Latest news with #NikkiHaley
San Francisco Chronicle
3 days ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
South Carolina's budget passes with a big raise in lawmaker pay
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina General Assembly likely met for the last time this year Wednesday, easily passing a budget that included what is effectively an $18,000-a-year raise for all of its members. If the governor does not veto it, lawmakers will see their 'in-district compensation' — money set aside for legislative duties that has few limits on how it can be spent — increase from $1,000 a month to $2,500 a month for all 46 senators and 124 House members. The raise, quietly slipped into the budget about a month ago in the Senate after the initial budget passed the House, caused heartburn. Several members threated to veto the entire $14.5 billion plan. But in the end, it passed both chambers easily. 'The anticipation is you will spend that on your constituents, doing the job they've elected you to do and going to the places they have asked you to go,' Republican House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister said. "If you do not spend the money on your constituents, that's on you.' Other budget items The rest of the spending plan was much less controversial. There are pay raises for teachers, and the state's highest income tax rate will be cut from 6.2% to 6%. There is $200 million to fix bridges, $35 million to pay for cleanup from Hurricane Helene last year and $50 million for a program to let parents use tax money to pay private school tuition that will undergo court scrutiny. Pay increase But the $3 million that will increase legislator pay got the most attention as House and Senate negotiators finalized the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 earlier this moth. The monthly stipend for lawmakers has not been increased in about 30 years. Their in-district stipend would increase from $12,000 a year to $30,000 Lawmakers also get a salary of $10,400 a year that has not changed since 1990. In addition, they get money for meals, mileage to drive to Columbia and hotel rooms while in session. Legislators are considered part time because South Carolina's General Assembly meets three days a week from January to May. Lawmakers passed a $1,000-a-month increase in the budget in 2014. But Republican Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed it, and senators did not have the votes to override her decision. And since it was passed within the budget, legislators get the extra money starting July 1. By law, a raise in their salaries cannot take effect until after the next election. Not everyone supports the increase A number of lawmakers who voted for the budget said it would have been better to handle it as a bill that got public input and was fully debated. Sen. Wes Climer called the raise a wart in an otherwise well-crafted spending plan that includes tax cuts and spending on key items like bridges or private school vouchers. 'If there is going to be a pay raise, the people by way of elections ought to decide who does and who does not get that raise,' the Republican from Rock Hill said. Climer said he has already talked to attorney and former state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, who is eager about suing over the increase, saying he thinks it violates the law requiring a delay until the next election even though it is in the budget. Governor gets a say Gov. Henry McMaster has a line-item veto he can use to strike items from the budget. He said Wednesday he would have to look it over, but he said he will likely leave the in-district expenses in place. 'I believe the case can be made that the expenses have gone up dramatically,' McMaster said. 'And the remedy would be to provide some more money to be used for those district expenses, not a favor.' Lawmakers expect McMaster to veto little if anything from the budget. So instead of returning to take up his vetoes, they don't plan to come back to the Statehouse until January 2026, when next year's session starts.
