem with “taxpayer incentives”, which is typically our gov’t giving rich people our tax money.(which they should be taking from us to begin with, but I digress)
Maybe you are talking about something else, but I don’t understand where you are getting your numbers from. Lets take your figure of an average of 50k salary for 2000 new employees (which as an owner of an IT company I can assure you is extremely low). 2,000 new jobs x $50,000 in salary = 100,000,000 in new salaries every year. Just to be clear that is one hundred million dollars of new salary every year. If you go with a more realistic number say 80k a year that is $160,000,000 in new Salaries generated every year from Boeing alone. That doesn’t include the Salaries that will be generated from the 1 billion dollars Boeing investment in the North Charleston plant.
Thank you for pointing that out, I was reading “billion”, not millions.
Btw, edit for above: “Which they SHOULDN’T be taking from us”
Three points I would make aside from the immorality of taking money from people and handing it out corporations:
1. IT work naturally draws a higher skill level than many aspects of airplane construction. Sure the Boeing engineers make good money, but I can assure you the riveters aren’t. So there is a high variability in the average salary.
2. “That doesn’t include the salaries that will be generated” etc. Actually, isn’t that what they are saying? That’s how I read the State article.
3. Let us retread from a moment and say the 50k average holds, is it worth it to tax some people to the tune of $120 million for $100 million in jobs? Is that one giant redistribution program being pushed by Dems AND Repubs?
I look at this as an investment in Jobs and growth for SC. I am not one for investing millions of dollars to help billionaires build expensive homes in Kiawah, or investing billions of $ in green energy which are risky proposition. I also don’t believe in giving business such as Walmart huge tax incentives since it provides an uneven playing field. But if SC wants to compete huge manufacturing plants like BMW and Aerospace programs like Boeing, we have to provide incentives. It is my belief, (and studies on BMW investment proves my points), that these type of investments payoff off for years and years to come
I think we need to distinguish between “incentives” and “tax breaks”. This notion you have that it is acceptable to giving large, politically powerful corporations taxpayer money(which is redistribution) is at its core Fascism, but more importantly not morally right.
If we simply reduced Boeing tax burden to “zero” it would be sufficient to land them versus redistributing money from smaller/poorer people/companies to Boeing.
Overlooked in your rant is the $80,000,000 in paychecks per year that will be created by this bailout, sellout, handout.
I’ll bet if I had access to the actual relevant and truthful information to the figure you just cited that I could blow it apart in 30 minutes. Do you really think that 80 million in SC resident paychecks are coming out of Boeing in a year?
Har, Har, Har…..I don’t think so. Let’s look at your figure for a moment. Let’s say that the average salary of Boeing is going to be $100k per SC resident. HIGHLY DOUBTFUL, but let’s run with it:
Is Boeing going to employ 8000 people this year? No, here’s an article saying they have 6000 now:
http://www.thestate.com/2013/04/10/2717454/boeing-incentives-receive-preliminary.html
Now, let’s reflect reality and say their jobs are going to average $50K a year. 16,000 people? What a load of bullshit.
I’ll bet that was the figure generated by a Boeing accountant(under orders from his bosses) and spread around the Statehouse as gospel “truth” for all to vote on.
Now all that being said, I don’t have a problem with tax breaks…but I have a major problem with “taxpayer incentives”, which is typically our gov’t giving rich people our tax money.(which they should be taking from us to begin with, but I digress)
Maybe you are talking about something else, but I don’t understand where you are getting your numbers from. Lets take your figure of an average of 50k salary for 2000 new employees (which as an owner of an IT company I can assure you is extremely low). 2,000 new jobs x $50,000 in salary = 100,000,000 in new salaries every year. Just to be clear that is one hundred million dollars of new salary every year. If you go with a more realistic number say 80k a year that is $160,000,000 in new Salaries generated every year from Boeing alone. That doesn’t include the Salaries that will be generated from the 1 billion dollars Boeing investment in the North Charleston plant.
