STATEHOUSE REPORT | ISSUE 24.08 | Feb. 21, 2025
BIG STORY: S.C. DOGE bill different from Musk’s D.C. version
MORE NEWS: S.C. groups want Congress to protect Medicaid, SNAP
LOWCOUNTRY, Ariail: A different era
BRACK: This is no way to run a country
MYSTERY PHOTO: S.C. bridge
FEEDBACK: Fix the roads
S.C. DOGE bill very different from Musk’s D.C. version
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | Despite national polls showing growing voter skepticism about billionaire Elon Musk and his Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) initiative to slash federal spending, South Carolina GOP leaders have made it clear they’re all in, with public statements of support and a high-profile legislative effort to bring the concept to the Palmetto State.
“Washington needs to remove wasteful spending and balance its budget to achieve long-term fiscal stability, promote economic growth, and protect our national security,” Gov. Henry McMaster wrote in a Jan. 10 letter signed by 26 Republican governors. “We applaud President Trump for prioritizing government efficiency and stand ready to help DOGE—and Congress—be successful.”
S.C. Attorney General Alan Wilson, a likely contender to replace the term-limited McMaster in 2026, has gone even further, joining 19 Republican AGs in filing a federal court brief defending the initiative.
“It was the Biden administration that estimated there’s between $233 billion and $521 billion in federal government waste, fraud, and abuse, and President Trump is combating that and saving taxpayers’ money,” Wilson said in a Feb. 15 release announcing the legal filing. “While that should be a bipartisan effort, the other side has filed a lawsuit to undermine the President’s authority to manage the executive branch.”
But experts say a new DOGE proposal tailored by state legislators for South Carolina differs significantly from the federal initiative that GOP leaders support. In fact, they say, the Palmetto State plan seems more about borrowing the DOGE branding than similar substance.
“Appropriating the name is really an ‘emulate your heroes’ kind of thing, as well as a way to give [the proposal] recognizability,” Winthrop political scientist Scott Huffmon told Statehouse Report on Feb. 18. “Especially for partisans, if Trump is doing this and South Carolina is doing it too, then [they think] I like it, even if it’s not really the same thing.”
And to understand why it’s not the same, it helps to stand back and look at each DOGE separately.
Musk’s DOGE
The DOGE initiative, formally dubbed the Department of Government Efficiency in a Jan. 20 executive order, aims to cut $1 trillion from the federal budget by slashing programs and radically reducing the federal workforce.
Crucially, those cuts and job reductions are all currently being made by Musk and his team solely at the direction of the president, without congressional approval. Or as Musk put it in a post-election Wall Street Journal op-ed, DOGE works “through executive action based on existing legislation rather than by passing new laws.”
To date, Musk claims to have saved taxpayers $55 billion, though budget watchdogs have questioned the math. For instance, DOGE officials recently claimed to have cancelled a federal contract worth $8 billion, but were forced to backtrack when a federal database showed the contract was only valued at $8 million.
But with more than a dozen lawsuits already filed by DOGE opponents and several injunctions already in place, experts say it’s impossible to know how many of Musk’s cuts and job reductions will ultimately survive judicial scrutiny.
The S.C. Senate’s DOGE
S.C. Senate Bill 318, dubbed “the DOGE bill” by primary sponsor Sen. Stephen Goldfinch (R-Georgetown), may have the same goals as Musk’s DOGE, but experts say it actually looks like something far more familiar to S.C. voters — a blue-ribbon commission with the power to review government procedures and write a report, not to make actual cuts.
But that hasn’t stopped Senate Democrats from opposing the bill — or from mocking GOP legislators for hunting waste, fraud and abuse in a state they’ve run for a generation.
“The Republicans have held the House, Senate and Governor’s Mansion for twenty-plus years,” S.C. Sen. Ed Sutton (D-Charleston) said in a Feb. 17 statement. “If there’s any waste in the state, it’s because they put it there.”
And at a Feb. 18 S.C. Senate Finance Committee hearing, Colleton County Democratic Sen. Margie Bright Matthews questioned the whole point of the exercise.
