By Samuel Lawrence:
We live in a time when “Chicago style” politics in Washington is commonplace and when shady closed door deals and bribes have become both the norm of those in power and, thankfully, a galvanizing force for those who love liberty and oppose government corruption and tyranny. It is a great thing to see freedom loving Americans finally waking up and taking an active role in Government by voicing opposition to such tactics as we are being subjected to by the Democratically controlled legislative and executive branches of the Federal Government.
So, in such times as these when Tea Parties have sprung up nationwide and concerned citizens and voters are wanting to see those elected to office become representatives rather than mere self perpetuating politicians. Who would have believed that in a Conservative/Republican state like South Carolina we would have two prominent Republican State Senators serving as obstacles to transparency and accountability in Government? I get Conservative publications and news daily from various sources. One great resource is the SC Campaign for Liberty news alerts. I have asked for and gotten permission to begin posting these SC Campaign for Liberty alerts here. This particular alert exposes SC State Senators Glenn McConnell and Larry Martin as being opposed to standing firm and being counted openly on their voting records.
Read and share this with every SC Voter…
McConnell and Martin give excuses full of holes
Dear Friend of South Carolina ,
State Senators Glenn McConnell and Larry Martin have declared themselves against H3047, “The Spending Accountability Act of 2009” and their reasons are full of holes. The next few paragraphs highlight those holes. Following these highlights is a more in depth response for those who like to dig a little deeper.
Despite what Senator McConnell and Senator Larry Martin are saying, now, more than every, we need to demand that the Senate have an up or down vote on H3047, “The Spending Accountability Act of 2009”. Too many times the Senate is voting anonymously using voice votes. These voice votes allow them to pass laws without going on the record for how they voted. Each of their excuses are addressed below. If you’ve found yourself believing what they said, you’ve got to read on!
Please continue to call and e-mail Glenn McConnell at (803) 212-6610 and SJU@scsenate.org and tell him you want him to do everything in his power to get this bill passed with no amendments! Next, call your Senator and tell him you expect him to support H3047 with no amendments! We want an up or down vote on the Senate floor without delay! You can find your Senator and his contact information by clicking here and entering your zip code
We need the Senate to be on the record with roll call votes for every law they pass. How else can we hold them accountable at election time if we can’t even know how they vote? It is your right to know! “Roll call votes” record how each Senator votes in the Senate journal. H3047 will require the House and Senate to have a roll call vote on every new law they pass and on every section of the budget. According to the SC Policy Council, this year, as of March 25th, the Senate has only had a roll call vote 13% of the time. 87% of the time, they are voting anonymously.
Senator McConnell and Senator Larry Martin have drawn their proverbial line in the sand. They have declared, in writing, that they oppose H3047. Their reasons can be boiled down to three items.
The Senate already has a rule requiring roll call votes on some items and the Senate does not need to record all their votes because the Senate is “more deliberative” than the House.
- The South Carolina Constitution says that the Senate can make their own rules.
- The South Carolina Constitution already says that the Senate must take a recorded roll call vote when 5 senators ask for one so any additional requirements would be unconstitutional.
These two Senators sound very convincing as they make their arguments. However, rest assured that this is all smoke and mirrors from these two Senators. All they want is for you to stop pressuring them to be transparent! Read on!
Regarding the first item, the Senate does have rules requiring recorded roll call votes on certain items and under certain conditions. The rules are pretty convoluted and it is hard to understand which votes should be recorded and which should not. Still, they are passing significant laws anonymously. In most cases, the rules have not required a roll call vote, in others, the rules have been ignored with no consequence. On top of that, the Senate can vote to temporarily ignore the rules at any time. They even have a name for it. It is called “suspending the rules”. A rule that can be ignored at will is no rule at all.
Next, the South Carolina Constitution does say that the Senate gets to make their own rules. This law does not violate that provision of the constitution. H3047 is a rule that is being made by the Senate. No one else is making this rule for them.
Lastly, the South Carolina Constitution does say that a recorded roll call vote must be taken if 5 senators ask for one. But it does not say that this is the only condition upon which a roll call must be taken. If it did mean that, then Senate rule 16 must violate the SC Constitution as well, because it requires the Senate to take a recorded roll call vote for many other reasons than 5 Senators asking for one. In fact, Larry Martin is quite proud of the fact that he chaired the committee that created rule 16. Neither rule 16 nor H3047 violates the constitution.