Thank you for pointing that out, I was reading “billion”, not millions.
Btw, edit for above: “Which they SHOULDN’T be taking from us”
Three points I would make aside from the immorality of taking money from people and handing it out corporations:
1. IT work naturally draws a higher skill level than many aspects of airplane construction. Sure the Boeing engineers make good money, but I can assure you the riveters aren’t. So there is a high variability in the average salary.
2. “That doesn’t include the salaries that will be generated” etc. Actually, isn’t that what they are saying? That’s how I read the State article.
3. Let us retread from a moment and say the 50k average holds, is it worth it to tax some people to the tune of $120 million for $100 million in jobs? Is that one giant redistribution program being pushed by Dems AND Repubs?
I look at this as an investment in Jobs and growth for SC. I am not one for investing millions of dollars to help billionaires build expensive homes in Kiawah, or investing billions of $ in green energy which are risky proposition. I also don’t believe in giving business such as Walmart huge tax incentives since it provides an uneven playing field. But if SC wants to compete huge manufacturing plants like BMW and Aerospace programs like Boeing, we have to provide incentives. It is my belief, (and studies on BMW investment proves my points), that these type of investments payoff off for years and years to come
I think we need to distinguish between “incentives” and “tax breaks”. This notion you have that it is acceptable to giving large, politically powerful corporations taxpayer money(which is redistribution) is at its core Fascism, but more importantly not morally right.
If we simply reduced Boeing tax burden to “zero” it would be sufficient to land them versus redistributing money from smaller/poorer people/companies to Boeing.
Tom Davis is just about the only one who stood up and voted no.
Tom Davis is just about the only one who stood up and voted no.
You left out that Campsen abstained because he believed he had a conflict of interest. http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess120_2013-2014/sj13/20130410.htm
You left out that Campsen abstained because he believed he had a conflict of interest. http://www.scstatehouse.gov/sess120_2013-2014/sj13/20130410.htm
Thurmond is the guy who extracted $100k from the taxpayers of Charleston County to get the County to buy a property he was flogging (this was his “fee” for lobbying County Council). Greenbelt money, like what ESummey opined about a week or two ago. Why would he have any issues with taking money from all the taxpayers in the state? And he supports the 526 debacle too, another $600M from the taxpayers for a useless road that doesn’t provide any benefits, like Boeing does.
Thurmond is the guy who extracted $100k from the taxpayers of Charleston County to get the County to buy a property he was flogging (this was his “fee” for lobbying County Council). Greenbelt money, like what ESummey opined about a week or two ago. Why would he have any issues with taking money from all the taxpayers in the state? And he supports the 526 debacle too, another $600M from the taxpayers for a useless road that doesn’t provide any benefits, like Boeing does.
Fascism by any other name (corporatism, corporate welfare, incentives, public private partnership, targeted tax exemptions, etc.) still smells like s**t!
Fascism by any other name (corporatism, corporate welfare, incentives, public private partnership, targeted tax exemptions, etc.) still smells like s**t!
Wasn’t it supposed to be a benefit to the citizens of Charleston and surrounding areas for Boeing to be here? Not a tax burden?
Wasn’t it supposed to be a benefit to the citizens of Charleston and surrounding areas for Boeing to be here? Not a tax burden?
SC Conservatives are voting for this bill because they understand it is a great investment in the future of our state. Unlike liberals giving hand out to green start-up businesses that go out of business within a year, Boeing is one of largest and most financially sound company in the world, The Boeing investment and subsequent jobs it brings and will bring to SC will have a bigger impact than BMW every had on our state, which itself has been wildly successful.
SC Conservatives are voting for this bill because they understand it is a great investment in the future of our state. Unlike liberals giving hand out to green start-up businesses that go out of business within a year, Boeing is one of largest and most financially sound company in the world, The Boeing investment and subsequent jobs it brings and will bring to SC will have a bigger impact than BMW every had on our state, which itself has been wildly successful.