“If we’re just doing this to look good for the rest of the nation, then let’s call it what it is and not waste our time on this,” Matthews said.
Still, Republicans say the bill has merit, particularly in a state where the state budget has doubled from $6 billion to $12 billion over the past decade.
“A lot of times, we hear from our constituents, but we’re insulated, and we don’t always know what the problems are out there,” Goldfinch told his colleagues. “This is a great way to find out what the actual problems are.”
Meanwhile, Winthrop’s Huffmon noted the fundamental difference between the S.C. DOGE process and the one playing out in Washington, regardless of the branding similarities.
“With [S.C. DOGE], you can be seen as doing something serious, the same way Donald Trump is,” Huffmon said. “But the legislature doesn’t actually have to take the recommendations, so it may be something where they pick and choose or it may just be an extremely symbolic action.”
S. 318 passed 18-3 in the Senate Finance Committee on Feb. 18 and is now awaiting action on the floor of the Senate.
- Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
S.C. groups call on feds to protect Medicaid, SNAP
By Jack O’Toole, Capitol bureau | More than 50 social service groups are calling on South Carolina’s U.S. senators and members of Congress to reject House G.O.P.-proposed cuts to federal health care and food assistance programs.
In a letter addressed to the state’s nine federal lawmakers and released Feb. 19, groups including the Trident United Way, the S.C. Chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the S.C. Appleseed Legal Justice Center urged members to protect both programs.
“We, the undersigned organizations, are writing to respectfully request that Congress protect South Carolinians by ensuring access to food and health programs that serve the people of our state,” the letter reads. “These programs support seniors, children and their families and those with disabilities.”
In an accompanying release, S.C. Appleseed executive director Bridget Brown said the cuts would do “long-lasting and devastating” harm to Palmetto State residents.
“These proposed cuts are rushed and do not weigh the immediate effects that they would have on our community,” Brown said. “They would immediately impact access to healthcare to those who need it most – this includes seniors, children, low income families, and people with disabilities.”
According to the groups, the proposed reductions would eliminate more than a third of Medicaid funding over the next decade, putting 1.2 million South Carolinians at risk of losing access to health care.
“Reducing Medicaid funding would not only hurt the individuals who rely on it, but it would also have widespread consequences for our entire state budget and economy,” said SC Appleseed director of policy, Sue Berkowitz.
The letter goes on to note that proposed cuts to the SNAP food assistance program would affect more than half a million South Carolinians while potentially harming the state’s economy.
“Almost 600,000 people in our state depend on this program, with the majority of beneficiaries being seniors (35%), families with children (68%), and working families (33%),” the letter states. “For every dollar spent, SNAP generates about one dollar and fifty cents of economic revenue, with locally purchased food at 5,200 authorized retail locations in South Carolina.”
In Washington, two S.C. delegation members are seen as critical to the coming budget process, where the fate of the proposed cuts will be determined. On the U.S. Senate side, Sen. Lindsey Graham is pushing for a slimmed-down bill focused on border security and defense spending. Meanwhile in the House, hardline conservative Budget Committee member Rep. Ralph Norman is calling for $2 trillion in cuts, with a particular focus on Medicaid.
“Medicaid’s got to be in it,” Norman told reporters this week. “You don’t get to the [$1.5 trillion figure], much less two, without it.”
Next week in the Statehouse
The S.C. House and Senate are expected to reconvene at noon Feb. 25. Committees are currently scheduled to meet on Feb. 26 and 27. Highlights include a Senate Education Committee meeting to consider the creation of a pilot program allowing school districts to hire non-certified teachers and a Legislative Oversight Committee hearing on the Department on Aging.
- A complete listing of streamable committee meetings is available on the Statehouse website at scstatehouse.gov/video/schedule.php.
In other recent news
Bernstein to speak Feb. 26 in Charleston. Legendary investigative reporter Carl Bernstein says he’ll have a lot to say about President Donald Trump and the state of the union when he speaks in Charleston on Feb. 26 at the Sottile Theater, as part of the program by the Milton and Freddie Kronsberg Lecture Series and Kahal Kadosh Beth Elohim, the birthplace of Reform Judaism. It is celebrating its 275th anniversary.