Yahoo
3 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
South Carolina's budget passes with a big raise in lawmaker pay
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina General Assembly likely met for the last time this year Wednesday, easily passing a budget that included what is effectively an $18,000-a-year raise for all of its members. If the governor does not veto it, lawmakers will see their 'in-district compensation' — money set aside for legislative duties that has few limits on how it can be spent — increase from $1,000 a month to $2,500 a month for all 46 senators and 124 House members. The raise, quietly slipped into the budget about a month ago in the Senate after the initial budget passed the House, caused heartburn. Several members threated to veto the entire $14.5 billion plan. But in the end, it passed both chambers easily. 'The anticipation is you will spend that on your constituents, doing the job they've elected you to do and going to the places they have asked you to go,' Republican House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister said. "If you do not spend the money on your constituents, that's on you.' Other budget items The rest of the spending plan was much less controversial. There are pay raises for teachers, and the state's highest income tax rate will be cut from 6.2% to 6%. There is $200 million to fix bridges, $35 million to pay for cleanup from Hurricane Helene last year and $50 million for a program to let parents use tax money to pay private school tuition that will undergo court scrutiny. Pay increase But the $3 million that will increase legislator pay got the most attention as House and Senate negotiators finalized the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 earlier this moth. The monthly stipend for lawmakers has not been increased in about 30 years. Their in-district stipend would increase from $12,000 a year to $30,000 Lawmakers also get a salary of $10,400 a year that has not changed since 1990. In addition, they get money for meals, mileage to drive to Columbia and hotel rooms while in session. Legislators are considered part time because South Carolina's General Assembly meets three days a week from January to May. Lawmakers passed a $1,000-a-month increase in the budget in 2014. But Republican Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed it, and senators did not have the votes to override her decision. And since it was passed within the budget, legislators get the extra money starting July 1. By law, a raise in their salaries cannot take effect until after the next election. Not everyone supports the increase A number of lawmakers who voted for the budget said it would have been better to handle it as a bill that got public input and was fully debated. Sen. Wes Climer called the raise a wart in an otherwise well-crafted spending plan that includes tax cuts and spending on key items like bridges or private school vouchers. 'If there is going to be a pay raise, the people by way of elections ought to decide who does and who does not get that raise,' the Republican from Rock Hill said. Climer said he has already talked to attorney and former state Sen. Dick Harpootlian, who is eager about suing over the increase, saying he thinks it violates the law requiring a delay until the next election even though it is in the budget. Governor gets a say Gov. Henry McMaster has a line-item veto he can use to strike items from the budget. He said Wednesday he would have to look it over, but he said he will likely leave the in-district expenses in place. 'I believe the case can be made that the expenses have gone up dramatically,' McMaster said. 'And the remedy would be to provide some more money to be used for those district expenses, not a favor.' Lawmakers expect McMaster to veto little if anything from the budget. So instead of returning to take up his vetoes, they don't plan to come back to the Statehouse until January 2026, when next year's session starts.
Winnipeg Free Press
3 days ago
- Business
- Winnipeg Free Press
South Carolina's budget passes with a big raise in lawmaker pay
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The South Carolina General Assembly likely met for the last time this year Wednesday, easily passing a budget that included what is effectively an $18,000-a-year raise for all of its members. If the governor does not veto it, lawmakers will see their 'in-district compensation' — money set aside for legislative duties that has few limits on how it can be spent — increase from $1,000 a month to $2,500 a month for all 46 senators and 124 House members. The raise, quietly slipped into the budget about a month ago in the Senate after the initial budget passed the House, caused heartburn. Several members threated to veto the entire $14.5 billion plan. But in the end, it passed both chambers easily. 'The anticipation is you will spend that on your constituents, doing the job they've elected you to do and going to the places they have asked you to go,' Republican House Ways and Means Chairman Bruce Bannister said. 'If you do not spend the money on your constituents, that's on you.' The rest of the spending plan was much less controversial. There are pay raises for teachers, and the state's highest income tax rate will be cut from 6.2% to 6%. There is $200 million to fix bridges, $35 million to pay for cleanup from Hurricane Helene last year and $50 million for a program to let parents use tax money to pay private school tuition that will undergo court scrutiny. But the $3 million that will increase legislator pay got the most attention as House and Senate negotiators finalized the budget for fiscal year 2025-2026 earlier this moth. The monthly stipend for lawmakers has not been increased in about 30 years. Their in-district stipend would increase from $12,000 a year to $30,000 Lawmakers also get a salary of $10,400 a year that has not changed since 1990. In addition, they get money for meals, mileage to drive to Columbia and hotel rooms while in session. Legislators are considered part time because South Carolina's General Assembly meets three days a week from January to May. Lawmakers passed a $1,000-a-month increase in the budget in 2014. But Republican Gov. Nikki Haley vetoed it, and senators did not have the votes to override her decision. And since it was passed within the budget, legislators get the extra money starting July 1. By law, a raise in their salaries cannot take effect until after the next election. A number of lawmakers who voted for the budget said it would have been better to handle it as a bill that got public input and was fully debated. Sen. Wes Climer called the raise a wart in an otherwise well-crafted spending plan that includes tax cuts and spending on key items like bridges or private school vouchers. 'If there is going to be a pay raise, the people by way of elections ought to decide who does and who does not get that raise,' the Republican from Rock Hill said. Gov. Henry McMaster has a line-item veto he can use to strike items from the budget. He said Wednesday he would have to look it over, but he said he will likely leave the in-district expenses in place. 'I believe the case can be made that the expenses have gone up dramatically,' McMaster said. 'And the remedy would be to provide some more money to be used for those district expenses, not a favor.' Lawmakers expect McMaster to veto little if anything from the budget. So instead of returning to take up his vetoes, they don't plan to come back to the Statehouse until January 2026, when next year's session starts.
