The Post and Courier-Saturday, June 19, 2010

Many political candidates pledge to hold down government spending. Once elected, few do. But Tim Scott, during a decade and a half of elective service, has earned his reputation as an effective fiscal conservative. And as runaway federal debt threatens our nation’s future, that record makes him the right choice to represent South Carolina’s 1st District in the U.S. House. The district’s Republican voters should move him a giant step closer to that job in Tuesday’s primary runoff.

During Mr. Scott’s 13 years on Charleston County Council, including several stints as its chairman, there were no tax increases — and county spending actually fell twice. Yet he also helped bolster the county’s “rainy day” funds for the inevitable years — like this one — when economic downturns would trigger revenue shortfalls.

As part of council’s economic development committee, he helped attract new jobs to the community. That was a critical challenge when he first was elected in 1995, with the next year’s looming closure of the Charleston Navy Base raising serious doubts about the area’s economic future.

Mr. Scott also demonstrated an ability to forge productive compromises across party lines on a wide range of issues as the county struggled to handle rapid population growth and, more recently, a severe recession.

He earned a promotion to the S.C. House of Representatives in 2008. Following the prudent pattern he established on County Council, he backed bills to raise the amount of the state’s general reserve fund and increase transparency in government spending — including new requirements for roll-call voting.

Now he wants to take his strong sense of governmental fiscal responsibility to Congress. He stresses the rising resistance in his own party — and by the American public — to wasteful “earmark” appropriations that lack sufficient scrutiny by federal lawmakers. Because the process has become so corruptive, Mr. Scott says he won’t pursue earmarks if elected to Congress. Instead, he pledges to do whatever’s necessary to obtain the 1st District’s fair share of national funding in “a competitive process” that rightly invests federal dollars wisely.

He justifiably decries ObamaCare’s imposition of huge new financial obligations on the states, though conceding that even a sweeping GOP takeover of both chambers of Congress this fall wouldn’t deliver enough votes to override a presidential veto of any legislation trying to repeal it. Still, he argues that a Republican House takeover could put conservatives in charge of the purse strings, paving the political path needed to reduce medical costs by fostering insurance competition across state lines and passing tort reform.

Mr. Scott is also solid on the critical need for “a strong military,” warning that if defense budgets aren’t sufficient, neither is our nation’s security. As he told us, “Our planes are sometimes older than our pilots.”

Indeed, across the board, Mr. Scott reflects the generally conservative views of his district. More importantly, though, he brings a long record of tackling tough issues in a principled yet pragmatic manner — and of limiting government spending and taxes.

After his parents divorced when he was still quite young, Mr. Scott was brought up by a single mother who’s rightly his hero. A graduate of Stall High School and Charleston Southern University, he has risen to success in the insurance business, as well as politics. He has served as a board member for a variety of important organizations, including the Berkeley-Charleston-Dorchester Council of Governments, the Charleston Metro Chamber of Commerce and the S.C. Aviation Authority.

Mr. Scott’s personal and political philosophy draws on his positive life experience — and on our founding principles of personal liberty and upward-mobility achievement. As he told us: “America rewards diligence. America rewards optimism. America rewards hard work. It rewards focus.”

Mr. Scott already has achieved a long and distinguished record of public service as a solid conservative. Republicans should reward him with election as their nominee for the 1st District.