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I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.
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spacious skies for amber waves of
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For purple mountain majesties.
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share his grace on thee.
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from sea to shining sea. America is back. Yes, sir. And we are back. Well, today, um the uh Speaker of the House in South Carolina, probably the most powerful man in government here in South Carolina, he made a little video.
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that he put out talking about all of the wins that they had yesterday in the House. have this overwhelming vote in support of the budget. Also after the budget, we did income tax. We concurred with the Senate amendments. So that means income tax is going to get accomplished in South Carolina. It's on the way to the desk of government master and hopefully going to have government master sign that in very near future.
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So we're going to see immediate relief. We're going to untether ourselves. Hey, let me go back. That wasn't exactly the beginning. Here's the beginning. Hey, everyone. It's 9.30 on Tuesday. We just wrapped up our second day of the budget debate. It's been a historic day for us here in South Carolina. What's happened today is we adopted a budget, which is a strong budget that protects taxpayers and protects the
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Teachers and core functions of government is something that we're very proud of. want to give a shout out to the Ways and Means Committee. Huh. A shout out to the Ways and Means Committee.
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Gilda Cobb Hunter was appointed, she's a Democrat, appointed by that fellow, Merle Smith, to the Ways and Means Committee. want you to listen to what Gilda Cobb Hunter said about Moms for Liberty. T-A or some, Moms for Liberty, please. They are a terrorist group. Moms for Liberty, that is, that's who Merle Smith.
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That's who Murrell Smith, the same woman that called Charlie Kirk a racist, that's who Murrell Smith appointed as the first vice chair of the Ways and Means Committee. Now, was everything that he was saying actually even possible? Because remember, a lot of these people that voted for this, they didn't even read the bill. Representative Mike Kukaski was talking with Representative Serita Edgerton when he said this.
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ah you will find that there is no provision requiring you to actually read anything. And I think that after this short couple weeks you've been with us, you'll find that too often nobody reads anything. Nobody reads anything. Let's talk with Sarita Edgerton right now. Representative Edgerton, welcome to the program. Hope you're doing well. Hey Charlie, I just wanted to say I started out my morning with some terrorists at the Moms for Everybody press conference.
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Oh, exactly right. right. Unbelievable. And she's first vice chair. So what Merle Smith was... She had a subcommittee, not a whole committee. Yeah, the subcommittee. But she was appointed by Merle Smith. But the question is here, he's talking about all of these great things in the budget. What he's leaving out is this is the largest budget in South Carolina history, right? That's correct. Increased by 2.1 or 2.2 billion dollars of the B9M. Yeah.
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So that's a lot of money. Now, how can you give tax breaks and increase the budget at the same time? um You asked a very good question, Charlie. I don't see where you can. I just don't know that it's financially and fiscally responsible to do so, um but self-sufficiency will try it again. Yeah, absolutely. So we are hearing that this tax plan that they have
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is actually going to increase taxes on about 20 % of South Carolinians? So, yes, and forgive me, my numbers aren't exactly correct, but it's about 22.6 % will see an increase. Approximately 42 point something percent will see no change at all, which is good for them. Right. And about, I guess, 30 something that's left or yeah, something that's left, I will see a decrease.
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So that's also good for them. But for the 22 % and that estimation, according to the RFA, which is the financial people who do all of this stuff and tell you how much it's going to cost, it's going to hit the middle class making between like 110 and 110,000 a year and 320,000 a year. So that's a lot of my district, including my husband and myself. So we don't know who in that demographic will see an increase, but you hear the line that there are 40 % of the people.
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44 % of people don't pay income tax. It's targeting them. It's targeting the middle class where we're already being squeezed from top and bottom. And it took them, seems like, mean, here we are on March the 11th. The big beautiful bill was passed a while back and we are just now conforming with the big beautiful bill? That is correct. So if you've already filed and gotten a tax return, you might want to go back and refile.
