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Columns

  • Column: Should S.C. consider not repaving all rural roads?

    South Carolina, like every other state, is in the business of building roads. It’s a big business: Four of the top 10 vendors for the state last year were roads contractors, accounting for $175 million in spending alone.
    And that doesn’t reckon the opportunity cost – all of the things that don’t get funded because roads do. I may say conservation, you may say law enforcement, but either way, there’s a magnified cost.

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  • Column: Graham: Vet’s killing demands policy shift on Palestinian aid

    Editor’s note:  Sen. Graham spoke Wednesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. It is considering the Taylor Force Act, a bill he introduced that would cut off U.S. aid to the Palestinian Authority if it does not end its practice of paying monetary rewards to the families of terrorists who kill Americans and Israeli citizens. Taylor Force’s father, Stuart, of Kiawah Island, was at the hearing. Here are excerpts of Graham’s remarks.

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  • Column: Democracy works only when we engage our brains and vote

    The Declaration of Independence wasn’t about revolution.
    Here’s what it says: “We hold these truths to be self-evident… that to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men… that whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government….”
    We generally think of this in terms of an uprising, and certainly it entailed that for the founding fathers — but for them, it was about preserving their rights.

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  • Column: Yes, Mr. Carnes, all of us should be cooperative, open-minded

    I would like to call attention to Brian Carnes’ guest column in Sunday’s paper entitled “Carnes objects to council snubs of Holt, Wilson.”
    I agree with his statement: “We can only accomplish greatness by working together and by being open to the ideas of others.” This is a reasonable and rational position.

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  • Column: DOT embarks on 10-year plan to rebuild roads

    SCDOT has mapped out a decade-long plan designed to rebuild decayed roads and replace structurally deficient bridges all across the state.
    The foundation of this mission began last Saturday, July 1, when the roads bill passed by the General Assembly became law.
    The state’s gasoline tax, currently one of the lowest in the nation, is increasing for the first time since 1987. The initial increase is 2 cents a gallon, and the tax will increase by another 2 cents each year for a total of 12 cents at the end of a six-year period.

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  • Column: Enough with the political theater!

    Political theater – that is all we have in Washington these days.
    A number of Democrats have begun raising the possibility of removing President Trump from office for mental incapacity.
    Among these members of Congress is a Georgia representative who once asked in a House hearing if the military was worried that putting too many soldiers on a Pacific island might cause it to tip over and capsize.
    Another holds rallies chanting “Impeach 45,” citing no legal reason.

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  • Column: I-73: One giant step forward, same old error

    When it comes to spending and infrastructure, one of South Carolina’s great white whales rose from the deep with news in late June that the Army Corps of Engineers approved a permit to begin work on the South Carolina leg of Interstate 73. Ultimately, the highway could take motorists from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula straight down to Myrtle Beach.

    The permit covers the whole state length, slicing across its northeastern corner, starting near Bennettsville. Construction could begin within two years, supporters say, on a project first contemplated in 1982.

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  • Column: S.C. needs to stand up for women

    It has always been a source of great bewilderment to me the huge hypocritical gulf between how we as Southern men talk about women – and how we treat them.
    Our historic culture is that we put women on a pedestal, we dress them in hoop skirts, we praise the Scarlet O’Hara strong-women types, are chivalrous defenders of the virtues of Southern womanhood, always looking to help a fair damsel in distress – and on and on.

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  • Column: DOT Commission: Go. Just go.

    As of July 1, Gov. Henry McMaster has the power to fire any or all of the Department of Transportation’s commissioners. It was a DOT-reform element in the gas-tax bill that was passed this year.
    The commission has been responsible all along for the condition of the roads. Ultimately, it decides what to fix and when, how to do it, and how to spend money allocated by the General Assembly.
    While the gas-tax bill didn’t fix everything, it did give us clearer lines of accountability – if we will use them.

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  • Column: GOP finally can repeal Obamacare, but it balks

    The news these days is like a rehash of the Obamacare debates, with the two parties simply changing jerseys.
    After the passage of Obamacare, we discovered that it had a dozen new taxes and was not affordable. It was a redistribution of wealth disguised as an act of compassion. It gave us lies on top of lies, and even as it collapses there are many who say it is working.

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