FACT CHECK: Jim DeMint's 'Palmetto Promise' Lied, Claimed “NO Health Czar” in Peeler Health Care Bill
Last Updated on September 12, 2024
A Jim DeMint-founded organization calling itself “Palmetto Promise” lied to South Carolinians when they supported the “Health Czar” bill, S.915, introduced by the Chairman of Senate Finance, Harvey Peeler.
Palmetto Promise is advocating for the same type of conflict of interest situation in the administration of health care and medical licensure that South Carolina suffers from in its corrupt judiciary.
Palmetto Promise Senior Fellow Oran P. Smith explained away the new “Secretary of Health and Policy” office that would take charge of five different departments, saying “this is how regulations work.” The legislation, which Oran says will “streamline health functions,” has been widely panned by conservatives across the Palmetto State.
Oran calls concerns about the legislation “unfounded.”
Critics of the legislation, S. 915 & partner bill H. 4927, argue that questions of accountability, potential for conflicts of interest, and overly consolidated control within the hands of one cabinet level Secretary constitute what amounts to a Czar who will operate with relative impunity.
Palmetto Promise’s own explainer comprehensively details all the ways in which the Health Czar would remain unaccountable to the people
National File’s FACT CHECK: EIGHT O.J. MURDER GLOVES
National File Awards Palmetto Promise and Oran Smith EIGHT O.J. Simpson Murder Gloves for Lying to the people of South Carolina.
The bill, S. 915, represents a major consolidation of power within one office that conservatives say will concentrate too much power in the hands of one Czar.
“The secretary is appointed by the Governor,” and the senate would then approve the Czar, according to Oran Smith’s own analysis at Palmetto Promise.
National File has previously reported that Gov. McMasters’s own defense of the legislation points to the Klaus Schwab-tied, World Economic Forum associated Boston Consulting Group, which laid much of the groundwork for the medical tyranny we saw during the roll-out of the Covid mandates and shutdowns.
READ: Jim DeMint’s ‘Palmetto Promise’ Joined WHO, Boston Consulting to Push Health Czar in Palmetto State
Palmetto State Watch has also extensively covered BCG’s ties to far-left Sustainable Growth and Development espoused by Klaus Schwab’s WEF.
Oran Smith then points to what he calls “The incredibly important Department of Labor, Licensing, and Regulation (LLR) director,” and again points to the fact that the senate confirms the Governor’s appointed LLR Director.
That senate confirmation process is a similar process to the judicial selection process that has cast South Carolina’s judiciary into scandal.
As South Carolina Policy Council (SCPC) tells us that “South Carolina’s judicial selection process is unusual and rife with issues that must quickly be addressed.”
SCPC continues: The judicial selection “process [is] tightly controlled from beginning to end by the legislative branch, with no input from the governor and little opportunity for public engagement.”
The result in the judicial system is massive potential for conflict of interests.
Magistrate judges, who preside over low-level cases affecting everyday citizens, are effectively hired by small groups of state senators (sometimes just one or two of them). At the moment, nothing prevents these senators, many of whom are attorneys, from practicing law in front of a magistrate they helped to the bench.
Palmetto Promise is advocating for the same type of conflict of interest situation in the administration of health care and medical licensure that South Carolina suffers from in its corrupt judiciary.
QUESTIONS OF ACCOUNTABILITY
Oran Smith at Palmetto Promise admits that, once installed, the Health Czar would have little or no oversight by virtue of the fact that once confirmed, the Czar “would have the same term limit as (be “coterminous” with) the Governor,” as “a member of the Governor’s cabinet.”
Oran Smith continues: “The Senate would determine what qualifications are necessary.”
In other words, once installed, the Czar won’t be going anywhere, leaving South Carolina open to situations where unqualified candidates could be sworn into roles that come with great responsibility and little experience.
That exact scenario played out recently in South Carolina with Ellen Weaver, who suffered no repercussions for her utter lack of statutorily required education. Similarly, Bob Jones University avoided accountability for white-washing Weaver’s lack of credentials.
Ellen Weaver, another Palmetto Promise project, is the poster child of lacking accountability.
Weaver lacked the credentials to even run for the position of Superintendent of Education, before Bob Jones University, a baptist-affiliated school with many allegations of closeted homosexuals, granted Weaver an honorary degree.
Greenville News, the USA Today/Gannett McNews publication, also covered the Weaver scandal at B.J.U.
B.J.U. granted Weaver a quickie degree in just a few months, despite the fact that the program they say she completed is a two-year program.
A self-proclaimed accrediting body calling itself the “Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges” announced that no further action will be taken against” B.J.U.,
Ellen Weaver remained unpunished, and her case serves as an object lesson that the legislature and the Governor have a de facto agreement not to hold each other accountable.
These questions of accountability remain unsatisfied.
UN-ELECTED BUREAUCRAT CONSOLIDATES POWER
Once approved by the Senate, presumably by a majority vote, the only way the Czar can be removed is by a two-thirds vote of the majority of both chambers after being directed toward a recall vote by the General Assembly (SC Constitution, Article XV, Section 3).
What’s worse, the Czar can remove component Department directors AT-WILL, at the behest of the Governor.
South Carolina has already seen the the damage an unaccountable Licensing Director who serves at the pleasure of no one but the Governor can have on licensing of doctors and dentists who operate outside of the mandates instituted by the Medical Industrial Complex which saw a resurgence in power during Covid.
READ: South Carolina Dental Board Revokes Dentist’s License For Removing Toxic Mercury Fillings, Citing Pennsylvania Code
In the case of Dr. Blanche Grube, whose license was recently suspended by unaccountable bureaucrats appointed to head up South Carolina’s licensure boards, the bureaucrats are following the lead of mentally patient calling herself “Rachel Levine,” formerly Dick Levine, who headed up the health care effort in the state of Pennsylvania.
South Carolinians — especially new ones — likely didn’t move to the Palmetto State to be forced to live under Pennsylvania-style (Read: Dick Levine) medical tyranny.
Whether or not Dick Levine style health care fits in line with Jim DeMint’s and Oran Smith’s “Palmetto Promise” remains to be seen.