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Wednesday, December 11, 2024 - 10:29 AM

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

First Published in 1994

INDEPENDENT CONSERVATIVE VOICE OF
UPSTATE SOUTH CAROLINA

Sen Tim Scott Addresses Immigration and Other Issues at Commerce Club

A crowd of about 200 Greenville Republicans, including several elected officials such as Mayor Knox White and Sheriff Hobart Lewis, packed the Commerce Club this past Friday to hear from South Carolina Senator Tim Scott.

Radio talk show host Joey Hudson moderated the meeting, asking a series of prepared questions. No questions were taken from the floor.

Hudson started off asking the as yet undeclared presidential candidate about perhaps the most important issue currently facing the country – the immigration crisis at the southern border.

If you don't control your borders you don't control your country,” said Scott. He said that the flood of immigrants at the border are not just from Latin America but are from 155 countries from around the world.

Additionally, a major problem connected to the border crisis is the deadly drug Fentanyl that is also coming into the country. “With over 100,000 Americans losing their lives it's time to take border security as a part of the national security,” said Scott.

The COVID-era Title 42, which limited immigration due to health reasons, expired this week. “It is time to reinstate Title 42,” said the senator.

Scott mentioned the $82 billion that has been proposed by the Biden administration to hire an additional 87,000 IRS agents and said that he would take $45 million of that amount and use it to secure the border – by building a physical wall, by updating technology and by spending more on the Border Patrol.

If there's any place we need more agents, it's not the IRS,” said Scott.

Hudson pointed out that White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has made the claim that the GOP is the obstacle to making the border secure.

The administration said very clearly that our border is already secure. Those are her words, not mine,” said Scott, adding, “Their plan obviously to me is to keep it insecure, unsafe and wide open. . . They do not have a border plan. If they had the simplest of a plan they would have extended Title 42 before it expired yesterday.”

Hudson next asked Scott about the looming debt default next month. Scott assured the crowd that the nation will not default on June 1.

There's no serious scenario right now playing out where we default. . . It's not the crisis that it's been made out to be,” said Scott.

Crowd attending 4th District Republican Club meeting with Tim Scott

Congressional Republicans have balked at raising the debt ceiling without any commensurate budget cuts. The Democrats have refused to agree to such cuts. Scott said that seven out of the last ten debt ceiling increases had conditions on them. “This is not something new,” he said. Businesses know how to trim expenses, why can't the government, he mused.

There is nothing compassionate about printing and spending trillions of dollars to make yourself more comfortable and putting it on the shoulders of your kids and grandchildren,” he said.

In the middle of one of Scott's remarks, from somewhere in the audience an unsilenced cell phone rang. Without missing a beat, the quick-thinking Scott said, to laughter from the crowd, “Tell him I'll call him back.” Later, another phone with an alarm-clock ringtone sounded, to which Scott quipped, “I'm already awake.”

Hudson then brought up the alleged financial criminality of the Biden family. “The laws of America should hold them accountable. No one should be above the law,” said Scott, adding, “The question we should ask is, Can we trust the DOJ (Department of Justice) to do their job?”

A collective “No” resounded from the audience.

We seem to pick our application of the laws based on if we like people or not,” said Scott. “That's un-American. . . We need objective truth to reign in our nation.”

When asked if the Biden administration and its abundance of regulations constitute a fourth branch of government, Scott replied in the affirmative.

Every time you lay on a new layer of regulations onto the backs of small business owners, you reduce long term the number of people they hire,” said Scott, noting that the regulatory state is created by bureaucrats who never have to run for office.

It is time for new leadership in America,” declared Scott, resulting in an enthusiastic response from those gathered there.

At the end of the meeting, Hudson referred to an event that Scott has planned in his hometown of North Charleston on Monday, May 22, during which he will make a special announcement, presumably that he will be announcing a bid for the White House. If he does announce his candidacy for the presidency, he will be joining several other announced candidates, including former South Carolina governor Nikki Haley, who appointed him to his Senate seat in 2013.

Hudson good-naturely asked Scott if he would just go ahead and make his secret announcement early to the GOP faithful who were in the room that morning. Scott smiled but did not take the bait and invited his hearers to go down to North Charleston next Monday to be witness to the big reveal.