As South Carolina Governor, I will protect your wallet by reducing the regulatory burden on businesses. I am a small business owner, and I know first-hand that a special-interest driven tax code, including special breaks for large businesses, but not for small ones, coupled with a massive and counterproductive regulatory burden, are the two greatest impediments to economic development in SC.
A recent study from George Mason University shows that the cumulative effect of regulation in the US has cost about .8% of GDP or about $4 TRILLION since 1980. That also means about $13,000 per year straight out of the pockets of American workers – the regulatory burden is killing businesses and jobs in South Carolina and across America. We must turn the tide to ensure that free enterprise and the free market survive.
I believe the grip of excessive regulation on S.C. businesses is leaving free enterprise in jeopardy and believe this current trend must be corrected to preserve prosperity.
I will push for Government to take a new approach to how we regulate business. Instead of the cumbersome micromanagement of our businesses with paper work, I would rather focus on the investigation and prosecution of fraud, abuse, and corruption.
As South Carolina Governor, I will promote your liberty by defending conservatism. To me, conservatism reflects the very idea of limited government that pervades the entire Constitution and the idea that legitimate political power must derive from the consent of the governed. That consent is given very sparingly as a tool of last resort; a tool which cannot replace God, family, and common sense; and a tool that must be used as close to the local level as possible in order to keep it accountable to the people.
As South Carolina Governor, I will protect your wallet by reducing your taxes because your taxes are too high. They are too high, in part, because government spends too much of your money doing things it shouldn’t be doing. The gas tax we paid prior to the recent increase, for instance, would go much further if it were directed to the real priorities – like actually fixing the roads we use and need – not to build bike paths and green spaces and five-lane roads with hardly any traffic.
In addition, the tax code is far too complicated and that is why I support a fair tax which would eliminate special-interest exemptions and eliminate income tax in favor of a pure consumption tax. It also would eliminate the IRS (and SCDOR). It really goes back to the role of government, and that role does not include picking winners and losers in the free market by manipulating the cost of goods.
You know how to spend your own money, and I favor letting you do it instead of government.
As South Carolina Governor, I will promote the liberty of our seniors by being a strong advocate for your needs. In Columbia, it seems that the needs of our seniors are continually pushed to the back burner – that must change.
Most of the funding for senior care comes from the federal government. But, whether it is cuts to Medicare, Medicaid, the spiraling costs of health care and long term care, the shortage of medicare beds or addressing our seniors desire for increased access to at home care – we MUST defend our ever growing senior population against cuts to essential services and advocate for creative solutions to the challenges facing our aging population, such as driving an initiative to partner with our technical and community colleges to address the severe shortage of trained care providers in order to deliver skilled professionals to administer care to our seniors.
I will ensure that senior care gets the attention it deserves.
As South Carolina Governor, I will protect your wallet with initiatives to give college graduates a chance to succeed. South Carolinians seeking higher education often pay too much on the front end for a degree that earns them too little on the back end. Many of our colleges are too focused on their US News and World Report rankings and not on preparing students for the reality of the South Carolina job market–and all the while charging them (and the taxpayer) to live in the equivalent of a five-star resort. Each year sees more and more South Carolina college graduates drowning in a river of debt while tens of thousands of jobs in our state remain unfilled due to lack of properly skilled workers. We must refocus our approach to higher education so that graduates leave with less debt and more skills. It’s not about new buildings and exotic majors. It’s about young people getting good jobs–and those paying the bill–students, parents and taxpayers–getting something of value for their money.
As South Carolina Governor, I will promote your liberty by empowering parents to have more control of their child’s education. I firmly believe that parents are the primary educators of their children, and government should help, not hinder, parents from fulfilling their role.
Parents are aware of the educational needs of their children more than anyone else, and I am committed to working to give parents more education options, including the ability to decide whether their child attends a public, public charter, private or home school.
Giving parents a full range of school options will not only help their children, it will also create greater competition in the education marketplace, thus improving all the schools in the area.
I am also committed to release teachers from overly burdensome regulations in our education system. Teachers also deserve the freedom to teach in a disciplined classroom.
Good Tort Reform will allow teachers & principals to enforce discipline in our school.
Reducing regulation and administration costs will free up funds and get them where they are needed—the classroom.
As South Carolina Governor, I will promote the liberty of every human life as I truly believe that life begins at conception. I believe that life is a fundamental and irrevocable gift from God and that it is incumbent upon us to protect the most vulnerable among us, the unborn, with the full protection of the law.
While no woman should ever be forced to choose between her life and that of her child, ending a child’s life under any other circumstances is an unacceptable taking of human life.
I introduced the first Constitutional Carry in South Carolina. As Governor, I will promote your liberty by defending your right to keep and bear arms. I believe that the Second Amendment to our Constitution is clear. The fundamental right of all law-abiding Americans to keep and bear Arms shall not be infringed upon. Period.
The Constitution doesn’t create that right – it ensures that the government can’t take it away. I will always defend your right to protect yourself and your family from those who wish to do harm.
As South Carolina Governor, I will protect your wallet by advocating for the reduction in obstacles preventing real health care reform. Health care delivery in SC suffers from many hurdles, most imposed by government, but the solutions really are fairly simple.
We must open our borders to competition among insurers.
We must eliminate government as the decider of who builds health care facilities and where
We must move toward a 100% managed-care model for Medicaid (but the managers must be managed).
We must continue to grow our economy to reduce the Medicaid rolls and improve the lives and lifestyles of all South Carolinians.
As a Registered Pharmacist, I witness waste in healthcare—particularly Medicaid—every single day.
