Charting South Carolina's Conservative Future with Representative Josiah Magnuson: Fiscal Prudence and the Fight Against 'Woke' Ideologies

Embark on an insightful journey with Representative Josiah Magnuson, a true stalwart of South Carolina's conservative values, as he sits down with us here at More Than Medicine. Together, we unravel the threads of his life, from the humble beginnings in Fingerville to his influential role in shaping the future of Christian education with Palmetto Fortis. We celebrate the state's legislative triumphs, including the bold moves to dismantle the Certificate of Need law, empower gun owners through constitutional carry, and stem the tide of DEI and critical race theory at our universities. Dive into our conversation as we revel in the victories that fortify transparency and hold government spending to account.

Prepare to navigate the complexities of fiscal responsibility within the palmetto state's corridors of power. We dissect the pressing need for zero-based budgeting—a tool to keep bureaucratic excess in check and ensure that our tax dollars amplify the voice of necessity over noise. Hear about my ambitions for the legislative future, where the crosshairs are firmly set on reeling in the undue influence of special interest groups and 'woke' corporate agendas. We're paving the way for judicial refinements and bolstering the backbone of our infrastructure, all while upholding the sanctity of life. This episode is a testament to South Carolina's unwavering commitment to its foundational principles and the protection of the unborn. Join us as we chart a course for a more accountable and morally grounded governance.

https://www.jacksonfamilyministry.com

https://bobslone.com/home/podcast-production/

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:04

Welcome to More Than Medicine, where Jesus is more than enough for the ills that plague our culture and our country. Hosted by author and physician, dr Robert Jackson, and his wife Carlotta and daughter Hannah Miller. So listen up, because the doctor is in.

Speaker 2: 0:23

Welcome to More Than Medicine. I'm your host, Dr Robert Jackson, bringing to you biblical insights and stories from the country doctor's rusty, dusty scrapbook. Well, I'm honored today to have a very special guest in the studio with me, Representative Josiah Magnuson, who happens to be my representative and my close personal friend. Representative Magnuson, welcome to More Than Medicine.

Speaker 3: 0:49

Thank you, Dr Jackson. It's truly a privilege to be with you.

Speaker 2: 0:52

Well, I'm honored to have you today. First of all, tell my listeners a little bit about yourself, about your family and about what you do in the real world outside the legislature.

Speaker 3: 1:06

Well, thank you sir. Well, I live in the real world, about five or six minutes away from you. I live up the road here in the Fingerville area and my wife and I have about five acres out there on Highway 11, and we have a little girl, jolie JL. She just turned one year old. Well, actually on Christmas she was a Christmas baby, christmas surprise. She came a little early so she was in the NICU for 28 days. But we're very blessed, she's growing up quick. And I also work for a Christian education company called Palmetto Fortis and we were recently recognized as one of the fastest growing companies in South Carolina and we actually help Christian schools all across the country and around the world to access biblical worldview resources. So very honored to be able to do that for my real work.

Speaker 2: 1:58

I hear you. I hear you Now. How long have you been in the legislature now?

Speaker 3: 2:02

I was elected in 2016. So I kind of came in on the Trump wave trying to drain the swamp, provide government that was more accountable to the people and transparent. And so this is I'm now running for my fifth term, believe it or not. So time flies.

Speaker 2: 2:18

Time does fly.

Speaker 3: 2:20

I'm honored to represent the people of District 38 and all along the top of northern Spartanburg County.

Speaker 2: 2:26

I hear you, I hear you. Now let's review the last session. What do you think were the major accomplishments last session?

Speaker 3: 2:35

So this past session there have been almost too many to count. We've really achieved a lot and if you look at, for example, forbes magazine did an article recently looking at the last two years and just they were kind of blown away why South Carolina has taken such a turn in a conservative direction, and I would attribute that to the fact that we, as conservative legislators, got organized and we're working together in a definite conservative direction. We have the South Carolina Freedom Caucus that was formed in April of 2022, and we have seen some incredible wins things like repealing the Certificate of Need law that created hospital monopolies. Things like constitutional carry to allow people to openly have their weapons publicly without needing government permission to do that, the right to keep and bear arms, as we see in the Second Amendment. Also, things like we passed a bill to prohibit DEI in our state universities that went through the House all manner of different things. I mean, the list goes on. We also saw an income tax cut for the state of South Carolina. We've been moving in the right direction there from 7% now to 6.4% and it should move down to 6% within the next couple of years. And then even things like critical race theory. We've got a bill through that should be enacted into law. It's coming back from the Senate, from a conference committee, and, like critical race theory, we've got a bill through that should be enacted into law. It's coming back from the Senate, from a conference committee, and the critical race theory issue in our schools is so important because we don't want the indoctrination of our kids and teaching them to hate one another and be divided, and so that's something that we think is going to be permanent law as of this session. So really again, just the list goes on.

