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BRACK: How the divisive issue of climate change can be a unifier

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | South Carolinians can learn something from an Alabama Christian leader who is trying to unite people through what may seem an unlikely issue – the environment.

Dr. Randy Brinson, a Montgomery gastroenterologist who is president of the Christian Coalition of Alabama, is on a mission. He wants to make climate change become a nonpartisan issue that brings people together for solutions, not allow it to continue to be a political ping pong ball manipulated by cynics for their own purposes.

by Andy Brack · 04/02/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: House lawmakers need to be bolder on tax reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The ghosts of tax reform are rising and slithering through the halls of the Statehouse as lawmakers have been seeking to change how sales, services and income are taxed.

Unfortunately, the backsliding already has begun. Two weeks ago, members of a special House tax policy committee announced with great fanfare that they were taking the bold steps of putting a lot of reform on the table, including a move to get rid of costly special sales tax exemptions that suck billions of dollars from state coffers.

But by late last week, the boldness was gone, a victim of institutional timidity. It’s not surprising because if the past is any reflection of the future, anything changing the tax status quo will be a long, tough slog. Two efforts since 2010 have failed. And even if reform does come, it’s could be two or three years off as proponents will have to spend months to flesh out details and educate recalcitrant lawmakers on what reforms mean.

by Andy Brack · 03/05/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

MY TURN, Morris: Tips to review for the new tax season

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | Taxes matter. Whether we agree the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act passed on Dec. 22, 2017, is good for the middle class, good for the wealthier taxpayer or simply good for the debt structure of America, it is here. It is happening now and it is different.

As you prepare for 2018 tax season, here are some highlights you should know:

Tax Rate: The top individual tax rate dropped from 39.6 percent to 37 percent. It will take more taxable dollars to get to the highest bracket.
A single filer has to have over $500,000 taxable income in 2018 to reach the 37 percent.
A filer who is married, filing jointly, must have over $600,000. Roughly, a 2 percent decrease in taxes on $600,000 is a $12,000 savings.

by Kyra Morris · 03/05/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Money, Views

BRACK: Make our schools safer with real gun reform

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | This time, it feels like something about guns is going to happen. After the Parkland slaughter of 17 students and teachers, inaction doesn’t seem to be a viable automatic political reflex for mass gun violence.

Maybe the nation has reached a tipping point, thanks to thousands of Florida students who marched on the state’s capital to pressure lawmakers to make common-sense reforms to curb the gun violence.

“The times have clearly changed,” University of South Florida political science professor Susan MacManus told a Tallahassee newspaper. “And the activism of the students and their parents and grandparents and everyone else has made this a bigger issue and a much more politically impactful issue. I think it has ramifications for any partisan race from the top of the ticket down to local races.”

by Andy Brack · 02/26/2018 · 1 comment · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: Election systems are safe, but hearts and minds may not be

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | The Russians will only be successful in meddling with the 2018 elections if we let them do it to us.

The nation’s spy chiefs last week said they expected foreign governments to try to fiddle with election outcomes in 2018, just like the Russians did in 2016. But that doesn’t mean foreign governments will necessarily try to hack into voting systems, change names on voting rolls or disrupt the internal mechanics of voting.

“What they are trying to do is inject themselves [into our election process] and cause confusion in another way – using social media and other means,” said state Sen. Brad Hutto, D-Orangeburg. “They are creating fake news.”

by Andy Brack · 02/19/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

MY TURN, Palm: Let’s focus on the common good

By Fred Palm, contributing columnist | The recent eighth government shutdown since 1980 provides an opportunity to consider the “common good” in America and why we need to embrace it.

After our Revolutionary War the winners set about to invent a way to govern a nation that was not available. The founders gathered in Philadelphia to specify a model of governance to provide the people with the opportunity for “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness” that was expressed in Declaration of Independence in the prior decade.

The common good is central in the construction of our constitutional institutions. The executive, legislative and judicial powers expressed in the Constitution of the United States are divided at the federal level and similarly divided among the three elements in the states in a federalism structure. For good measure, the “bill of rights” amendments are carved out to specify what was out of reach of governance and belonged to the people, as opposed to those holding authority.

by Charleston Currents · 02/19/2018 · 1 comment · Common Good, Views

FOCUS, Money: Making sense of what’s happening with the stock market

By Kyra Morris, contributing editor | Snap! Thus ended the S&P 500’s longest streak in history without a pullback of at least 3 percent. The major U.S. stock indexes capped off their worst weekly performance in two years on Feb. 2 following a steep sell-off. The Dow and S&P 500 pulled back 4.1 percent and 3.9 percent, respectively. The Nasdaq lost 3.53 percent. It happened quickly. What changed?

January began the year with gains in every major index, catapulting investors into record highs. The DOW and the S&P 500 had their best monthly gains since March 2016, and the Nasdaq experienced its biggest one month gain since October 2015. The news was good.

Equities benefited from strong economic data and solid corporate earnings growth at the start of the year. The American economy added 200,000 more jobs.

by Kyra Morris · 02/12/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Money, Views

BRACK: Put an end to gerrymandering

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | Perhaps it was naivete, youth or idealism. Maybe all three. But I never felt trapped by gerrymandering during a run for Congress in 2000. I believed people from Seabrook Island to Little River in the First Congressional District were ready for someone different.

Today, of course, I know different. I could have been George Washington himself and not won a seat in Congress that year because of the way the district lines favored Republicans thanks to gerrymandering. After two years of work and more than $500,000 raised, I got 36 percent of the vote – the percentage a Democrat typically got in that seat.

by Andy Brack · 02/12/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views

BRACK: It’s the Year of the Panda in S.C. politics

By Andy Brack, editor and publisher | If the 2018 gubernatorial race in South Carolina were a sound, it probably would be the chilling screech of fingernails dragged across a blackboard.

Folks, it’s the Year of the Panda, a season already with some of the worst political pandering in recent memory. The nonsense coming out of gubernatorial campaigns is more painful than bamboo shoots being stuck under those screeching fingernails – shoots that should nourish pandas, not irritate voters.

Winner of the week’s pandering award is Gov. Henry McMaster for the blatant ploy to suck up to voters by proclaiming Feb. 4 to be “Stand For The Flag Super Bowl Sunday.”

by Andy Brack · 02/05/2018 · Comments are Disabled · Andy Brack, Views