Yahoo
24-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Why Trump's Ultimate Humiliation for Signalgate ‘Idiot' is a ‘Girl Job'
President Donald Trump's nomination of former National Security Adviser Mike Waltz to the post of U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations may seem like another instance of a disgraced white man failing up. It's not. Naming Waltz to the top UN spot is political castration. Of the last ten National Security Advisors, nine were men. Of the last ten U.S. Ambassadors to the UN, eight were women. In other words, the post Waltz may soon fill is a 'girl job.' Trump has always viewed the UN ambassadorship as suitable for a woman. A UN ambassador throws parties, chit-chats with guests, and happily nods while men drone on. It's basically a hostess gig and women are great at that. In his first administration, Trump named former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley to the position where she oversaw the administration's withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal, the Paris climate agreement, and the UN Human Rights Council. When Haley left, Trump announced he'd found the perfect replacement. In fact, he declared, there wasn't 'anybody more competent in the world.' He was, of course, referring to his daughter Ivanka. But she turned down the job, noting 'I know the President will nominate a formidable replacement for Ambassador Haley.' Instead, Trump selected Kelly Craft, a businesswoman and wife of a billionaire coal mining executive who contributed more than $2 million in the 2016 cycle. In his second administration, Trump started by following the same instinct that the UN ambassador–like his Press Secretary– should be a woman. In November, he chose New York congresswoman Elise Stefanik to succeed Linda Thomas-Greenfield who held the job in the Biden administration. Stefanik was thrilled with Trump's offer, noting that she was 'deeply humbled' to accept the nomination. Presumably, she was even more humbled when Trump took to TruthSocial on March 27 to insist, 'There are others that can do a good job at the United Nations. Therefore, Elise will stay in Congress…' The timing of that announcement was startling. There was speculation that Speaker of the House Mike Johnson and Stefanik were perhaps feuding. (They both denied this.) A better explanation may be that three days before Trump dropped Stefanik, journalist Jeffrey Goldberg reported that Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth was using the Signal app to discuss ongoing military maneuvers. Goldberg knew this because he had been mistakenly added to the Signal group chat by one emoji-loving ex-Army Special Forces officer. It's possible that the plan to move Waltz to the UN began that day with the hard-working, ever-faithful Stefanik being sacrificed to open the slot. On his end, Waltz is acting like he dropped his tray in the school cafeteria but it's all cool. The former Nat Sec Advisor took to the former Twitter to succinctly say, 'I'm deeply honored to continue my service to President Trump and our great nation.' Heading into confirmation hearings, expect Waltz to feel less 'honored' and more humiliated. Senators, including some Republicans, will grill him over Signalgate. Waltz will have to defend his many bad choices, including his dumb and childish emojis. (These may be another reason why Trump might think Waltz deserves a 'girl job.' Who loves emojis more than a teenage girl?) If the senate decides not to confirm Waltz then Trump is off the hook for axing him. Trump remained supportive to a loyalist, keeping his hands clean while getting rid of another potential 'birdbrain.' If Waltz fails, perhaps Stefanik will re-emerge as a possibility. Leading the UN delegation would have boosted Stefanik who craves more international experience as a stepping stone to potential bigger jobs like Secretary of State or Vice President in Trump's third term. Or maybe former Haley will make a play to get her old job back. Trump vowed back in November that he would 'not be inviting former Ambassador Nikki Haley, or former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, to join the Trump Administration.' But if no one else wants the job, she could make a case that she already knows where the bathrooms are. And if Waltz is confirmed, he will gladly take all the perks that come with the UN ambassadorship, including free travel and a swanky penthouse apartment at 50 United Nations Plaza. Still, it's a step down from being in the Pentagon inner circle. No one should be surprised if Waltz decides to put in minimal hours, follow Russia's lead on votes, and turn his 'girl job,' into 'a lazy girl job.'