Speaker 3: 4:27

We've got a lot of great things happening, and even not necessarily in legislation, but even outside of the session. For example, I'm on the Legislative Oversight Committee and we've seen several what I would say are failed bureaucrats step down. I've helped to replace some of the leadership, for example at the Commission on Higher Education, a guy who, under his watch, the agency actually mismanaged over $152 million of primarily lottery funds, but also some other funds that they supposedly didn't know that they had in the bank, other funds that they supposedly didn't know that they had in the bank and that could have been used for tuition for our college students, and they also weren't looking and overseeing the college programs that were being offered as far as curriculum in our state universities. They weren't keeping a check on that. So we replaced that leadership. We replaced leadership at the SEDOT and forced the resignation of the secretary, and now we've got a new gentleman in there who I think is going to be doing a great job. So those are things that I think we are moving South Carolina in a good direction good direction.

Speaker 3: 5:41

And then I'll name one other thing that I think is very, very important, which is transparency with taxpayer dollars, because in the budget last year I stood up on the House floor we had had the earmarks, which is politicians, special projects. The list is supposed to be released to the public prior to a vote in the legislature, which in the past that didn't even happen. But I was able to get at least some transparency. But even what was being provided to the public was really insignificant. It was really not enough detail to know what your money was being spent on, and so they actually dropped that, with the vote coming up at 10am the next morning.

Speaker 3: 6:24

They dropped it at 119am the previous night, and so they actually dropped that, with the vote coming up at 10 am the next morning. They dropped it at 1.19 am the previous night and I said look, this is too much. It's nine pages of small print. There's no possible way we'd know where this $400 million worth of taxpayer money is all going before we have to vote it and pass it into law for the next year. And so I got up and started reading, you know, the uh, the amounts and the project names to the, to the public, uh, and to the house representative, in front of the live TV cameras, and, needless to say, I completely kicked a hornet's nest.

Speaker 2: 6:56

You did, boy, you swatted the nest, didn't you?

Speaker 3: 6:58

The place went crazy. Um and uh, you know one. One of them, he was like you know, and one of them he was like what do you think you're achieving with this? Well, what I achieved was, this year they made a new requirement for the first time ever, they have a two-page form where politicians are going to have to list exactly all the details, the date of completion projected, where the project is going to be put together, all this kind of stuff, amounts and specifics and all of this that's going to be released to the public, and so I'm really, I would say, proud of that, that I was able to force them to tell the people how their money is being used, instead of keeping it hidden. So those are all examples of things that we've accomplished in the past couple years.

Speaker 2: 7:43

Now I understand. Was it the House or the Senate that forced the transgender issue with the medical university?

Speaker 3: 7:50

So, yes, so there was an aspect of both. Senator Josh Kimbrell put a proviso in that was prohibiting state funds from going towards gender transitioning of minors, but the problem was that the Medical University of South Carolina, musc, pretty much was flaunting state law. They were flaunting that proviso and it was secret they weren't advertising it exactly, but we had a leak that there was a clinic that was still operating at MUSC for children as young as four years of age oh you gotta be kidding me and so that was something that we dealt with at the end of 2022. We did a FOIA request and they said, well, we're not gonna give it to you. And they said and we said, yes, you are, we're gonna sue you. And they came back and they said there is no information to provide because the clinic has closed.

Speaker 3: 8:45

So they didn't give us anything, but they closed the clinic, and so that, to me, is again a huge win. Again an example of it doesn't necessarily take passing a law to make a difference. Sometimes you just have to take a stand.

Speaker 2: 8:58

Yeah, I hear you, I hear you. All. Right Now, criticism of of of you, and probably not just you, but others who voted with you on this one point six billion budget surplus and how you handle that now. Now I'm just could tell you my personal opinion. That's taxpayer money and that money it should come back to the taxpayers. It shouldn't just be spent profligately. What was your opinion about all that budget surplus?

Speaker 3: 9:29

Yeah, so my goal in the budget is always to focus on core government functions. So things like roads, law enforcement, education, our court system, those would be core government functions. That's the reason South Carolina government, the state, exists. You don't want your money to go off towards all of these crazy boondoggles. You don't want it spent on food and wine festivals in Charleston. You don't want it spent on horse races.

