Hand Up, Not a Hand Out

During the budget debate in the South Carolina Senate I made the illustration that South Carolina Medicaid is a “Mercedes insurance plan”. In my pharmacy I work with hundreds of health insurance plans and none offer benefits comparable to our Medicaid system. Hard working South Carolina taxpayers are forced to pay for premium coverage for others. These same hard working taxpayers could never afford these benefits themselves. Where’s the fairness in that? Welfare programs should be a “hand up” instead of a “hand out”. Government assistance should be a temporary benefit instead of a lifestyle.

I am trying to convince my Senate colleagues that our focus should be on those unable to help themselves. The priorities should include our low-income elderly needing nursing home care, yet recent cuts may lead to less nursing home beds. Social assistance should include our mentally disabled population unable to pursue their own provisions, yet these programs have been reduced. My heart goes out to single moms struggling to provide for their children. We can do better at requiring dead-beat dads to provide for their kids. It’s his responsibility, not the taxpayer.

Employers witness objectionable attitudes regularly. A concrete business owner was told “this is hard work, I’d rather stay at home and draw my check.” My office offered to assist a constituent in finding a job. The answer was “I’m not interested in a job, I want to keep drawing my check.” To the taxpayer, this familiar mindset is disgusting.

Senator Jim DeMint said it best: “We can’t just keep paying people to stay at home, we’ve got to create economic activity to allow businesses to grow so they can hire people.”

I have supported efforts to increase payments to the unemployment debt we owe the Federal Government. This debt payment will result in immediate reduction in taxes for every employer in South Carolina, increasing their ability to hire. History has proven that when you reduce taxes, you stimulate the economy. Increasing job creation ability will surely help our suffering unemployed citizens that want work. When we help folks find a job, we help them be self-supporting.

Excessive welfare benefits are not only offensive to the taxpayer footing the bill, the handouts also impede on the liberty of the beneficiary; prolonging government dependency.

In Barry Goldwater’s Conscience of a Conservative, he said: “Indeed, this is one of the great evils of Welfarism – that it transforms the individual from a dignified, industrious, self-reliant spiritual being into a dependent without his knowing it.” I also agree with Goldwater’s assertion “I do not undertake to promote welfare, for I propose to extend freedom.”

Social programs should be reformed and must go to the truly needy; not the greedy seeking an easier path to avoid a job.

Kevin Bryant represents Anderson County in the South Carolina Senate. www.kevinbryant.com

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Governor Nikki Haley will hold a Voter ID bill signing ceremony in the first floor lobby of the Statehouse on Wednesday, May 18, at 12:15 PM. The governor will be joined by members of the General Assembly and grassroots activists from across South Carolina.

WHO: Gov. Nikki Haley, members of the General Assembly, grassroots activists

WHAT: Voter ID bill signing ceremony

WHEN: Wednesday, May 18, 12:15 PM

WHERE: First floor lobby, S.C. Statehouse
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Rob Godfrey
Press Secretary | Office of Governor Nikki Haley
O: 803.734.5074 | C: 803.429.5086

Bill banning abortion coverage from insurance plans passes after legislative marathon

TOPEKA — After working through the night and with several stops and starts, both houses of the Legislature passed a bill that will require most women who want an abortion to pay the full cost of the procedure themselves.

House Bill 2075 bars insurance companies from including abortion coverage in their regular health coverage plans. Under the bill’s provisions, general insurance plans could cover termination of pregnancy only in emergency situations to save the life of the mother.

It is the fourth major anti-abortion law to pass the Legislature this session.

The bill passed the Senate easilyThursday night but temporarily stalled in the House, which initially voted to send it back to a conference committee for a revision, but then reversed course and approved the bill 10 minutes short of 6 a.m.

Final passage, 28-11 in the Senate and 86-30 in the House, came after two lengthy rules fights that were ultimately decided by floor votes.

Read more:

by Senator Jim DeMint – National Review – President Obama’s immigration speech in El Paso today is a poor substitute for the real border security the country still desperately needs. And it was a transparent attempt to keep using illegal immigration as a campaign issue, as President Obama made no attempt to solve this problem during the two years his party held huge majorities in both houses of Congress. His own administration has not done its job to finish the border fence that is a critical part of keeping Americans safe and stopping illegal immigration.

Rather than holding immigration summits at the White House with special interests and making speeches, President Obama should direct the members of his administration tasked with homeland security and patrolling the border to enact measures that have already been made law by Congress.

Five years ago, legislation was passed to build a 700-mile double-layer border fence along the southwest border. This is a promise that has not been kept.

Today, according to staff at the Department of Homeland Security, just 5 percent of the double-layer fencing is complete, only 36.3 miles.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO), Congress’s investigative arm, reported in early 2009 that only 32 miles of double-layer fencing had been built. That means under President Obama, only 4.3 miles of double layer fencing has been built. This is woefully inadequate.

While the border-fence construction lags, Mexican cartels continue to smuggle drugs, weapons, and illegal aliens into our country, attracting violent crime.