S.C. House voucher plan is very similar to what high court already threw out. The voucher plan heading to the House floor looks a lot like the one struck down by the state Supreme Court last year, with one main difference: The money would flow through a designated trustee instead of a “trust fund.”
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- S.C. House Republicans advance unlimited private school voucher plan.
- Bill requiring parental consent for social media passes S.C. House.
- S.C. House bill would empower governor to appoint the state’s auditor.
- S.C. House passes educator assistance act.
- Bill seeks to rein-in sales of THC-infused drinks and edibles in S.C.
- S.C. explores tax cuts for boats.
S.C. at the precipice of an energy crisis. How are lawmakers addressing it? South Carolina leaders have said one of the most pressing issues before them right now is figuring out how to ensure lights stay on across the state for years to come.
S.C. House budget panel proposes $1,500 pay raise for teachers. This adjustment would raise starting salaries from $47,000 to $48,500, still well below Gov. Henry McMaster’s goal of $50,000.
S.C. senators grill state treasurer’s office for $1.8B blunder. For nearly four contentious hours on Tuesday, a Senate Finance Committee panel grilled the chief of staff for the state treasurer’s office about her knowledge of an audit and a $1.8 billion error related to an account that did not exist.
Hundreds gather at S.C. Statehouse to protest Trump, Musk and more. An estimated 400 people on Monday chanted, booed and flashed signs of numerous gripes with President Donald Trump, the influence of tech billionaire Elon Musk, the government-shrinking efforts of the temporary Department of Government Efficiency that Musk leads, Trump’s rollback of protections for transgender students and military personnel, and his numerous other executive orders.
A different era
Award-winning cartoonist Robert Ariail has a special knack for poking a little fun in just the right way. This week, he takes on pollution into the state’s waterways from plastics.
- Love it or hate it? Did he go too far, or not far enough? Send your thoughts to feedback@statehousereport.com.
This is no way to run a country
By Andy Brack | When did it become cool to cozy up to the Russians?
Answer: Never – since the time Russia pointed thousands of nuclear weapons at the good old U.S. of A.
But President Donald Trump seems hellbent on rekindling his bromance with Russian thug leader Vladimir Putin, putting the world order at risk and making America less great.
Americans didn’t vote for this kind of nonsense. They didn’t vote in November to make us less secure militarily or economically.
Yes, they may have voted for Trump to lower the price of eggs (how’s that going?) or to change how immigration is handled or to take a different approach on some spectrum of wokeism and the culture wars. But Americans didn’t vote to cozy up to Nazism, Putin or make the country weaker. They didn’t vote against Ukraine.
What’s more, Americans didn’t vote to put national parks at risk. They didn’t vote for Social Security to be threatened. They didn’t vote for injustice and the pardoning of people who attacked police officers at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. They didn’t vote to wreck the economy by making American crops and goods less desired around the world.
They didn’t vote to end medical research. They didn’t vote against vaccines, worse health care and more poverty.
And the good Lord knows, they didn’t vote for Elon Musk to fiddle around with the inner-workings of government and your private information while continuing to win billions of dollars of federal contracts.
And yet, here we are, one month into Trump’s second presidential term. And as Trump is leading America away from greatness, too many Americans continue to drink the Kool Aid, shout slogans and wear cultish red hats saying America is great when, in fact, they’re collaborating to rot it from the inside.
Liberals aren’t the only ones complaining. Conservative columnist Mona Charen, who worked in the Reagan White House in the 1980s, wrote this week in The Bulwark:
“It has been only four weeks since Trump took the oath of office, and I wonder whether casual voters or even those who truly despised Biden have taken onboard what they’ve done.
