A $50 Lesson: I recently asked my neighbors’ little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up. She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, ‘If you were President what would be the first thing you would do? She replied, ‘I’d give food and… houses to all the homeless people.’ Her parents

beamed with pride. ‘Wow, what a worthy goal.’ I told her, ‘But you don’t have to wait until you’re President to do that? You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and trim my hedge, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house.’

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, ‘Why doesn’t the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50? ‘ I said, ‘Welcome to the Republican Party.’ Her parents still aren’t speaking to me.

THIS IS SCARY STUFF!!! Dan Snipes, shared his calculations of our national debt in easy to relate to terms. It looks like the recent budget cuts aren’t even 1/2 a drop in the bucket!
• U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
• Fed budget: $3,820,000,000,000
• New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
• National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
• Recent budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000
Now let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget.
• Annual family income: $21,700
• Money the family spent: $38,200
• New debt on the credit card: $16,500
• Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
• Total budget cuts: $385

Friday’s Labor, Commerce, & Industry subcommittee hearing (11.18.2011) was to include a 2012 legislative plan from the Labor, Licensing, & Regulation Agency. We learned some shocking information during the hearing. We learned that a former employee of the agency is being accused of selling cosmetology permits for the purposes of assisting human trafficking. The director of the agency, was hesitant to disclose information that may jeopardize any investigations, however. Fully understanding her concerns, I’ve asked for a written report including all information without interfering with any investigation(s). Stay tuned…

Dear Kevin, I wanted to share with you some pieces that I have been working on recently. I recently launchedMalloryFactor.com, a web site designed to be a single source for all of my writing and video interviews with newsmakers. I will still send emails with articles from time to time, but you can also go to my website feed for more regular information. I hope that you enjoy the new website, my new video series forTheStreet.com, and my piece in Forbes magazine this week all of which can be found on the website. As always, I welcome your comments and insights. From Forbes Magazine: Occupy Wall Street…Next Stop, Athens? I have what I believe to be an important and timely column in the upcoming November 21 edition of Forbes Magazine: “Occupy Wall Street… Next Stop, Athens?” A ragtag (yet well-funded) group of activists have garnered a lot of press by “occupying” Wall Street  Read More

	Herman Cain Knows Why He’s Surging		Michele Bachmann Launches Foreign Policy Platform		Democrats to Take A Hard Left

Email signup online at malloryfactor.com

©2011 MALLORY FACTOR INC All rights reserved

Fiscal fitness should matter in our state by Sen. Phillip Shoopman (R-Greenville)

Last year, the voters in the Upstate and across the country spoke loudly that they wanted real reform and real conservative solutions to the spending habits and inefficient government practices both in Washington and in Columbia. The 2010 election was a revolution for a change in Washington to fix a system where overspending and budgetary deficits were not only hurting economic development but saddling our children and grandchildren with incredible debts.

Unfortunately, we are facing similar problems with budgeting and spending in Columbia. During the past session, I was a member of a subcommittee that examined the problem of agencies incurring deficits even though our state Constitution requires that we have a balanced budget each year. Last year, three agencies were prepared to ask the Budget and Control Board for permission to run deficits for a total of over $250 million. By the end of fiscal year 2010-2011, two agencies were able to reassess their budgets, make spending cuts and end the fiscal year without running a deficit. However, the other agency, the S.C. Department of Health and Human Services, was not able to do so and was allowed by the five-person board to run a deficit of over $220 million.

We learned that the South Carolina Code allows a loophole for bureaucrats to bypass the Legislature and be allowed to overspend. Section 1-11-495 allows the five-member Budget and Control Board, if it makes a finding that “the deficit is unavoidable due to circumstances that are outside the control of the agency,” by a four-person vote, to recognize the agency’s deficit, meaning the board authorizes allowing the agency to spend more than your elected representatives budgeted for them. The board must then notify the General Assembly of this determination. If the General Assembly does not act, then the board’s vote stands, and the agency is allowed to run a deficit. The Board then gives additional money to the agency to make up the deficit amount. The additional money is taken from surplus revenues or surplus funds and from funds available in the Capital Reserve Fund and General Reserve Fund.

Fundamentally, we have whittled down to the central question of, if an agency has a legal mechanism to bypass their budget limits, then why budget at all?

I have observed in the General Assembly that financial problems that were estimated to be in the millions of dollars quickly became tens of millions of dollars. And, while I would like to believe that self-control would prevail in future spending practices, the prudent approach would be to ensure that it does. For that to happen, issues such as deficit prevention, regulatory reform, spending caps, trust fund protection and other topics must be addressed and enacted in South Carolina.

Senate President Pro Tempore Glenn McConnell, has asked me to serve on his Fiscal Fitness Subcommittee to consider those financial issues facing our state. As such, we will be conducting public hearings around the state so that we can hear from the public and get their opinions as they relate to those issues. As the sole member asked to serve from the Upstate, I hope that you will consider attending the public hearing in Greenville today beginning at 6:30 p.m. at the Greenville County Council Chambers.