You can read Senate rule 16 by clicking here. You will see that it has 11 additional requirements for when a roll call vote must be taken. So why is Larry Martin so proud of these additional rules and at the same time saying that H3047 would violate the SC Constitution? Larry Martin can’t have it both ways. Either H3047 and Senate rule 16 are both unconstitutional or neither of them are. Clearly, neither of them are.
So why isn’t Senate rule 16 good enough? Why do we need H3047? Several reasons. First, lets be clear that the Senate needs to record their vote on EVERY NEW LAW THEY PASS, whether they want to or not. In fact, they need to record their vote especially when they don’t want to do so. It is our right to know! They are representing us. We should know how they vote. How else can we judge how they are representing us? How can we know who to vote for in June and November?
So, the problem with a Senate rule is that the Senate can vote to suspend the rules. In other words, if the Senate decides they don’t want to follow a rule, all the need to do is agree to not follow it. It is called “Suspending the Rules”. It is outlined in Senate rule 43 which you can read by clicking here. A rule that you can ignore is no rule at all. It is simply a suggestion. Remember, we need to know how they vote especially when they don’t want us to know. That is why we need a law, not a rule.
Additionally, there is no consequence for ignoring a rule. As long as no Senator makes a “point of order” that a rule is being ignored, nothing happens. For example, H3452 passed the Senate on a voice vote. It is a bill regarding taxes for regulation of micro-distilleries. This law increases license fees for manufacturers from $1,000 to $50,000; and also introduces a new biennial license fee of $5,000 for micro-distilleries. Click here for the Senate journal for the day.
Item 7 of Senate rule 16 clearly says that a roll call vote must be taken for any law that raises, lowers, or creates a tax or fee. This law creates a new fee and raises an existing fee. Yet it passed on an anonymous voice vote. Hmmm. And Larry Martin and Glenn McConnell think that rules are good enough. Do you?
The Senate needs to pass H3047 so that they will not be able to carelessly ignore the requirement to record their vote on every law they pass. There will be no more confusion about which laws need a roll call vote and which laws don’t. It will be quite simple. Every new law gets a roll call vote before it is enacted.
Larry Martin also points out that the Senate does not normally vote on the budget section by section. He uses this as a reason why they do not need H3047. Huh? That’s like me telling a police officer that pulls me over for speeding that he shouldn’t write me a ticket for doing 10 miles over the speed limit because I always drive that fast. The police officer wouldn’t buy it, and neither should we.
Somehow, Larry Martin and Glenn McConnell think that this law violates the SC Constitution because the Constitution says that the Senate gets to make its own rules. That argument makes very little sense because the Senate is making this rule. H3047 will be voted on by the Senate, and if it passes, it will be their rule. I don’t see how that violates the provision that the Senate gets to make its own rules. McConnell and Martin are trying to wriggle out of thecommon sense notion that they need to record their votes on every new law they pass. Plain and simple.
Regarding the SC Constitutional provision that the a roll call vote must be taken if 5 senators ask for it, nothing in this law violates that requirement. A roll call vote can still be taken any time 5 senators ask for it. Nothing in this law prevents that. This law just provides additional times for which they must take a recorded roll call vote. McConnell and Larry Martin are obviously just throwing up smoke and mirrors in order to divert pressure to get this bill passed.
As I said earlier, if this law is unconstitutional because it provides additional circumstances under which the Senate will be required to record their vote, then the whole of Senate rule 16, which Larry Martin is so proud of, is unconstitutional as well. Larry Martin can’t have it both ways saying one is and one isn’t. Either they both are, or they both aren’t. Simply stated, rule 16 is completely constitutional and so is H3047.
We must continue to pressure them and our own Senators to get this bill to the floor of the Senate for an up or down vote by whatever means possible. We want it voted on without any amendments because any amendment will require the bill to go back to the House to be voted on again. This can easily kill the bill. We don’t want the ping pong game that we had with the Sovereignty Resolution, where it bounced back and forth four or five times before both the House and Senate stopped amending it. Amendments simply slow it down and likely will kill it.
