Talking to the LowCountry 9.12 group last week, U.S. Rep. Tim Scott, R-Charleston, equated raising the debt ceiling to transferring credit card debt without changing spending habits, just minutes prior to saying
The freshman congressman also fired at his own party, saying his fight wasn't lay with those across the aisle since "Democrats are going to what Democrats do."
"We need to be saved," Scott said as he addressed the crowd at Knightsville United Methodist Church. "People ask me, 'Saved from what?' I say, 'Look around.'"
Scott was elected office in 2010, as the Tea Party and groups including LowCountry 9.12 began heating up national politics. His district, District 1, includes Dorchester, Berkeley and Charleston counties.
Continuing with his credit card analogy, he said the debt ceiling is like transferring debt to different credit cards keep a zero-percent interest.
"Have you noticed that your balance keeps going up but your spending habit never goes down?" Scott said. "We buy into this illusion that somehow, some way, some day there will be the inevitable truth of something for nothing."
Scott, laying on the sarcasm, called the debt ceiling an "amazing opportunity."
The congressman has proposed a bill called Rising Tide Act — a tip-of-the-hat to President Ronald Reagan, he said — which would simply cut taxes to improve the economy.
As for the debt ceiling, he wants to cut, cap and balance.
"That's what we feel is the path toward a real conversation around increasing the debt ceiling," Scott said. "Cut means taking a $2.4 trillion increase in the debt ceiling and decreasing our spending by more or at least the same $2.4 trillion … The cap part of it is capping our — elected officials — ability to increase spending beyond a certain GDP, gross domestic product. Our suggestion is around 18 percent."
For balance, Scott said that if you are doing it right, no taxes are increased.
On his colleagues, Scott reported to the crowd a divide among the right.
"When I go into my Republican Congress, it is really hard to discern a conservative versus a Republican," Scott said. "This is the time and we are in the place where we need to have conservatives, not just members of parties … We've got a little work on our side."
Scott urged the crowd to call or email their representatives, because, he said, the power lies with their constituency and that they will act in accordance to conservative values if voters contact them.
"The only reason why we're having a conversation in Washington, D.C., today about cuts is the Tea Party — 9-12 groups," Scott said. "I would not be in congress today if it was not for the grass-roots efforts."
But don't let July 5's discussion on the national debt fool you: Scott wants to talk jobs this month. According to his website, July is jobs month.
"We need to get this whole debt ceiling behind us and start talking job creation," he said, adding that he doesn't mean government-created jobs, but decreasing taxes to provide business incentives.
"The fastest way to get more money to the treasury is to cut taxes … There is not a revenue problem in America. here is a priority problem."
Tolerance = Having no moral compass with which to make judgements.
He didn't grow up with wealth, but his mother and others instilled in him the belief that hard work, staying out of trouble and faith in God would afford him limitless possibilities. I suspect he thinks that if he could do it, anyone can. I happen to think he's right. However, you should contact him and ask him or show up at his next town hall meeting and ask him in person.
I am proud that his mother raised three kids by herself. My grandmother raised me by herself with my late grandfather's social security check and it was not easy, but I never wanted for anything. I don't know if Ms. Scott's mother worked or not or if she was on public assistance. Both Ms. Scott and my grandmother are like a lot of woman who have raised kids on there own, but some need help, so if you take away from these social programs, then what are there going to do? Is Mr. Scott going to take care of these people? "NO". Also, I would not go to any where that Mr. Scott is speaking at, because whatever the leaders of his party say, Mr. Scott is going to do. Remember, he is the only African American republician and he is freshman with know power what so ever. If he really wants to impress me, then he should stand up and say that his party is wrong for not wanting the rich and corporations to pay their fair share of taxes, which he will not do. Until he does that and a lot more, then he may earn my respect.
Mr. Scott is actually one of two African American Republicans elected to the House last year. The other one is Allen West from Florida. I have heard both of them speak and I would tell you that neither is afraid to stand up for what he believes. Both have challenged party leadership and gained notoriety for doing so. Mr. Scott sits on the Transportation & Infrastructure Committee and the Small Business Committee and is in the news often. He was also involved in the NLRB/Boeing hearing in North Charleston a few weeks ago chaired by Darrell Issa. If you had the opportunity to engage with him, although you might not agree, you would find someone who stood by his principles and explained why he did. I understand that some say that Republicans care only for the rich. There are also those who say that Democrats promote the soft bigotry of low expectations. Mr. Scott believed he could be anything he wanted and I suspect he wants us all to believe that for ourselves.
Even though Mr. Scott has challenge the republician leadership, he still has know say so. The bigwigs in the party control everything. I don't agree with Mr. Scott's concerning the Boeing lawsuit issue. Boeing has created a lots of jobs for this state and it would be a shame if this plant is force to shut down because of poltical reasons. I almost forgot one thing. I don't believe what you say about the Democrats. The Democrats believe in social issues. There don't go around spreading hate, that's what the republicians do all the time.
Democrats are focused on a number of social issues including gay marriage and abortion on demand when they could be promoting principles that most of us live by such as personal responsibility. Unfortunately the Democratic party promotes identity politics, the goal of which appears to be to divide us along lines of race, gender and income. It’s easy to make rich people the bad guy, but as you have seen, even President Obama has had a very fluid definition of “rich”. And rich people do run businesses, create jobs, make charitable donations and contribute to the economy in many ways. Las fall, the president proposed a tax hike to raise the top two income rates from 33 and 35% to 36 and 39.6%. These tax hikes, which were not passed, would have raised about $700 billion from taxpayers over the next ten years. During that same period of time, his budget would have added debt of almost $9 trillion. So that tax increase would have only accounted for 8% of the new debt. To me that indicates that we don’t have an revenue problem, we have a spending problem.
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I guess they should pay it all and give everyone else a free ride, at the expense of job creation. The only thing wrong with Socialism is that you eventually run out of everyone elses money. ~ Thatcher
You're absolutely correct though, we "tea party fools" and "tea party nut jobs" should have been paying more attention all along. In fact, all of us should have been paying attention to how our money was being squandered. For the record, you may want to note that when Bush took office the national debt was at $5.7 tn – eight year later when he left it was $10.6 tn, an increase of $4.9 tn. Today the debt is $14.4 tn, and increase of $3.7 tn in the past 2 years, 6 months. Let's be clear, there are no "tax breaks" for the rich, it's just that you don't think they're taxed enough. If you want to create higher taxes on those who create jobs, you will not get the outcome you wish for.
I learned today that the reason that we are in this mess is because of George Bush starting that two wars and didn't have a plan to pay for them. Included in his mess is giving taxes breaks to the rich and corporations and his failed prescription drug program. "This is not the president's fault, this is Bush's fault and the republicians have a majority of people blaming President Obama for this, when it is not his fault.The american people need to listen and start paying attention, because the republicians only mission, and there said so themselves, that there want to make President Obama a one-termer. This is un-american.