Governor of South Carolina Henry McMaster has announced that he will veto, for the third year in a row, a “social justice” provision passed by lawmakers in the latest state budget.

The clause (117.180) aims to facilitate the implementation of the US President Joe Biden's “Justice40 Initiative”, a program dedicated to the intersectional implementation of the government's climate agenda.

The passage of Biden’s “Inflation Reduction Act” in 2022 – which aimed to reduce inflation through spending 783 billion US dollars to combat climate change – a large pot of money was created that bureaucrats could distribute to their political allies.

How do governments decide who gets the money? An executive order has launched the Justice40 initiative, which, according to its website, plans to distribute 40 percent of the funds through a “framework focused on racial justice and equity.”

If we leave aside the strange idea that removing 783 billion US dollars of new government debt will reduce inflation… This program is a blatant attempt to redistribute wealth along racial lines under the guise of climate change – an issue Biden calls “the only existential threat to humanity.”

The initiative is not only active at the federal level – Justice40 has published reports on “planned Justice40 equivalents at the state level.”

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Heeding the call from DC, former SC House Minority Leader Gilda Cobb Hunter has introduced budget provisos three times attempting to insert Biden's climate-racial Marxism into the Palmetto State's budget.

While one would expect Cobb-Hunter, a progressive leader, to advocate for such measures, it is baffling that Cobb-Hunter's insertion of partisan Democratic politics has not been but three times was first approved by the Republican-dominated House Budget Committee before being passed by the “Republican supermajority” and forwarded to the governor.

Cobb-Hunter's service on the powerful Ways and Means Committee is entirely at the discretion of the Speaker of the House. Murrell BlacksmithSmith also resorted to notorious Democratic lawyers, Leon Stavrinakis And Todd Rutherford to participate in the committee responsible for approving state funds.

Smith's elected chairman, northern lawyer Bruce Bannister praised the budget presented by his committee in the House of Representatives.

“I would present you with a very good budget,” Bannister said, adding that the budget “takes into account the things that this body has identified as priorities.”

Members of SC Freedom Caucus – a group of conservative lawmakers often in conflict with House leadership – have argued that they are deliberately relegated to less important committees while Republican leadership hands out powerful positions to Democrats.

Freedom Caucus members are often rebuked by their colleagues in the House — and liberal media — for dragging out floor debates with “theatrical” objections to legislation introduced by GOP-controlled committees. Several members have argued to this news outlet that the GOP's repeated passage of Cobb-Hunter's “social justice” policies is an example of why its members cannot blindly support bills introduced by House leadership.

“The RINO leadership (Republicans in name only) and the Republicans who voted for this budget should be ashamed,” vice chairman of the group RJ May III said FITSNews.

“Year after year, Murrell Smith and his gang of fake Republicans appoint their Democratic allies instead of conservatives to key positions on the Budget and Finance Committees, allowing them to fund the left's radical agenda,” May continued. “But the problem doesn't end there. Despite a Republican supermajority, Democrats still run subcommittees across the government, leading to more spending, more regulations, and less freedom.”

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May called on Republicans to end the practice of appointing Democrats to prominent leadership positions within the Republican-controlled chamber.

“We call on leadership to eliminate Democratic vice-chairs and appoint real conservatives to key committee positions so that liberal reservations like this never land on the governor's desk again,” he said.

It should be noted that there are recent precedents for reforming the allocation of these important committee positions. For example, before the Republicans were selected, Sylvester Davis As chairman of the House Committee on Medical, Military, Public, and Municipal Affairs (3M), the top post in that committee had always been given to a Democrat.

After the Republicans had increased their majority in Parliament to a two-thirds majority – at least in terms of numbers – they were no longer granted this concession.

Conservatives on both sides of the divide between the Freedom Caucus leadership and the GOP have expressed support to this news outlet for ending the practice of giving Democrats subcommittee chair positions.

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This media outlet has previously reported on the tensions within the GOP caucus following a solid showing by the Freedom Caucus on primary night. In the June 2024 party-political primary, the Freedom Caucus candidates not only defended all of their seats, but also defeated two high-ranking establishment GOP politicians, the chairman of the Labor, Trade and Industry (LCI) Committee. Bill Sandifer and Deputy Majority Leader Jay West (who previously ran for office as a Democrat in South Carolina).

Pressure has mounted on Speaker Smith to take decisive action after the primaries. A legislative insider previously told this news agency: “Someone from the Republican caucus in the House is going to challenge him.”

Other legislative sources have pointed to the negative publicity surrounding Cobb-Hunter’s budget proposal – exacerbated by an article in the online magazine The Overton Report earlier this week – was enough to prompt leadership to reconsider the composition of the committees.

“Changes are coming,” the source told FITSNews.

As the old saying goes…

“If you fool me once, shame on you. If you fool me twice, shame on you. If you fool me a third time… oh shit, the media noticed, we better actually do something about it.”

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR …

(About: Travis Bell)

Dylan Nolan is the Director of Special Projects at FITSNews. He graduated from the Darla Moore School of Business in 2021 with a degree in accounting. Have a tip or story idea for Dylan? Email him here. You can also connect with him on social media. @DNolan2000.

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