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A right-leaning disgruntled Republican comments on the news of the day and any other thing he damn-well pleases.
by Rod Williams - I am pleased all of Tennessee's Republican congressmen voted against the $2000 stimulus check, except for Phil Row who abstained. Tennessee's two Democrat congressmen, Rep. Steve Cohen and Rep. Jim Cooper, voted for it. The measure passed the House by a vote of 275 to 134, To read what individual members of Congress said on the issue follow this link.
In the Senate, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell blocked a request for unanimous consent for the CASH Act from Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.). Unanimous consent enables a bill to pass without a recorded vote. President Trump is pushing the $2,000 direct payments, All Democrat Senator are supporting the bill. (link)
It is weird that a Republican President is pushing this spendthrift bill favored by Democrats and opposed by Republicans. One would normally expect a Republican president to be more fiscally responsible than Democrat legislators. I think this is an indication that either Trump has lost touch with reality or he is so focused on his wounded ego from losing the election that he is burning the house down on his way out the door. It will only require 12 Republicans to vote with the Democrats for the bill to pass. I hope Republicans stay true to their principles and vote against this bill.
by Rod Williams - I am apprehensive about the immediate future and will not rest easy until after Joe Biden is inaugurated and Donald Trump is out of the White House. I fear Trump may use military force to stay in office. I never thought I would need to be concerned about something like this. What has been unimaginable is now a real possibility.
The Beacon Center -In an interesting “whodunit” in Chattanooga this year, city auditors discovered that, well, city officials might need to keep closer tabs on the gadgets that they’re spending millions of taxpayer dollars to have.
The Beacon Center- The Johnson City Commission recently decided to round up their property tax rate to the nearest penny after the recent property reappraisal. City staff claimed that had they rounded down instead, the city would have lost over $143,000.
The Beacon Center- Where are you going to hold your next ice skating party?
Reposted from Facebook
by Rod Williams - Most could not. The income of the average carpenter household would support purchase of only 39.9% of the Nashville homes considered starter home.
This standard for determining affordability is based on something developed by American Enterprise Institute called "the carpenter index." Here the index is explained:
The Carpenter Index starts with average carpenter wages at the metro level, which is around $48,000. It then assumes a household income that totals 150% of the carpenter’s wage, which is roughly the national average. This yields a typical total carpenter household income of $72,000. A common rule of thumb is that, to be considered affordable, a household should purchase a house no more than three times household income. The typical carpenter household could then afford a home of up to $216,000. To complete the index, it is determined what percentage of starter homes would $216,000 purchase.
24/7 Wall St did an analysis and came up with an answer for every state. They determine that in Tennessee middle class for household was $21,573- $98,679.
The methodology of 24/7 Wall St was to look at the household income ranges divided into quintiles and take the "lower boundary of the second quintile and the upper boundary of the fourth quintile" and consider that middle class. This represents represents about 60% of American families. That sound about right to me. Looking at all of the ranges across all states, middle class can be as low as $15,165 and as high $295,250.
By Vivian Jones, The Center Square, Dec 18, 2020- Despite economic turmoil caused by the response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Tennessee collected 2.3% more in tax revenue during the first nine months of 2020 than in the same period in 2019. (link)
By Vivian Jones, The Center Square - Lawmakers on a financial oversight committee questioned Tennessee Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey and other officials Thursday about a $26.5 million no-bid contract for COVID-19 testing supplies that turned out to be unusable.
By Beth DeCarbo, Wall Street Journal, Dec. 17, 2020 11:00 - In downtown Franklin, Tenn., a giant Christmas tree and Victorian-era storefronts draw flocks of shoppers in search of very merry merchandise. This chic charm is wooing scores of new home buyers, too.
by Rod Williams - On the December 1st agenda of the Metro Council was a resolution asking the mayor to stop the process of winding down the closing of the Metro-owned long-term care nursing home in the Bordeaux community of Nashville. The facility at that time had less than 15 people remaining at the site. Metro has been in the process of finding other homes for the residence since September and has placed approximately one hundred residents elsewhere. It is not anticipated there will be difficulty in finding beds for the remaining patients at Bordeaux as there is adequate capacity at nearby facilities. The rational for halting the closing of the facility was to keep the residents safely in place during the pandemic.
