U.S. Rep. James E. Clyburn, D-S.C., recently told the Charleston City Paper that he fears the nation’s Electoral College is a potential barrier to a Harris-Walz victory, even if the Democratic team wins the popular presidential vote on Nov. 5.
“I think that [Vice President] Kamala Harris will repeat and do better than what [President] Joe Biden did when he won the popular vote by 7 million votes,” Clyburn said in an interview.
But after trips to the battleground states of Georgia, North Carolina and Michigan, where the vote is close, Clyburn, a political realist, said, “I can tell you there is reason to be concerned when it comes to the Electoral College.”
In addition to those worries, he said he is also concerned about the effects of the controversial conservative governing plan Project 2025 on the Palmetto State. The Center for American Progress (CAP), a nonpartisan Washington, D.C., policy group, has released a state-by-state analysis of how Project 2025 could affect American households financially, if former President Donald Trump wins.
“Project 2025 will impact low-income South Carolinians significantly because it will cost the average South Carolinian $2,500 a year in taxes, while the upper 1% will get a big tax break,” Clyburn warned.
The plan’s effect on health care, he cautioned, “is particularly disconcerting to me. Hundreds of thousands of low-income and disabled (people) in South Carolina could lose access to health care. For them to force seniors into corporate health insurance will have a tremendous impact.”
Project 2025 at a glance
Some fear the 900-plus-page right-wing policy book, called a “wish list” for the next Republican president, could change the nation’s social blueprint and broaden presidential powers. As the election draws closer, however, Trump has reportedly disavowed the plan written by many of his former staffers working with the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think tank.
Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, have called the plan dangerous as they try to tie Trump to it. “Project 2025 is a plan to make Trump and his rich friends even richer” is one of a series of warnings that screams the plan’s perils on their campaign website.
The Heritage Foundation’s website, however, says Harris is wrong about Project 2025. The foundation calls the plan “good for America,” claiming it is not focused on a “single presidential candidate.” The foundation argues that the plan is not new, but it is part of a series of conservative policies dating back to the Reagan administration.
CAP describes Project 2025, however, as an authoritarian playbook to weaken the country’s system of checks and balances to make room for an extreme far-right agenda that would harm ordinary citizens. It would give politicians, judges and corporations more control over Americans’ lives and hurt households financially, CAP said.
Project 2025 in S.C.
In South Carolina and elsewhere, CAP’s study anticipates higher costs for taxes, prescription drugs and student loan payments.
The plan also could threaten reproductive rights by making it illegal to use the U.S. postal system to mail abortion medication, effectively creating a nationwide abortion ban even in states where abortion is legal, the CAP study warns.
The CAP analysis also suggests a possible end to Head Start and Title I programs for public school students from low-income households, causing school children to lose access to quality education, said retired Charleston County educator Barbara Dilligard.
“Eliminating Title I and Head Start programs will result in fewer teachers serving students with the greatest needs and stifle the progress that schools are making with early childhood development and equal access to a good education,” she said.
“Project 2025 is designed to create more people to be servants of the privileged class and solidify an even greater caste system to further divide our country,” she predicted. “It is intended to fund private schools with public taxes.”
The country should increase public school spending to prepare students for future challenges, Dilligard said. “This will support the progress made after the learning loss due to COVID-19.”
Project 2025’s effect on South Carolina
- Taxes: A possible tax hike of $2,506 per year e for the typical family of four.
- Social Security: A median-wage retiree could lose $46,000 to $100,000 over 10 years.
- Health care: Project 2025 proposes limits or lifetime caps on [Medicaid] benefits.
- Prescription drugs: Elimination of
out-of-pocket Medicare drug cost limits for about 334,960 people. - Emergency contraception: 733,000 women could lose guaranteed access to free emergency contraception.
Source: Center for American Progress
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