Speaker 3: 9:56

You don't want it spent on these. Whether it's BMX biking, whether it's film incentives to bring Hollywood to South Carolina, whether it's sports marketing grants to tell people about golf tournaments that live in New York and Illinois all of this kind of stuff. That is where your taxpayer money often is going, and I believe that our roads are crumbling, our law enforcement is underpaid, our education system needs help. All of these things matter, and we can't continue to spend millions and millions of dollars on just things that should be icing on the cake, if at all, even as the role of government, and so we need to actually be conservative with taxpayer money, actually do what we said we were going to do when we ran as Republicans, and let's actually cut the spending.

Speaker 3: 10:49

The problem that we start out with in the budget is that we are supposed to, in state law, have zero-based budgeting. That means everything is supposed to be justified every year, but instead of that, when a state agency comes to the House Ways and Means Committee, they're not justifying why they're spending the current amount, they're justifying new increases in spending. So they're offering to the House Ways and Means Committee. Here's why we think we need an increase in spending. So one of two things happens Either they get the increase in spending or they don't. Either you see their budget go up for the year or you see it stay the same. You never see a cut and so, over and over again, we're seeing the largest budget in state history for the last decade or so that this has been happening.

Speaker 3: 11:34

So I always am going to be against wasteful spending, trying to cut government where we can, to prioritize the core functions. We can to prioritize the core functions, and I actually proposed more funding for law enforcement, more funding for our roads and bridges, and you know they're trying to lie about that. They're trying to say that I am against those things, and I think it's because they know that those are the things that the people care about. If they see me focused on something, then they know that I'm being a good representative for my district and so they try to tell my district that I'm not doing those things so that they can turn the people against me. But we need to get the message out that I'm taking a stand on the things that the people actually care about, rather than representing the lobbyists and the special interests.

Speaker 2: 12:20

Yeah, I understand that. I understand that. Well, now, what will be your primary objectives for the next session, If you're reelected and you're there for another two years? What are the objectives that you have in mind for the next two years?

Speaker 3: 12:44

change. We've got to drain the swamp. There's a lot of powerful attorneys, a lot of special interest groups again, that control our state government, and we have a lot of these woke corporations that are pushing their agenda down our throats. They don't represent our family values and they don't really care about our freedoms. So we need to represent the people and we need to change state government to do that better. I think one of the biggest ways that we can do that is actually by working on eliminating DEI from our colleges and universities. So we got a bill passed this year through the House, but it looks like it's going to stall out in the Senate, and we need to make sure that we do that, because the DEI issue is the wokeism put into practice. It's cultural Marxism and that's the way that they're changing the hearts and minds of our young adults to think in a different worldview, and so that's the way we have to get to the source, I believe, and change this quote-unquote diversity, equity, inclusion and root that out of our culture and especially of our colleges and universities. Another really important area to change would be judicial reform, and again we're at the cusp of that. We have a bill that came out of our state senate we're going to be voting on in the House next week, but it's not effective. It's only tweaking around the edges. It needs we need substantial reform, and I'm going to continue to work for that.

Speaker 3: 14:12

The SEDOT continues to need reform.

Speaker 3: 14:14

We need to fix our roads.

Speaker 3: 14:17

I think there's a lot more we can do, whether it's on the leadership side, to make sure that we have somebody that's actually able to be held responsible to the people I'm going to continue to work toward that and then also making sure that the workers and contractors are available, because that's part of the problem.

Speaker 3: 14:34

People don't want to work, and so we need to train again our young adults to get out there and get the job done, to keep working with our vocational schools, career centers, to put the programs in place that will train young people, whether it's CDL licenses, whether it's the you know diesel mechanics, whether it's asphalt and concrete certifications. Those are things that I think our career centers need to be teaching so that we can plan again for the future. And then, speaking of young people, the other thing that I have a huge heart for is ending abortion in South Carolina, and we have to be thinking about protecting all South Carolina citizens, not just a few, not just some people. We need to make sure we have equal protection under the law, even for those who are most innocent and most vulnerable, so I'll continue to work to make that a reality as well.

Speaker 2: 15:27

I hear you. I hear you Well. You know my heart is I've been working in the pro-life arena for 40-something years now and you know I'm delighted at some of the legislation that's been passed, but it's sort of piecemeal, been just chipping away at the abortion industry and we've still yet to eliminate abortion in South Carolina. And you know I went back and looked at the DHEC stats and in the 40 years that I've been working with pro-life legislation over 200,000 unborn children have died at the hand of the abortionist in South Carolina since the 1990s. The first pro-life bill was passed in 1991, I think it was and since that date over 200,000 unborn children have died by abortion, and that's just surgical abortion.