By Carrie Moore, Vanderbilt University - Only 12% of Republican voters in Tennessee are confident that nationwide votes were counted fairly and accurately, as compared to 97% of Democrats. Even when assessing the accuracy of the vote count within the state, Republicans still expressed more doubt about the accuracy of the results than did Democrats.
The Beacon Center- At a time when Nashville has abused our tax dollars in the midst of a crisis and is now hitting up taxpayers for even more money, we hate to be the bearers of bad news but it gets even worse.
by Rod Williams - US News and World Repot in its Dec. 11, 2020 editions ranks Tennessee as the top state for fiscal stability. It’s followed by Florida, South Dakota, North Carolina and Utah to round out the top five. The study looks at things like government credit rating scores, pension fund liability, budget balancing and liquidly.
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Tennessee State University announced it has hired MSNBC host and progressive activist Rev. Al Sharpton as a Distinguished Guest Lecturer.
Beginning in January 2021, Sharpton will teach “in the area of political science grounded in social justice during the academic term.” (link) |
by Rod Williams- This is an embarrassment. Al Sharpton is an anti-Semite, a race-baiter, and a con artist. The State legislature should reduce any appropriation to Tennessee State University equal to the amount of money paid to Al Sharpton.
by Rod Williams, 12/15/2020 - Yesterday early voting started in Georgia for the January 5 Senate runoff elections. Democrats Jon Ossoff and Rev. Raphael Warnock are challenging incumbent GOP Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler. These races weren't decided in November's elections because no one received a majority of the vote in either contest so the top two vote-getters in each race are in a runoff. Early voting ends on December 31.
Not only do we tear up perfectly good sidewalks to replace them with clean new sidewalks, and not only do we spend millions on building sidewalks but get almost no new sidewalks where sidewalks did not exist before to show for it, and not only do we burden homeowners who want to remodel there home by making them pay for new sidewalks, and not only do we increase the cost of housing and hasten the demise of affordable housing by our sidewalk policy, we also build sidewalks stupidly.
For more on our inability to sanely build sidewalks see the following:
Perfectly Serviceable Sidewalks being Ripped up and Replaced with New Sidewalks!
Why are they tearing up perfectly good sidewalks?
Replacing good sidewalk with new sidewalks; no wonder we are broke.The Beacon Center - A few years ago, when Memphis and the state handed millions of tax dollars to the upcoming show “Bluff City Law,” we told them what would happen.
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Dr. Michael Caldwell |
on the third day of Christmas, the government gave to me… a mask contract given too quickly
The Beacon Center - Every year, Tennessee taxpayers are asked to give up millions of dollars to private companies through the state’s main corporate welfare program: FastTrack.
Tennessee joins other red states in legal brief supporting Texas voting lawsuit against swing states
1. Texas has NOT filed suit against the defendant states.2. What Texas has done is ask the Supreme Court for permission to file the lawsuit.3. The case is on the docket now, but that does not mean the Supreme Court will necessarily hear the case.4. The Supreme Court has ordered (6-3) that the respondent states file their answers by 3PM Thursday.5. Presumably late Thursday or early Friday, the Justices will have a conference. There are several possible outcomes.6. The first outcome is the Supreme Court denies Texas' request to file suit. If that happens, Biden has pretty much won.7. They could grant the request to file the suit in the Supreme Court. That is important ( given the 6-3 vote). Ordinarily for the Supreme Court to grant certiorari (agreeing the hear an appeal), it takes 4 justices to vote for the petition. Because the Supreme Court has original jurisdiction in a lawsuit between the states, I am not sure if they will need 4 or 5 votes.8. The really important issue here is that Texas is asking for an injunction to prevent those states from submitting the disputed electors to the electoral college. If the Justices do not agree to an injunction, the Electoral College will meet on Monday and Joe Biden will officially be the President elect.9. If they enjoin the states from submitting the disputed electors, either the state legislatures will have to submit electors or neither candidate will have 270 votes and the matter will go to the House of Representatives for contingent election.10. The Electoral College is a creation of the Constitution. The Supreme Court cannot change that. But the date the Electoral College meets is set by statute, and the Supreme Court can enjoin that.11. The injunction issue is the big issue to watch here. Because the Electoral College is set to meet on December 14 (Monday), the Supreme Court will have to issue some ruling, most likely on Friday.
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Rebecca Anne Burke |