The United States Attorney’s Annual Statistical Report for Fiscal Year 2009 stated that “violence along the border of the United States and Mexico has increased dramatically in recent years.” Citing a National Drug Intelligence Center report, it continued, “Mexican drug trafficking organizations represent the greatest organized crime threat to the United States and the influence of Mexican drug trafficking organizations over domestic drug trafficking is unrivaled.”

Last month, officials in Brownsville, Texas, found a homemade, improvised explosive device on Highway 77 that resembled the bombs used against U.S. troops in the Middle East and by Mexican drug cartels.

The government has even warned Americans not to travel in certain areas of the southwest because of crime. In June 2010, the U.S. Department of Interior posted signs near the Sonoran Desert National Monument that read, “travel not recommended,” warning the public that it was considered an “active drug and human smuggling area.”

This is an embarrassment. Americans should be free to move about the country without fear of being confronted by human smugglers and drug dealers.

Yet, alarming statistics demonstrating how dangerous our borders have become continue to pour in.

Kumar C. Kibble, the deputy director for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement at the Department of Homeland Security, recently testified that more than half of the illegal aliens removed from the country last year, upwards of 195,000, were convicted criminals — the most ever removed from the country in a single year. But, even if ICE removes record numbers of illegal aliens from the country, it does little good if they are able to easily re-enter.

Despite the clear evidence of the serious dangers that remain at our unsecured borders, the president glossed over these problems today. In his campaign-style speech, the president wrongfully proclaimed he’s “answered those concerns” about border security and pushed for passage of amnesty proposals in Congress.

Our nation’s borders are fundamental to our national security and sovereignty. Americans shouldn’t be forced to live under the threat of kidnappings, drug violence, and gang activity because of political posturing in Washington. Security must be at the crux of any credible immigration policy.

A few weeks ago, celebrities like Eva Longoria of ABC’s Desperate Housewives were invited to the White House to offer their advice on immigration. At another White House event, Obama chatted with AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka about immigration. Trumka is a longtime amnesty advocate, and a close political ally that the president is counting on for help in his reelection. Labor unions are losing popularity nationwide and are hoping for an influx of millions of new dues-paying members if illegal immigrants are given amnesty.

Notably absent from those meetings was anyone advocating that the federal government keep its promise and follow the letter of the law by securing the borders and finishing the fence.

A border fence alone will not solve the problem of illegal immigration. We must also have interior enforcement of immigration law. But, Americans view the fence as a critical first step. That’s why every comprehensive immigration plan has failed so far and why Obama’s speech today will likely be ignored by Congress.

Only when the border is secure will Americans trust Washington to pass broader reforms to create an immigration system that works. They know speeches and summits won’t begin to secure the border: The fence will. —  Jim DeMint is a U.S. senator from South Carolina.

WASHINGTON – Today, the National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life affiliates, applauded the decision of U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt to deny a request by Planned Parenthood of Indiana for a temporary restraining order against a new Indiana law that denies state-directed funding for businesses and organizations performing abortions in the state. Judge Pratt’s order allows the funding cuts passed by the Indiana legislature and signed by Governor Mitch Daniels earlier this month to immediately take effect.

“Planned Parenthood is the nation’s largest provider and promoter of abortion,” said National Right to Life President Carol Tobias. “As Planned Parenthood’s government funding increased so did the number of abortions they performed.”

According to Planned Parenthood Federation of America’s annual report for 2008-2009, which reported over $1 billion in revenues, the amount it received in “Government Grants & Contracts” has gone from $165 million in 1998 to $363.3 million in the organization’s fiscal year ending June 30, 2009. During the same time, and at roughly the same rate, abortions have more than doubled at Planned Parenthood, from 165,509 in 1998 to 332,278 in 2009. With just over 1.2 million abortions performed annually nationwide, abortions done in Planned Parenthood clinics account for more than 25% of the national total.

“Using the average estimates for the cost of a first-trimester abortion ($451), Planned Parenthood clinics derived more than one-third ($149.9 million) of their reported $404.9 million in income from abortions in 2008-2009,” Tobias noted.

National Right to Life Director of Education and Research Randall K. O’Bannon, Ph.D., has done extensive research and reporting on Planned Parenthood’s abortion business. His two most recent analyses can be found here:

Planned Parenthood: More Funding, More Abortion: http://bit.ly/iVwxEb
Ignore Misleading Figures, Planned Parenthood IS “Big Abortion”: http://bit.ly/ijeXqx

“While other businesses and non-profit organizations struggled during the recession, Planned Parenthood’s bottom line continued to swell,” Tobias added. “The bottom line is, taxpayers shouldn’t be forced to underwrite Planned Parenthood and its affiliates.”

The National Right to Life Committee (NRLC), the federation of 50 state right-to-life organizations and more than 3,000 local chapters nationwide, is the nation’s largest pro-life group. National Right to Life works through legislation and education to protect those threatened by abortion, infanticide, euthanasia and assisted suicide.
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