Speaker's blind spot is showing By Mark Sanford

Source: http://www.postandcourier.com/news/2009/apr/27/speakersblind_spotis_showing80175/

April 27, 2009

Over the last few years House Speaker Bobby Harrell has penned any number of op-eds and press statements taking me to task on different fronts, and to date I've declined to respond. I simply considered them noise about the obvious — our long-standing disagreement on whether it is a good idea to limit government growth. His most recent missive, however, calls for a response, because it well captures the differences in our views regarding the best interests of both present day and future South Carolinians.

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford

I'm reminded of one of the first conversations I had with Speaker Harrell upon his taking that new role, in which he laid out his belief that if growing government was necessary to grow the economy, he wholeheartedly believed in growing government. His actions have been consistent with this belief.

My response was that over time growing government would do the opposite — it would shrink the private sector and the economy.

If this was merely some academic difference of philosophy, it would hardly be worth noting. But the Speaker is right, in that this difference has a real impact on every day South Carolinians. He's just wrong about what that impact is.

In the 1930s, President Roosevelt spoke metaphorically about the Forgotten Man. Roosevelt was referring to those at the bottom of the economic ladder who were suffering greatly during the Depression.

Here's the problem. In her book, "The Forgotten Man," economic historian Amity Shlaes painstakingly documents how the Great Depression became "great" — lasting more than ten years — because the massive growth in government's taxing, spending, and debt, killed the very source of private sector economic activity essential for recovery.

In today's political process, the Forgotten Man seems to be the taxpayer — as is shown in part by the Legislature increasing spending by roughly 40 percent in four years' time.

The interests Speaker Harrell writes on and seeks to protect are important, but they are not the only interest we should consider in this debate. Each day I find myself asking "Who will pay for this?" — and in not answering this, Speaker Harrell illustrates the ways in which the Forgotten Man of today is indeed the taxpayer.

Today, the average South Carolina taxpayer is being forced to bail out a plethora of interests — that over the long run will mean higher taxes, more debt owed to the Chinese, and the prospect of rampant inflation that will devastate their savings in the future.

That's why I believe it makes sense to not spend every dime of stimulus money coming to us from Washington. We propose taking about 10 percent and applying it to paying down state debt, which is especially important given our $20 billion in unfunded state government promises (learn more at www.scgovernor.com). Alternatively, spending it all will mean we dig a $700 million financial hole in 24 months. If a family won the lottery, setting something aside to pay down the mortgage or the credit cards, rather than spending it all, would be viewed as prudent.

This debate has never been about whether or not money paid for by South Carolina will be lost to another state as Speaker Harrell suggests. We certified the money; it can't slip off to California tomorrow. It is about whether we use this tough economic time to force change long overdue in our state.

Why is it we do things like lose $500,000 a year on a state-run golf course park, or be the only state in the country that legislatively runs large parts of government through a Budget and Control Board?

We will never make the hard choices that result in savings if we simply paper over these things with a lot of borrowed money from Washington.

While the Speaker doesn't seem to realize the path our nation and state are on, more and more of our fellow citizens do. I was struck by the recent Tea Party rallies in Columbia, Charleston, and Greenville, where thousands of South Carolinians turned out in a spontaneous display of protest against reckless government spending. Working people across our state and nation are emerging and saying "No more" because they seem to understand today's gut-check moment on spending, debt and taxes.

In that initial conversation, I also told the Speaker that my overarching belief was that government's aim should be less about promoting and redistributing goods and services, and that instead its highest value was in promoting freedom, which was key to both the pursuit of happiness and a strong job-creating economy.

As our state and nation veer toward an unprecedented mountain of debt, and our global economy continues to sink, I think that approach is more relevant to average taxpayers today than ever before.

Mark Sanford is governor of South Carolina.