1ST MONDAY CLUB OF ANDERSON WELCOMES
SC SENATOR KEVIN BRYANT
MONDAY, DECEMBER 3RD
$10 per person (all inclusive)
Master’s Wok
Buffet opens at 11:45
Business meeting begins at 12:10 and dismisses at 1 o’clock p.m.
Senator Bryant has been assigned to co-chair, along with Senator Billy O’Dell, a Senate Committee to investigate our state’s historical data security breach along with other current issues in the state. Bring any of your concerns or questions for Senator Bryant.
Senator Bryant currently serves on the following committees in the Senate:
Finance, Other Funds Oversight, Labor, Commerce & Industry (sub-committee chair), Agriculture (sub-committee chair), Medical Affairs, General.
Please RSVP by Friday, Nov 30th. This is a great meeting to bring a friend too!
Thanks to all who have already responded.

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

Greenville News: Graham, DeMint defend Haley’s resistance to Obama health-care law
Written by Mary Orndorff Troyan
Gannett Washington Bureau
www.greenvilleonline.com/article/20121129/NEWS/311290011/Graham-DeMint-defend-Haley-s-resistance-Obama-health-care-law

WASHINGTON — Gov. Nikki Haley’s resistance to the 2010 federal health-care reform law is strategically helpful for members of Congress working to undo President Barack Obama’s signature first-term accomplishment, South Carolina’s Republican senators said Wednesday.

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Jim DeMint defended Haley’s refusal to create a health insurance exchange or to extend Medicaid benefits to an additional 344,000 South Carolina residents. Both are options under the Affordable Care Act, which the Supreme Court declared constitutional earlier this year.

“Let it be said that South Carolina’s stand on exchanges and Medicaid expansion is going to allow us to revisit Obamacare,” Graham said after meeting in his office with Haley and most other members of the South Carolina congressional delegation.

DeMint said he hopes Haley’s opposition to the law’s two key pieces is contagious.

“By doing this, South Carolina is helping us here bring this back into an open debate because if they don’t change the bill or repeal it, it’s going to fall just because of the way it’s set up,” DeMint said.

Haley formally notified the federal government two weeks ago the state won’t create its own health care exchange, a marketplace for individuals and small businesses to comparison shop for health insurance plans.

Fifteen other states also have opted to let the federal government run their exchanges. Five plan to partner with the federal government on exchanges, and 18 are setting up their own, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.

“The federal government can have at it, but what we’ve found right now is that they have no plan and we are perfectly fine with that,” Haley said to reporters in Graham’s office on Capitol Hill.

The comments by Graham and DeMint defending Haley shows Republican resistance to the 2010 law is alive and well on Capitol Hill, despite the GOP’s losses on Nov. 6.

When the Supreme Court ruled the law constitutional on June 28, it also allowed states to opt out of a provision extending Medicaid coverage to people earning up to 133 percent of the federal poverty level.

South Carolina and seven other states have said they won’t expand eligibility, mostly out of concern that it would be too expensive. The federal government would initially cover 100 percent of the cost for all new enrollees, but that would drop to 90 percent in later years.

“Our state is struggling now to meet the Medicaid match, and if they buy into the Obamacare model, there will be no money left in South Carolina for education or public safety,” Graham said. “If you don’t expand Medicaid, the whole theory of Obamacare has to be revisited.”

A new report from the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured found that if all states expand Medicaid eligibility, South Carolina would spend 7 percent more on the program through 2022, while federal Medicaid spending in the state would go up about 32 percent.

The number of uninsured people in South Carolina would drop by 57 percent, the report estimated.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said Monday that repealing the Affordable Care Act is unlikely.

“The Supreme Court has spoken, the American people have spoken, congressional leaders of both parties have spoken, and we are continuing with implementation,” Carney said.

Rob Godfrey
Office of Gov. Nikki Haley

Winston Churchill who said “He who fails to plan is planning to fail” during World War II.

The State
$25000 password system could have halted SC hacking
“I almost fell out of my chair,” said S.C. Sen. Kevin Bryant, an Anderson Republican co-chairing the subcommittee. “For $25,000, we wouldn’t be here.” A computer security firm hired by the state in the wake of the September breach told senators that …
See all stories on this topic »
SC Revenue’s cyber security job vacant for last year
WRDW-TV
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The chairman of a Senate panel investigating the exposure of taxpayers’ personal data says he’s upset to learn that a $25,000 purchase could have prevented the hacking. Anderson Sen. Kevin Bryant also thinks the agency’s lack of …
See all stories on this topic »
Latest South Carolina news, sports, business and entertainment
WNCT
Panel co-chairman Kevin Bryant of Anderson says the subcommittee’s job is to find out who’s responsible for the agency’s lax computer security. ELECTION PROTESTS. Rep. Vick, Sen. Pickney election protests denied. COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) The South …
See all stories on this topic »
Hacked Agency’s Security Job Vacant for 11 Months
WJBF-TV
Kevin Bryant, R-Anderson, chairman of the special subcommittee that’s looking into the breach, says, “Why was someone not screaming from the rooftops, ‘We’ve got to fill this position’? Eleven months?” Revenue director Jim Etter, who has resigned but …
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Friends,
Christmas is a time of giving, but unfortunately, it is a time when thieves also prey upon the unsuspecting. Chances are you have already received a fair amount of emails today touting all the deals to be had on “Cyber Monday,” but there’s something that’s free and is essential this holiday shopping season.
In between browsing for the latest deal on TV’s or computers, take a minute to look at your own finances. With the massive data breach at the Department of Revenue, it is vital that you include financial security on any shopping list.
Perhaps the best present of all this Cyber Monday can be had for free, placing a freeze on your credit. If the hackers have your information from the DOR data breach, a credit freeze will likely stop them from being able to take out credit in your name. Since you’re online reading this, take a minute to check your latest bank and credit card statements to make sure everything is in line.
CLICK HERE to visit the Financial Literacy page on the State Treasurer’s Website. It has contact information for the three credit reporting agencies that can freeze your credit, in addition to other tips from financial security experts.
Enjoy Cyber Monday and play it safe. The few ounces of effort you take now could prevent a ton of headaches in the future.
Be Well, Curtis M. Loftis, Jr.