FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DEMOCRATS DRAW LINE IN SAND FOR
TEACHERS, FARMERS, WORKING FAMILIES
Leaders to roll out alternative to Republican budget
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
NASHVILLE (May 12) – House Democrats on Wednesday announced a push to stand up for teachers, farmers, working families, and other Tennesseans hurt by cuts proposed by the Republican-controlled Senate.
On Monday, the Republican majority in the Senate offered a budget amendment putting over $140 million in funding on the chopping block. These include $34 million in cuts to teacher pay, $6 million in cuts to agriculture investments in farmers, $100 million in cuts to state employees, and $3.5 million in cuts to public safety.
“The budget proposal offered by Senate Republicans is unacceptable and shows a fundamental lack of compassion for Tennesseans,” said House Democratic Leader Gary Odom (D-Nashville). “What Tennesseans need is a budget that will lead them to recovery, not ruin.”
Additional program cuts offered in the Senate Republican budget proposal include Tennessee
“The Senate began work on this proposal this afternoon. We are going to counter that when they decide to send it to us,” said House Democratic Caucus Chairman Mike Turner (D-Old Hickory). “We have asked for weeks for the majority party plan. It is here and we disagree.”
House leadership Wednesday morning approved a preliminary counter budget to the Republican-backed proposal.
“We have already begun work on an alternative budget proposal,” said House Finance Chairman Craig Fitzhugh (D-Ripley). “We intend to fix as many of the Senate Republican cuts as we can because they hurt our teachers, farmers, state employees, and Tennessee
Democrats now wait on the Senate to approve their budget proposal, at which time the House will take up the measure and conclude business for the year.
“After years of fiscally conservative budgeting and belt-tightening, we are in the position of using savings to help the people of our state,” said Speaker Emeritus Jimmy Naifeh (D-Covington).
Added Speaker Pro-Tem Lois DeBerry (D-Memphis), “Our rainy day fund is for a rainy day, and here in Tennessee
###
5 comments:
Wow, thanks for posting this presser! It has sold me on the Republican budget!
Listen to the little piggies squeal!
Dear Left Wing Cracker,
I just have a quick question for you but couldn't find an email so had to resort to this. I am a progressive blogger. Please email my assistant back at barbaraobrien@maacenter.org when you get a chance. Thanks.
Bill
Sooner or later, Tennesseans--along with Americans, Greeks, Spainards, Irishfolks, Brits and we the world over are going to have to face years of public spending. We can tax ourselves to oblivion or borrow until we can't pay our bills, declare bankruptucy and create economic chaos that makes 1930 look like 1999. The alternative is to move over time toward an enviornment of classical liberalism where individual choice and initiative is valued, where borders are open and where markets are free. Compassion will exist as it has for thousands of years; people can decide how they will help their fellows; and taxation will no longer be the linchpin on which the cycle of borrowing, spending, taxing and borrowing, taxing and spending will shape the economic possibilities of human civilization.
Ish, there's no such thing as a free lunch OR a free market, because there is no such thing as enlightened self-interest. That, in itself, is a contradictory term.
Assuming your premises, who or what then determines the perameters of how self-interest is actualized? If you follow your own reasoning, then those in the central government whom you wish to shape the market forces are not capable of making decisions apart from THEIR self-interest. They will favor their friends, fund their politicians and squash their competitors just as much as those in corporate boardrooms do at the present moment. Actually, LWC, you're getting dangerously close to admitting the reality of original sin at the center of the human experience. Such a welcome turn of events would be, as it were, a "green-letter" day... (as opposed to red, you know, you good for little Communist). :)
Post a Comment