Tim Scott

VOODOO ECONOMICS: GOP Rep Claims Tax Increases Would Hasten Debt Crisis

Brian Beutler | July 15, 2011, 1:04PM

Congressional candidate Tim Scott (R-SC)

Voodoo economics has made a triumphant return to Capitol Hill in the debate over deficits and raising the national debt limit.

Take Rep. Tim Scott (R-SC) -- a high profile freshman, popular with the tea party. After a GOP caucus meeting Friday morning, he explained to a group of reporters that even if tax increases could pass the House, they would hasten a debt crisis.

"Tax increases only makes the situation worse, and at the end of the day it has the exact opposite effect that we would think that it would have," Scott claimed. "Fewer revenue dollars."

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Debt Ceiling

Eric Cantor: OK, Maybe The Debt Ceiling Deadline Is For Real

Benjy Sarlin | June 6, 2011, 11:49AM

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA)

Backing off his earlier stance, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) is warning colleagues that the Treasury Department's deadline to raise the debt ceiling before a catastrophic default is the real deal.

"Secretary Geithner feels August 2 is his deadline," Cantor told ABC News in an interview released on Monday. "I don't question the Secretary of the Treasury other than to say we're trying to get in place real spending reductions -- trillions of dollars of spending reductions -- if the president wants us to increase the credit limit of this country by trillions of dollars."

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Spending

Republicans Press Boehner Not To Get Squeamish On Spending Cuts

Brian Beutler | January 20, 2011, 5:12PM

Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and John Boehner (R-OH).

Rank and file Republicans aren't happy with House Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI). They think the GOP should take a hatchet to the federal budget now, to make good on their pledge to slash spending by $100 billion "this year." And their displeasure is spilling out into the open.

"Despite the added challenge of being four months into the current fiscal year, we still must keep our $100 billion pledge to the American people," reads a draft of a letter to Boehner, obtained by TPM, being circulated by the Republican Study Committee. "These $100 billion in cuts to non-security discretionary spending not only ensure that we keep our word to the American people; they represent a credible down payment on the fiscally responsible measures that will be needed to get the nation's finances back on track."

The problem, as Boehner and Ryan have explained, is that they won't even get a whack at the budget until March, when the government's current spending authority expires. By then it will only be six months until the end of the fiscal year in September, and they're having a hard time squeezing a year's worth of promised cuts through a half-year window.

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2010 elections

Day Of The Tea Party? Election Day Answers Some, Not All Questions

Evan McMorris-Santoro | November 2, 2010, 8:58AM

Clockwise from top left: Sharron Angle (R-NV), Joe Miller (R-AK), Ken Buck (R-CO), Christine O'Donnell (R-DE)

So this is it -- the day the tea partiers take back America. Or at least part of it. Or at least convince Republicans to stop taking it away as much as they did the last time they were in charge. Or at least convince Republicans to repeatedly respond to the movement's inflamed passions with tea party-friendly rhetoric.

Whatever happens, tonight's tally sheets will be all about the tea party -- those folks on TV will be counting candidates and races to see how big the tea party's influence in Washington will be in the end. There are several races to watch, but the main thing to remember is that the tea party can't really lose tonight: all they can really do is win less.

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SC-01

African-American Tea Party Republican Beats Strom Thurmond's Son In House Primary

Eric Kleefeld | June 22, 2010, 8:58PM

Congressional candidate Tim Scott (R-SC)

It's the end of an era in South Carolina politics -- with a son of the legendary Strom Thurmond losing a Republican primary for Congress against a Tea Party-backed candidate.

In the race to succeed retiring GOP Rep. Henry Brown, state Rep. Tim Scott has defeated Charleston County Commissioner Paul Thurmond, the 34-year-old son of the late U.S. Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), who died in 2003 at age 100. With 83% of precincts reporting, Scott leads by 69%-31%. Scott, who led in the first round of the primary two weeks ago with 31% to Thurmond's 16%, had the support of elements of the Tea Party movement, as well as the endorsement of Sarah Palin. If he is elected in this Republican-leaning district, Scott would be the first black Republican in Congress since the retirement of Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK) in 2002.

The elder Thurmond was a legend of state politics. Elected governor in 1946 as a conservative Southern Democrat, Thurmond led the Dixiecrat ticket in 1948 on a staunchly segregationist platform, winning 39 electoral votes in the deep South. He was later elected to the Senate in 1954 -- the only person to ever be elected to the Senate as a write-in candidate -- and switched to the Republican Party in 1964, serving until his retirement in 2002.

2010 elections

Is Strom Thurmond's Son About To Lose To An African American Tea Partier?

Evan McMorris-Santoro | June 22, 2010, 2:17PM

Congressional candidate Tim Scott (R-SC)

Charleston County councilman Paul Thurmond's plan to return his family name to the halls of the Capitol tonight has hit a snag in the form of an African American tea party candidate. Thurmond, son of Palmetto state legend Strom, had hoped to win the state's 1st District seat in Congress. But that was before state Rep. Tim Scott got in the Republican primary, forcing Thurmond into a runoff tonight that the Washington Post reports Thurmond's expected to lose.

Scott has the backing of many prominent Republicans, including possible 2012 presidential contenders Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee. That he will probably win tonight is not really much of a shock -- he dominated the nine-candidate Republican primary June 8, taking home 31% of the vote. Thurmond came in second with 16%. The race, which will decide who replaces retiring Rep. Harry Brown (R), is expected to go to the GOP in November.

Surprise may not be in order here, based on the primary results. But, as the Post reports, there is another word to describe Scott's front-runner status: "irony."

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