South Carolina has a long history of fighting for freedom against all odds. On June 28, 1776, before the Declaration of Independence was even official, South Carolinians were in the fight to defend their beloved home against British invasion. Colonel William Moultrie and his Patriot force faced nine British warships, protected by a makeshift palmetto log fort. Despite the British Navy’s superior force, the South Carolinians held off the invasion of Charleston on that day, forcing the fleet to abandon its effort to take the harbor. That same “Spirit of 1776” is alive and well in the Palmetto State, as our Congressional Delegation demonstrated to the Nation last week.
At this critical moment in American History, the five Republican members of the South Carolina Congressional Delegation opposed efforts to compromise America’s future by over-compromising on the debt ceiling. With America’s debt topping $14 trillion, our principled conservatives stood for treating the syndrome driving the symptoms. As I said in my last post, “Solve the Syndrome, Not the Symptoms,” this debt ceiling crisis is the result of decades of fiscal irresponsibility in Washington, DC. Out of control spending, aimed at ensuring electoral success for members of Congress, rather than economic success for America, has jeopardized our national future. Now, with the nation’s debt set to surpass the already-astronomical debt ceiling of $14 trillion, most folks in Washington seem perfectly content to increase the national line of credit. This with no plan to prevent us from breaching the debt ceiling again. It doesn’t take a Ivy League degree to see this one coming a mile down the road: without a balanced budget amendment and caps on Federal spending, we will be faced with this same futile fight over the debt ceiling two short years from now. It is past time to prevent America from ever having to raise the debt ceiling again.
That is precisely what the South Carolina Congressional Delegation has proposed. Each of them has stood strong on the “Cut, Cap and Balance” Act, which will provide the Nation with the additional borrowing capacity it needs in the short term, but prevents it from ever breaching another debt ceiling. To most Americans, who have to live within their means or face the real risk of bankruptcy, this doesn’t sound like an unreasonable position. Nevertheless, the SC 5, as I now call them, have been ragged, ridiculed and dismissed not merely by Democrats, but by their own Republican leadership.
Telling the truth has never been popular, because truth requires something of us. Truth requires that folks live by standards beyond their own opinion, and this often requires tough choices. Truth teaches us that spending money we don’t have is dangerous and unsustainable. That makes us uncomfortable, because it takes us out of the driver’s seat. Truth is unchangeable and absolute, two concepts for which the Left in this Country holds nothing but contempt. That’s why taking a stand like the SC 5 are taking requires the courage of conviction. This conviction is found in a strongly rooted faith in God.
That faith was well demonstrated by Congressman Jeff Duncan’s (R, SC 3rd District) decision to take some time last week to go to the House Chapel to seek God’s wisdom before casting his vote. He was joined by Congressmen Tim Scott (R- Charleston) and Mick Mulvaney (R- Rock Hill). Duncan later said that he felt that God was leading him to Proverbs 22:7, which states “the rich rule over the poor, and the borrower is slave to the lender.” Sobering words for the state of our union.
These South Carolinians are standing strong, because they’re standing for truth. In so standing, they have sought the Author of Truth, who teaches “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” At this moment in history, the cultural and economic destiny of this nation is one and the same. Right now, the battle is between truth, which leads to freedom, and lies that lead to bondage. I’m so proud to call myself South Carolinian, with South Carolinians fighting for truth in a place where it so seldom is proclaimed.
