AFP: Talk Is Cheap

We’ve got a big piece up this week exploring whether the advocacy group Americans for Prosperity (AFP) will work for – or against – liberal U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham in 2014.

We can’t imagine a scenario in which a group claiming to represent “lower taxes, less regulation and smaller government” would support Graham … but S.C. Gov. Nikki Haley is a favorite of this organization’s benefactors, and she is reportedly lobbying them hard on Graham’s behalf.

Anyway, to read that report click here …

Closer to home, AFP launched (well, re-launched) its South Carolina chapter this week – with the organization’s national president coming to Greenville, S.C. to mark the occasion.

According to him, the Palmetto State is “underperforming, compared to other red states” and lawmakers need to focus their efforts on tax cuts, pension fund reforms and expanded parental choice.

Obviously those are three of this website’s top agenda items … and have been for years.

Just this week we praised an income tax elimination proposal from S.C. Sen. Katrina Shealy (R-Lexington), while  we’ve consistently supported S.C. Treasurer Curtis Loftis in his fight to fix the state’s costly, underperforming pension system.

School choice? We’ve been advancing that issue on an almost daily basis for more than six years …

AFP’s lover girl Haley?  That’s a different story …

The first-term governor has proposed next-to-nothing in tax cuts, supported the status quo with regard to pension fund reform and failed to lift a finger on behalf of expanded parental choice.

Hmmmm …

This website has heard a lot of talk about AFP and its involvement in the reform movement in South Carolina – which for years has been championed by South Carolinians for Responsible Government (SCRG).  We hear the group is planning “big things” for the Palmetto State – particularly on the school choice front.

Good. School choice (like income tax relief and pension fund reform) is an idea whose time has come in South Carolina. Actually its time came decades ago, our state’s leaders just failed to take action.

And are still failing …

If AFP wishes to be taken seriously in South Carolina then it must embrace specific policy proposals like Shealy’s income tax plan, Loftis’ pension fund reforms and the universal parental choice bills championed by legislative leaders like Sen. Tom Davis and S.C. Rep. Eric Bedingfield.  More to the point, it must invest resources in candidates who support these reforms – and against candidates who oppose them (including Haley).

Is that going to happen?

We’ll have to wait and see … but the group’s love affair with Haley (and wishy washy position on Graham) is not an encouraging first step.

South Carolina needs real reforms championed consistently by real reformers.  It does not need more rhetorical red meat clogging our airwave arteries on behalf of hypocritical establishment politicians.