***Palmetto Morning Presented by Jim Dyke & Associates***
THIS FIRST — “House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn hailed a new nonpartisan analysis showing the sweeping health-care bill would cut the deficit as he made a frantic effort Thursday to secure enough votes needed for House passage. Clyburn … said the report by the Congressional Budget Office, which predicted that the health-care legislation would reduce the federal deficit by $138 billion over a decade, had helped build momentum for the vote tentatively set for Sunday afternoon.”
HAPPY BIRTHDAY — Glenn Close is 63
PATRICK’S LITTLE BROTHER — It’s St. Joseph’s Day today.
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NATIONAL LENS — HEALTHY SUNDAY — “Pushing toward a Sunday vote that could transform the nation’s health-insurance system, House leaders announced a $940 billion compromise Thursday that would extend coverage to the vast majority of Americans, cut billions of dollars from Medicare, and impose new taxes on the wealthy and the well-insured.”
UNHEALTHY THURSDAY — “Opponents of the health care bill returned to the steps outside U.S. Rep. John Spratt’s Rock Hill office Thursday afternoon. … As chairman of the Budget Committee, Spratt has helped move the legislation through Congress. He says reform is needed to improve access for more Americans and lower long-term costs. It’s a bad bill, says Spratt’s Republican opponent. State Sen. Mick Mulvaney, R-Indian Land.
ON THE FLIP SIDE — “Rep. Gresham Barrett criticized the parliamentary procedures Democrats are using. ‘While Democrats may publicly push a transparency initiative for Congress, they are still attempting to keep Americans in the dark … through closed-door processes, sweetheart deals and legislative trickery,’ Barrett said. … Sen. Jim DeMint … said it would lead to a government takeover of health care. ‘The president’s bill will create a government-controlled insurance exchange where bureaucrats will have the power to set price controls and determine what insurance will or will not cover,’ DeMint wrote on his blog. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Seneca Republican, warned that if enacted with no Republican support, the fall elections will become a referendum on health care.”
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BUDGET BATTLES — “Smokers would pay 30 cents more for a pack of cigarettes and thousands of state workers could lose their jobs under a $5 billion budget that the state House approved early Thursday after a marathon session. The spending plan that has been stripped of about $2 billion in the last couple of years does contain some bright spots for the Lowcountry, including $7 million to move forward with a wind-turbine testing facility on the former Navy base.”
NOT GONNA DO IT — “Two controversial parts of a $5.1 billion House-passed budget may not survive in the Senate’s spending plan, senators have told The Greenville News. One provision would prohibit the state health plan from paying for abortions for women who are victims of rape or incest, while another would raise the state’s 7-cents-per-pack tax on cigarettes to 37 cents.”
DO IT MORE — “Superintendent of Education Jim Rex called on the state Senate Thursday to raise South Carolina’s cigarette tax to the national average, saying a 30-cent-per-pack hike approved by the House is ‘woefully inadequate’ for health care and education needs.”
OFFICIAL BUT NOT SURPRISING — Rex Files Paperwork for Gubernatorial Bid & Democrat Miller files to run for 2nd Congressional District seat
BRACKETING — The Governor got his bracket in early focusing on the “ongoing struggle between the big government encroachment and the American taxpayer.”
BOOKENDS — First Read’s Mark Murray writes “… in two different AP stories.
The first: Gov. Mark Sanford has agreed to pay $74,000 in fines to resolve dozens of charges that he violated state ethics laws with his campaign spending and travel, including a taxpayer-funded rendezvous with his Argentine mistress, the State Ethics Commission said Thursday. … The second:A judge has finalized South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford’s divorce from his wife Jenny, ending their 20-year marriage. Court records show Family Court Judge Jocelyn Cate issued her ruling Thursday, less than three weeks after the first lady appeared, asking to end the marriage because of her husband’s adultery.”
BLUEPRINTS — “Sens. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., announced the building blocks Thursday for a new push in Congress to overhaul the nation’s immigration laws, outlining a plan to require U.S. citizens and legal immigrants to obtain a new high-tech Social Security card tied to their fingerprints or other biometric identifiers and to create a system to bring in temporary workers as the U.S. economy demands. The immigration ‘blueprint’ drew an immediate vow of support from President Barack Obama, who urged Congress ‘to act at the earliest possible opportunity.’”
VIEWPOINT — Yes, it’s all about Lindsey Graham
VIEWPOINT — Ed Marshall, who served in the first Bush administration, writes in The Greenville News, “Knowing the stakes, I write this column in support of Sen. Graham’s legislative efforts and his desire to address our energy dependence and the threat to our economy. As the economy hemorrhages, he understands the negative impact on our national security and active military, which is stretched thin and clearly stressed out.”
DEMINT ON NOMINATIONS — “Republican lawmakers pressed President Obama’s nominee for ambassador to El Salvador Wednesday over her former relationship with a Cuban national who may have had ties to Cuban intelligence. … South Carolina’s Jim DeMint questioned Aponte over the reasons for her withdrawal from a similar nomination under Clinton. DeMint also repeated his request for the vote on Aponte’s nomination to be delayed until after the Easter recess to give the minority staff more time to locate a confidential memo from 1998 that was allegedly given to Sen. Jesse Helms detailing concerns about Aponte’s background. James Risch of Idaho asked Aponte several times if she knew of the memo or where it could be found. She denied any knowledge of it.”
FLORENCE — County seeks grants for McCall Farms expansion, Lake City sidewalks
GREENVILLE — Arts community mourns former Kemet president
COLUMBIA — More candidates come forward for council seat
FINALLY THIS — “Police said a man broke into a Pittsburgh home and climbed into bed with its owner, apparently because he was drunk and cold following a rap concert. Homeowner Frank Fontana says he was in bed when the man climbed in about 5:30 Wednesday morning. Fontana says he asked whether it was a woman who has keys to his home – and he grabbed a baseball bat when a deep male voice answered, ‘No, it’s not.’”
THAT’S IT FOR THIS MORNING – STAY TUNED ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK FOR UPDATES THAT JUST CAN’T WAIT UNTIL TOMORROW. HAVE A GOOD ONE!
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