“The American republic is undergoing a constitutional crisis as the president attempts to rule as an autocrat (“He who saves his country violates no law,” he claimed), a heedless billionaire smashes through people’s lives and complex systems he doesn’t understand with sadistic glee, the Justice Department descends into corrupt bargains antithetical to the ethical standards upheld for two centuries, a Putin/Assad apologist sits atop our intelligence agencies, a conspiracy theorist/anti-vaccine fool directs our health agencies, and the United States is attempting to reverse 80 years of world leadership.”
What must happen now to save and strengthen the republic is that Republican congressional leaders need to wake from a slumber and start defending the Constitution. The Supreme Court needs to exercise its muscle to support the Constitution, instead of serving as a rubber stamp to conservative think tanks.
All of the sloganeering in the world isn’t going to keep America strong.
Republican senators like South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott need to stop fiddling on the sidelines and take active steps to secure the country – just like uber-conservative GOP U.S. Sen. Barry Goldwater of Arizona did in 1974 when he told Republican President Richard Nixon it was time to resign after the Watergate fiasco. That was leadership that focused on country, not party.
Congressmen like Joe Wilson of South Carolina, long a defender of Ukraine, need to lead the Congress away from anything that empowers Putin and weakens Ukraine. They can start with calling out Trump for lying that Ukraine started the war that threatens Europe’s security.
Folks, what’s happening in Washington now is no way to run a country. Wake up, America. Wake up, Washington. Get off this anti-democratic path before the country becomes unrecognizable.
Andy Brack is editor and publisher of Statehouse Report and the Charleston City Paper. Have a comment? Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
S.C. bridge
Here’s a bridge somewhere in South Carolina that you might recognize. Where is it? Send your name, hometown and guess to: feedback@statehousereport.com.
Our most recent mystery, “Big place” provided more trouble than expected – probably because Aiken County’s Park in the Pines hotel has been gone for more than 110 years. Willard Strong of Surfside Beach also pointed out that it kind of looked like the old Ocean Forest Hotel in Myrtle Beach.
The photo shows the hotel, which burned in 1913, in its heyday at the turn of the last century. Interestingly, according to Truett Jones of Summerton, “a sister hotel – the Highland Park – burned on the same day, but 15 years earlier.”
George Graf of Palmyra, Va., added, “It was reported that the hotel was among the most elegantly equipped and liberally conducted hotels of the South. Park in the Pines had 300 guest rooms and was nestled among pine trees that were thought to deliver a ‘soothing and purifying effect exerted upon the mucous membrane of the respiratory passages by the exhalations from this tree.’ In fact, it was written that ‘the climate of Aiken owes much of its well-deserved reputation as a health resort for persons suffering from all forms of disease affecting the respiratory tract.’”
Others who correctly identified the photo from the Library of Congress were Don Clark of Hartsville; Allan Peel of San Antonio, Texas; Laura Bagwell of Aiken; Jay Altman and Elizabeth Jones, both of Columbia; and David Lupo of Mount Pleasant.
- Send us a mystery picture. If you have a photo that you believe will stump readers, send it along (but make sure to tell us what it is because it may stump us too!) Send to: feedback@statehousereport.com and mark it as a photo submission. Thanks.
Fix the roads
To the editor:
I enjoyed reading your column this morning on term limits for our politicians. I agree with you that we do need seasoned politicians in our government but at some point there needs to be a time when some need to step down before they get like Mr Biden was before he left office.His wife and family members should never let him run for president the first time and thank goodness he didn’t get reelected this time.
I would like for you to consider maybe writing an article to our South Carolina governor and ask him why he will not get our roads in South Carolina repaired. I read an article a while back of him stating how much money we had to repave our roads. They are in terrible shape in every county I drive in except Columbia,Myrtle Beach and Charleston.
Our roads [in Chester] are in very bad shape. We pay a lot of gas tax in South Carolina to never see any roads paved. Do we have a hotline to Mr. McMaster’s office to hear our voices. Pave the roads!
– Robert Foster, Chester, S.C.
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- Have a comment? Send your letters or comments to: feedback@statehousereport.com. Make sure to provide your contact details (name, hometown and phone number for verification. Letters are limited to 150 words.
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