Please continue to call and e-mail Glenn McConnell at (803) 212-6610 and SJU@scsenate.org and tell him you want him to do everything in his power to get this bill passed with no amendments! Next, call your Senator and tell him you expect him to support H3047 with no amendments! We want an up or down vote on the Senate floor without delay! You can find your Senator and his contact information by clicking here and entering your zip code.
Let them both know that any vote that they cast that slows this bill down will be seen as a vote against the bill. Whether it is a vote to amend, or a procedural vote that delays or prevents the bill from getting to the floor of the Senate, it will be seen and published as a vote against transparency! Don’t be diverted by their smoke and mirrors!
Getting this bill enacted as law is the foundation of everything else we will do. This bill will give us the tools we need to hold our Senators and Representatives accountable for their votes. This is the tool that will allow us to apply the pressure to get them to do the right thing for every law we want to get passed or repealed. This will put them on the record! It is a must have!
In one last feeble attempt to dismiss the bill, McConnell tries to cast doubt on the sincerity of the bill’s sponsor. Although the sincerity of the bill’s sponsor really has nothing to do with the quality of a bill, I’d like to take a moment to defend the bill’s sponsor, Nikki Haley .
McConnell says that Nikki Haley introduced this bill for the purpose of posturing or seeking headlines. The only reason it is making headlines is because the Senate and House leadership have fought it at every turn. Again, more smoke and mirrors. Haley first filed a bill, H5019, requiring roll call votes way back on April 15, 2008. Nearly two years ago. You can see the bill and the date it was introduced by clicking here.
Just to put this in perspective, you should know that 2005 was her first year in the House and she was voted chairman of the Freshman class. Her second year she was voted Majority Whip. Her third year, she was put on the influential Labor, Commerce, and Industry Committee. Her fourth year, she was made chair of the powerful Banking subcommittee. Does this sound like someone who needs to posture and grab headlines? If all she was interested in was power and influence, the best thing for her to have done was to keep her head down, obey the House leadership, and keep riding the system up.
Instead, she saw a problem with anonymous voice votes. There was no accountability nor transparency. So, she introduced H5019 near the end of her fourth year. She was told by House leadership to let the bill die. Instead, she strengthened it and reintroduced it as H3047 in the new legislative session of her fifth year.
House leadership stripped her of her influential committee assignments for not falling in line. She would not bend so she was demoted. Does this sound like someone posturing and looking for headlines? No, if she was interested in power and influence, she would have done exactly as House leadership instructed and stayed on the fast track to manipulate and control the House through chairmanships and the “Good Ole’ Boy” system.
Senator Larry Martin and Senator McConnell are simply trying to deflect your pressure. What happens if we believe their excuses? They get to continue to make their back room deals and swap votes without any real accountability. This must stop! How long can South Carolina afford a Republican led House and Senate that will not record their vote on 100% of the laws they pass and on each section of the budget?
Talbert Black, Jr. (follow me at http://twitter.com/talbertjr1)
Interim State Coordinator
South Carolina Campaign for Liberty
TAX DAY TEA PARTY: APRIL 15th 1:00 to 3:00, STATE HOUSE
UPSTATE TEA PARTY: APRIL 17th 1:00 to 4:00, BI-LO CENTER in GREENVILLE
www.campaignforliberty.com/usa/SC/
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY
STATE SOVEREIGNTY
The “protests” have featured incendiary rhetoric and hateful imagery, although you won’t hear about these uncivil acts in the “mainstream” media, as the left and public unions have deemed Wisconsin a hill to die on.
Please read below to see how this motion to adjourn was abnormal in its timing and a clear tactical move to prevent a motion to recall H3047. Remind your Senator that any vote that keeps this bill from passing un-amended is a vote against the bill itself. Look at the list below and if your Senator voted to block the motion to recall H3047 by adjourning then contact him and hold him accountable for voting against transparency. The Senate should not have adjourned before the motion to recall H3047 could be made by Senator David Thomas.
After arriving at the State House, I met with Steve Isom, Cayce City Councilman, who has been instrumental in making roll calls mandatory for all legislation in Cayce. We found Sen. Larry Martin in his office, and told him that we would like him to support H3047. He said that he couldn’t support the bill because it might go against the state constitution. When asked if he would support a bill to amend the state constitution to make transparency constitutional, Sen. Martin replied that he didn’t think we needed to amend the constitution. There is a Senate rule, Sen L. Martin explained, that requires a roll call vote for any tax changes.