In SC-07, Voters Should Know They Have Choices

In this Tuesday’s runoff in South Carolina’s 7^th Congressional District, voters have a clear choice. One option is Tom Rice, a moderate, tax hiking “Republican” who has a history of publically supporting job-killing tax increases. He presently refuses to sign the Taxpayer Protection Pledge, a promise to South Carolina taxpayers to never vote to increase their taxes.  Compare this to Andre Bauer, a conservative Republican who has a solid record of opposing tax increases. Not only has Bauer fought them as a State Senator, but he also used procedural rules to block them while presiding over the Senate as Lieutenant Governor.  By signing Americans for Tax Reform’s Taxpayer Protection Pledge, Bauer has made a promise to voters to never support tax increases.

When diving further into the facts ahead of Tuesday’s runoff in the Republican primary, the quite stark contrast for voters in the 7^th Congressional District is clear. As a member of the Horry County Council, Tom Rice has an abysmal record of voting against the taxpayers interests. In his first budget as Chairman of the Horry County Council, Tom Rice voted in favor of legislation that increased property taxes on his constituents by .3 million dollars. And to add insult to injury, Rice has said in the past that he supports a federal gas tax hike of a dollar a gallon, which would burden the hard working families of the 7^th district with even higher costs of living. Rice has even described himself as “more moderate” and says he is not ashamed of that characterization. Taking him for his word, it can only be expected that Rice would act as a moderate “Republican” in Washington, being among those who are willing to put tax hikes on the table in the foolish belief that spending cuts will materialize with them.

What the voters of the 7^th district of South Carolina need is a Representative who will stand up for their interests in Washington and not sell them out as soon as the first talk of “compromise” (read: tax hikes) comes up. Given his past record and statements it is evident that Rice will not stand with the hard working South Carolinians of his district, but instead with special spending interests in Washington who consistently promote tax increases and burdensome regulations in the name of compromise. When heading to the polls tomorrow, voters should remember that they have a clear choice in this race:  a candidate who understands that Washington has a spending, and not a revenue problem (Bauer), and another who would burden future generations with more taxation and debt (Rice). 

Posted by Paul Blair on Monday, June 25, 2012 5:05 PM EDT

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