Speaker 2: 16:24

We don't really have good stats on the medical abortion side, and so you know it breaks my heart to know that that's going on. You know I'm happy about the pro-life legislation that's been passed, but we have a a Republican majority in the House and Senate. All of them ran on a pro-life platform and yet we haven't been able to pass legislation that would completely eliminate abortion in our state. There are other pro-life Republican-dominated legislatures in other states that have done so and South Carolina has not. And it just hurts my heart that we have not been able to accomplish that in our state and I appreciate your efforts in that regard and I pray for you and pray that your tribe will increase.

Speaker 3: 17:18

Well, thank you, dr Jackson. We need that tribe to increase. We need more people who are willing to say that we are continuing to strive to end abortion, people who are willing to say that we are continuing to strive to end abortion and I know, you know that as we continue to, I guess, deteriorate as a culture, unfortunately, it seems like the true pro-life position, the 100% pro-life position, is being set to the side, and we're hearing politicians say that we have to set that aside in order to get reelected. First of all, I don't believe that the people of my district want to kill unborn babies no, they don't. But I also think that, even if that was the case, we still have to take a stand on what's right and we still have to say the truth. The Republican Party platform says that we want 14th Amendment, equal protection of unborn children, and that's what I ran on, and that's one reason why I am a Republican is because of that stance.

Speaker 2: 18:18

So we have to. You got elected and the Freedom Caucus guys got elected. That's right, they all ran on that platform and they stood up for it, and they keep getting reelected. So what's wrong with these other guys, right? Do they think the rest of South Carolina is entirely different from all of your districts?

Speaker 3: 18:35

Well, they must think that because we're getting attacked not just in my district. You see these mailers with all kinds of lies and misrepresentations in the mailbox. That's not just happening in my district, that's happening in almost every Freedom Caucus member's district across the state of South Carolina.

Speaker 2: 18:51

So it's really an epic battle, I think the rhinos in Columbia are just entirely frightened of you guys in the Freedom Caucus and you know there's going to be more of you guys in the Freedom Caucus after this election. I believe there will be. I believe there will be 10 or 15 more folks elected who have the same commitment to the Constitution as you guys in the Freedom Caucus possess now, and they're really going to be scared after this election.

Speaker 3: 19:21

That's my hope and prayer. We're continuing to change Columbia. It's one step at a time. You can't do it overnight. You can't wave a magic wand. But if we rely on God's help and we empower the people of the state to get involved, then I think that we will turn the ship in a positive way.

Speaker 2: 19:38

I think you're right. I think you're right. Well, any last comments you want to make. Our time is about to run out.

Speaker 3: 19:45

Well, I just would ask folks to get involved and, of course, I would love to have your vote on June 11th. You can go to my website, josiamagnusoncom, for more details about my platform and things that I've done, things that I intend to do as your state representative, if you live in District 38. If you don't live in District 38, please support Freedom Caucus candidates, because there is a fight. We didn't pick the fight. We're not trying to go after somebody, but we're having people go after us and we are taking a stand for the conservative principles that we all believe in. That's why the swamp is coming after us and we would love to be able to continue to serve and I think that, like you said, dr Jackson, I think the people of South Carolina are going to have our back.

Speaker 2: 20:35

That's right, I think they will too. Well, you're listening to More Than Medicine. My guest today is Josiah Magnuson, representative from District 38. And I'm just delighted that he's my representative. I'm delighted to support him. You can go to his website. Tell that website one more time, josiah.

Speaker 3: 20:54

It's josiahmagnusoncom, josiahmagnusoncom.

Speaker 2: 20:59

Can they make a contribution at that website?

Speaker 3: 21:01

Absolutely. You can click on the top corner where it says contribute. You can also go to my Facebook page Magnuson I'm sorry. Well, facebookcom slash Magnuson SC and you can stay updated about everything that I'm doing for the district and for South Carolina.

Speaker 2: 21:15

All right, and, of course, do not forget to go and vote on June the 11th. And, josiah, just thank you for being here today and I appreciate you and all that you stand for. All right, this is More Than Medicine. I'm your host, dr Robert Jackson. We'll be back again next week. May the Lord bless you real good.

Speaker 1: 21:38

Thank you for listening to this edition of More Than Medicine. For more information about the Jackson Family Ministry, dr Jackson's books, or to schedule a speaking engagement, go to their Facebook page, instagram or their webpage at jacksonfamilyministrycom. This podcast is produced by Bob Sloan Audio Production at bobsloancom.