Libertarian Bill Reeside outlines priorities in South Carolina U.S. House District 1 race

CHARLESTON, SC. (WTOC) - Bill Reeside, the Libertarian candidate for South Carolina’s 1st Congressional District seat, says tackling the federal deficit and ending prolonged military involvement are his main focuses ahead of the Nov. 3 election.

Reeside faces Republican Jenny Costa Honeycutt and Democrat Nancy Lacore for the seat held by Congresswoman Nancy Mace.

Call for independent voting

Reeside said voters should look beyond party lines when casting ballots.

“When you go into that polling place, I want you to have the courage to vote independent,” Reeside said. “Get out of your tribe, vote independent.”

Reeside said he is running because he believes the federal government is out of balance.

“So I’m running for Congress to get that balance back in order, so we get back to the three-legged stool, not a two-legged wobbly stool,” Reeside said.

Focus on deficit and military conflicts

Reeside said a balanced budget and ending what he called endless wars would be conditions for his support of legislation.

“The Democrat and Republican leaders in the House. I’m independent,” Reeside said. “If you want my vote for something, we’ve got to have a balanced budget, we’ve got to get out of these endless wars.”

Reeside cited federal debt and military involvement as reasons for higher prices.

“Our own Treasury Department has said that the United States is insolvent,” Reeside said. “And the number one reason we’re insolvent is we’ve gone $40 trillion in debt over the last 35 years.”

He said the United States has entered 16 military conflicts he described as unnecessary and unconstitutional, and said Congress has given away its authority to declare war.

Affordability and health care costs

Reeside said affordability is top of mind for him and voters locally.

“They can’t buy houses,” Reeside said. “They can’t have one family member work and the other stay home with kids. They can’t afford child care.”

When asked how he plans to address rising health care costs, Reeside said health care services should be treated as commodities with visible pricing.

“If we treat health care services as commodities, you’ll go to your doctor,” Reeside said. “You need a knee replacement? It’ll be like a McDonald’s board. Knee replacement, $X,000. Hip replacement, $4,000.”

“Your insulin, the price of your insulin is going to be right there, and you can shop it, and we can do that,” Reeside said.

Final message to voters

Reeside said his final message centers on independence from the two major parties.

“Let’s get independent from the Republicans and the Democrats who have put us in this tremendous hole,” Reeside said. “Courage, independence is the message I want to give the voters.”