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or have your go take it to an accountant and have them look at it. Once this gets signed, I'd wait because it's not, know, still has to go, you know, be signed into law. So, but yes, that's what we've been pushing for. We actually had a conformity bill. This was Stephen Long's bill and I commend him for his work on getting it through the Ways and Means Subcommittee and Committee very quickly and onto the House floor so we could.
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actually conform. So when you walked in, because you made a post the other day about walking in and seeing these budget bricks on everybody's desk, what was the first thing that hit your mind when you saw all of those there at what, nine o'clock in the morning? Yes, sir. I got there a little early, as I do often to pray in my office, and we had a press conference as well, the Freedom Caucus did, and I said, oh my goodness, look at all the bricks. You couldn't even see some of them. Some of them were sitting down on
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on there were actually more than you can see in the picture. But was like, now you can access the budget online, but you know, are you, if you looked at mine, mine has post-it notes stuck in it and things written on it. And one of the coms girls from the GOP house called, whoa, I think you didn't read your budget. said, no, I read it twice. So that's how I got a couple of provisos struck out again out of there. um
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They just aren't reading them and they're assuming that the rest of us aren't and we're just gonna rubber stamp it. And they don't want any dissent. They just want you to go in there and press the green button. And I did press the green button, because you go through it line by line. It's a very long and tedious process where if there's no amendments on that section, you get through all the unamended sections first and you vote for education and you vote for police officers and you vote for all the different.
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things or you vote against them if you don't like them. um And then we go back and start the ones that have amendments put up on them. And there were bunches and bunches of amendments. Yeah, and just about every one that was put up by the Freedom Caucus was shot down, right? That is correct. So, I mean, what I am hearing is that a lot of people there, while I won't say a lot, but there are people in Columbia that actually side with the Freedom Caucus, but they're just too afraid to align themselves with them.
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The same Hillman that you played that video of earlier and me having that conversation told me that even if it was the best amendment in the world, he could never vote for it for political reasons. And I said, because it has my name on it. And he goes, I think you know exactly what I'm saying. So yeah, they're told not to vote for any of our amendments, no matter how good or bad they are. I asked the Democrats, where are all your amendments? You put 200 amendments last year on the budget. And they were told.
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And I'm not going to say who said this, but they, they, he, this person told me that if you ever want anything in the budget, keep your mouth shut. It sounds like Columbia is being run by a bunch of bullies. It's a, it's a, it's a car. We'll call it a cartel. It's really no different. It's about 10 people who control everything for the whole entire state of, of South Carolina. They don't want any, any dissent. They don't want light brought in into it at all.
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And somebody said yesterday, I guess I voted with you. I've been brought to the dark side. said, ain't the dark side. This is the light side. We're exposing the darkness. And that's why they don't like it. That's why they come out with all these attack ads. that's, you know, that's why they do this. But who in their right mind would say we need $2 billion more? So April Cromer said it yesterday on the House floor. And I want to repeat it because it was very, very good. And I'm not taking any credit for this statement. She said,
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The body, this body, the legislature, the house of representatives wants the taxpayer to cut their spending because none of the state agencies can cut theirs. Yeah. And that was to me, the line of the day yesterday. Absolutely. you to squeeze your wallet, you know, until that, you know, buffalo nickel pops out, squeezes out, but they don't want to cut any.
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seeing from their budgets at all. That is truth. now we are hearing there's a story over on Fitz News that the state legislature is actually looking at taking more power away from the governor's office by limiting off session appointments. And also, and also, I've of it. I to go look that up. Go look that up. It's a fascinating story. So Representative Serita Edgerton, always a pleasure to talk to you, ma'am. We'll talk again soon. Thank you. Yes, sir. Have a great afternoon. You too. Take care.
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We'll be right back. It's the Charlie James show. News talk 98. Nine W. O. D. The Voice of the Carolinas.
Mar 11, 2026