Fox News
20-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Flashback: Remember when Nikki Haley called for mental competency tests for all politicians 75 or older?
As she ran for the White House in the 2024 election cycle, Nikki Haley made her calls for "new generational leadership" a key component of her Republican presidential campaign. And front and center from day 1 of her campaign as the former South Carolina governor and former United Nations ambassador declared her candidacy in February 2023 was her call for "mandatory mental competency tests for politicians over 75 years old." As Haley challenged then-76-year-old former President Donald Trump for the 2024 GOP nomination in hopes of eventually facing off in the general election against then-80-year-old President Joe Biden, the proposal became one of the most visible and at times controversial parts of her campaign stump speech. Haley faced charges of ageism from a host of politicians opposed to the idea, including a now-83-year-old Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, who at the time called her idea "absurd." While Haley's campaign took off, and she ended up being the last Republican candidate standing against Trump during last year's primaries, she eventually bowed out of the race in March 2024 as Trump marched toward clinching the presidential nomination. Fast-forward to today, and long-standing questions about Biden's physical and mental fitness – and whether Democrats should have more forcefully urged him to bow out of the 2024 race – haven't gone away; they're front and center. This as Biden's condition is once again making headlines, courtesy of excerpts from a new book being released this week, "Original Sin: President Biden's Decline, Its Cover-up, and His Disastrous Choice to Run Again," which offers claims of a White House cover-up of the then-president's apparent cognitive decline. Additionally, last week's leaked audio of Biden's 2023 interview with Special Counsel Robert Hur, in which the then-president appears to suffer memory lapses, is also fueling the conversation. Hur, who investigated whether Biden years earlier had improperly stored classified documents, made major headlines early last year when he decided not to charge Biden but described the then-president as an "elderly man with a poor memory." Last week's developments were followed by Sunday's blockbuster announcement that Biden was diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones. The news, while eliciting sympathy from both sides of the political aisle, is unlikely to sidetrack the current firestorm over the former president's mental acuity. "While the media may have been shocked by Nikki's call for mental competency tests, Americans never were," a source in Haley's political orbit told Fox News. "It was common sense. Nikki always believed our leaders should be completely transparent and remember who they serve: the American people. After a yearslong cover-up, those who hid President Biden's mental decline must finally acknowledge what Nikki and the American people always knew to be true." Haley, who was 51 when she announced her candidacy in 2023, reupped her calls for a mental competency test throughout her campaign. In January last year, during the heat of the primary battle, Haley pointed to some verbal stumbles by Trump on the campaign trail. "He's not what he was in 2016. He has declined. That's a fact," Haley said at the time. Trump repeatedly fired back as he touted acing a cognitive test he took five years earlier and said, "I think I'm a lot sharper than her." A month later, after the release of Hur's written report regarding Biden's mental acuity, Haley said, "Joe Biden can't remember major events in his life, like when he was vice president or when his son died." "That is sad, but it will be even sadder if we have a person in the White House who is not mentally up to the most important job in the world," she added as she reiterated her calls for Biden to take a mental competency test "immediately." Haley, in a Fox News op-ed in May 2023, spelled out the specific test she recommended for politicians over age 75. "The Montreal Cognitive Assessment Test is a widely used tool for detecting cognitive decline," Haley wrote at the time. And she elaborated, "This is not a qualification for office. Failing a mental competency test would not result in removal. It is about transparency. Voters deserve to know whether those who are making major decisions about war and peace, taxation and budgets, schools and safety can pass a very basic mental exam." Veteran political scientist Wayne Lesperance, noting the current media spotlight on Biden, said it has "renewed concerns many Americans have about the age and ability of our elected officials. Public service demands clarity of thought, sound judgment, and the ability to manage complex issues." And Lesperance, president of New England College, said "Americans must conclude that a fair and nonpartisan cognitive assessment, perhaps irrespective of age, is important to ensure all who seek to lead are equipped to serve with the sharpness and clarity the role requires."
