Blog

Good news: data shows Omicron is fading fast. Infection rates are down sharply. Hospitalizations for Covid are also dropping. Deaths seem to have plateaued and should hopefully start falling soon. This is excellent news. It’s also great to see liberal states like Oregon, New Jersey, Connecticut, and Delaware lifting mask mandates for school children. Even California, the bastion of… Read more »

Concerning Russia’s buildup of military forces along its border with Ukraine, this is a very troubling situation. An emboldened Vladimir Putin is in no country’s best interest – not even Russia’s.   As a former (and forever) KGB agent, Putin’s motives are plentiful: Clearly he wants Russia to be the dominant power in Europe. • He likely believes Ukraine "is actually a… Read more »

Earlier today, our national debt reached the $30 trillion threshold. This is a ridiculous amount of debt, and it angers me beyond description. Liberals will say, "Well Ralph, you voted for Trump's tax cuts." As if allowing taxpayers to keep a fair amount of what they earn is somehow immoral. It’s not. These people are essentially saying, "Ralph, I think you should have voted to keep that… Read more »

For our state’s military veterans: Gov. McMaster has (once again) included in his executive budget proposal the elimination of the state tax on your military retirement pay.  Every member of South Carolina’s federal delegation is fully supportive. I was honored to spearhead and lead a joint statement on this, issued moments ago, with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sen. Tim Scott… Read more »

Last week, I was pleased to meet personally with the Regional Administrator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). I also was present at the EPA's public hearing on January 25th, and had another in-person tour of the New Indy facility this past Friday. It's important to understand the EPA is primarily focused on the safety of emissions. With that said, I certainly understand… Read more »

Do you guys know how many federal agencies are STILL on hyper-sensitive lock-down mode over Covid? Where large numbers of their employees are still teleworking from home, despite being at an agency whose processes and systems were built around an office environment? Among the worst are the IRS, the Social Security Administration, and USCIS (the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services).… Read more »

On the return flight from my most recent trip to the southern border, over half the passengers were escorted onto the plane while holding cardboard signs that read, “I don’t speak English.” Do you want to guess what that was all about? Busses, trains, even taxis have been used to relocate illegal immigrants away from the southern border. So recent news that the Biden Administration has… Read more »

As if overreaching government vaccine mandates aren’t bad enough, it is highly inappropriate for federal dollars to be used to collect information about someone's religious beliefs. The only way to prevent this information from being abused is to prevent its collection in the first place. Just moments ago, I introduced legislation in the House of Representatives that would prohibit… Read more »

The polling on school choice is crystal clear, and it's not even close: the overwhelming majority of parents – by far – support school choice. If we truly want to improve educational outcomes, then part of that is allowing parents to place their children in the learning environment that's most suitable for them. While we have many excellent public schools across our state & nation,… Read more »

Recent guidance from the FDA seems highly unethical. Let me start by posing a question: All things being equal, should someone’s race or ethnicity afford them preferential treatment for Covid medications? Here’s an example… Let’s say there were two people, both with Covid, both contracting it around the same time, both with the exact same symptoms and severity, both of the same age and… Read more »