Says State Sen. Sutton that if SC wastes public money, it should be the GOP’s fault

CHARLESTON, S.C. — As a result of the introduction of the “DOGE bill” in Columbia, which aims to cut “over-burdensome schemes” and save South Carolinians “millions or hundreds of millions of dollars,” SC Sen. Ed Sutton (D-Charleston) says that any waste found is only the Republicans’ fault.

A statement from South Carolina Senate Democrats on X said, “The Republicans have had the House, the Senate, and the Governor’s Mansion for twenty-plus years.” “If there’s any waste in the state, it is because they put it in there.”

During the past 23 years, South Carolina Republicans have controlled the governor’s home, built a supermajority in the Senate to match their supermajority in the house, and kept control of the governor’s mansion. They also hold three positions: governor, attorney general, and secretary of state. All three are controlled by the GOP.

Sen. Stephen Goldfinch of Horry County proposed it. The DOGE bill has now been passed out of the subcommittee and is waiting to be taken up by the finance committee.

Goldfinch said, “The goal of the bill I introduced last week is to try to get rid of some of that extra growth.” “Some of that excess government, some of that excess regulation, and to make government work better for the people.”

Goldfinch said that the committee that the bill would create could “find overly burdensome, overly regulated schemes that are really hurting everyday people and our state’s industry” and that it could “save our people and our industries millions or hundreds of millions of dollars.”

Since it was found that $1.8 billion that was found in a state bank account in 2024 did not exist, Sutton has been a strong voice for accountability in how the state government spends public money. He has even said that State Treasurer Curtis Loftis “needs to go.”

Loftis said that people who were asking about his part in the huge accounting mistake were on a “political witch hunt.” He blamed the mistakes on staff members who had left, the Comptroller General, and the office of the state auditor.