By Mike Fitts
mfitts@scbiznews.com
Published April 16, 2009

South Carolina’s congressional heavyweights traded jabs over the disputed federal stimulus dollars Tuesday evening before an audience of state business leaders.

All the members of the state’s congressional delegation except Reps. Henry Brown and Gresham Barrett attended the annual Washington Night in South Carolina, hosted in Columbia by the S.C. Chamber of Commerce.

Only Sen. Jim DeMint said he agreed with Gov. Mark Sanford’s decision to reject $700 million of the stimulus money. Other Republicans said they had implored the governor to accept the dollars, and House Majority Whip James Clyburn vowed to make sure that the money got to schools and first responders.

“We’ve got to educate our population,” Clyburn said, adding that the money would help avert hundreds of teacher layoffs around the state. He challenged the businesspeople in the audience to step up and be heard about the need for public education.

DeMint said he hopes the Legislature and governor will reach a compromise that accepts the money without creating additional government programs that will have to be funded in other ways after the stimulus dollars run out.

“Everybody says that we can’t live without money we didn’t know existed three months ago,” DeMint said.

Clyburn tied the governor’s stance to the historic neglect of schools in poor and minority regions and vowed to work around the governor to get the money through.

Clyburn and Rep. John Spratt said a supplemental spending bill for war costs that is moving through Congress this summer could have a rider attached that would release the money despite the governor’s negotiating stance.

This brought reproach from Sen. Lindsey Graham, who said it would be “a terrible decision” for Washington lawmakers to render moot the decisions of state elected officials with whom they disagree.

“Is that really healthy?” Graham asked.

The pointed discord over the stimulus contrasted strongly with the delegation’s agreement on another issue: the need for more nuclear power.

Clyburn said he would not use his position as whip to promote climate change legislation as now written in the House because it does not do enough to encourage nuclear power as an alternative. Graham called that statement “breathtaking” in its importance.

Clyburn said U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu has accepted an invitation to Savannah River Site in Aiken to review the situation there. He said the visit signifies that Chu sees nuclear power as important to the reaction to climate change.

Rep. Bob Inglis, a member of the Science and Technology Committee, sought an alternative to cap-and-trade policy. “Cap-and-trade by itself is a massive tax increase,” he said.

Inglis suggested a major tax rollback, perhaps on payroll taxes, followed by the addition of a carbon tax to raise the same amount, to energize innovation.

“Then watch what happens in the private sector,” Inglis said.