House Democrats Refused to Support Irresponsible Republican Budget Plan

On June 2, 2010

In News, By Exec. Dir.

[Columbia, SC -] The members of the South Carolina House Democratic Caucus voted again Wednesday against the irresponsible Republican Budget that will have substantial lasting effects on the future generations of South Carolinians.

This budget contains cuts at an unprecedented level that force teacher layoffs, cripples law enforcement agencies around the state, and cuts vital health care programs for seniors and children.

SC House rejects $5B budget compromise over abortion coverage, cuts to drug plans and poor

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) – South Carolina lawmakers refused on Wednesday to agree on a compromise version of a nearly $5 billion state spending plan as Republicans angled for abortion restrictions in the state health insurance plan and Democrats decried deep cuts in spending for health and social service programs.

The 47-69 House vote left Republicans scrambling for a way to fix a spending plan that’s been in the works for months and must be completed before the fiscal year ends June 30 to avoid a government shutdown. After House leaders met with members of the Republican Caucus to discuss what is at stake, Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Cooper, R-Piedmont, said a second vote was unlikely Wednesday.

“The Democrats don’t like the lessening of funding for health care agencies. We have some Republicans who are hung up on funding – actually putting money back into those optional programs – and also some concern over the language about whether the health insurance plan will pay for abortions,” Cooper said.

“It’s a helluva mess,” said Rep. Michael Thompson, R-Anderson.

And it has been in the works for weeks. Seeds were planted in March when a group of House Republicans rallied in an all-night session to end abortion coverage for rape and incest victims under the state health insurance plan. Taxpayer funded-abortions surged as a GOP topic this year in the midst of the federal health care overhaul debate.

Some South Carolina House Republicans had been willing to maintain the status quo – abortion coverage for victims of rape and incest or to protect the mother’s health – if the Senate compromised on separate legislation requiring a 24-hour wait before an abortion, instead of the one hour required now. But that compromise eluded lawmakers this time as House members continued to link the wait to an ultrasound at the abortion clinic.

The Senate simply wouldn’t go along with the House’s abortion restrictions, said Cooper.

If Cooper and GOP leaders can’t rally the dozen votes needed, the House and Senate would have to try to work out another compromise budget. That likely couldn’t happen before Thursday’s adjournment and would likely require legislators adding more days to a planned wrap-up session later this month.

It’s a stalemate that hasn’t happened in more than a decade on a state spending bill. “This is uncharted territory,” said Rep. Todd Rutherford, a Columbia Democrat who cheered his minority party’s efforts to ditch the spending bill.

“The budget has been screwed up and the Republicans have continuously screwed up this budget and asked us to come help them out and bail them out. And this time they’re intending to bail themselves out on the back of the poor and the sick and the people that need help the most,” Rutherford said.

The House Democratic Caucus followed the vote with a prepared statement saying they “refused to support any GOP budget that failed to make the necessary and responsible investments in our future. This train wreck was conceived, planned, and executed by the Republican majority.”

Democrats remain irked that Republicans inserted a measure into the final compromise version of the budget that would add money to the House’s operating budget at the expense of others. “You’ve got people that need medication and need help with kidney screening and we are padding our own pockets with $3 million for the House operating budget,” Rutherford said. “There are ways out of this. And they deal with raising revenue and you can get it from a multitude of places that are not necessarily raising taxes. They refuse to do it and so the ship is running aground.”