BillHobbs.com is a frequently updated blog of original reporting and commentary by Bill Hobbs, a longtime Nashville journalist and media relations adviser. I am currently serving as communications director for the Tennessee Republican Party, a job I began on Oct. 29, 2007.
Troy Senik, a research fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Tennessee Center for Policy Research, analyzes Gov. Bredesen's latest less-than-ironclad statements opposing the creation of a new state income tax, and gives the governor advice on how to ensure Tennessee has no income tax in the future, via an op-ed in today's Tennessean. Senik encourages the governor to get behind a proposed "Taxpayers Bill of Rights" to limit the growth of state spending to a rate sustainable without an income tax. I've got a simpler proposal, oultined here in a research paper, Spending Spree: The Bipartisan Assault That is Killing The Constitutional Cap on the Growth of Tennessee's State Budget, which details the failure of Tennessee's current constitutional limit on spending to actually reign in spending, and proposals for reforms. For more on the Taxpayers Bill of Rights concept, read this. AmericansForProsperity.org is a good website for keeping track of the Taxpayers Bill of Rights movement in states across the nation. They also have an excellent blog.
1 Comments: http://geotenncare.blogspot.com/2005/10/tony-garr-of-tennessee-health-care.html
I pay taxes for legislation. I vote for and voice my opinion
to politicians under a democratic process. I entrust them to work out
the business of Tennessee government and the laws that affect its
citizens. My voice is the key to the democratic processes that evoke
change in policies and laws. If our legislatures can't be held
accountable and are skirting the democratic process then what kind
of government are the people of Tennessee being ruled under?
Would the voters of America give up their rights to let some
czar of another country make the laws and policies of The United States
so the President and his staff could say, it wasn't me, we are not
responsible, it was them? Has our governing bodies stooped so low to
only claim accountability for the things that make themselves look
good to the voters of the state? Have our legislatures allowed the Governor
of Tennessee to pass hot potatoes (issues) that have such dire consequences to some czar (Judge) who "We The People" are to be ruled under and dictated by?
The striking down of statues and the changes in TennCare coverage
certainly has had an immediate and devastating effect on the people
here in Tennessee and I'm mad as Heck that my tax dollars and my voters
rights have been turned over to some Circuit Judge in Ohio who should
not and does not have a dog in this fight. If this judge be a real judge he
should have declined to rule on this matter and told Tennessee State
Governor Phil Bredesen "NO!"
This judge should have declined and said, "I will not adjudicate on such
a matter that will inflict suffering and death on folks in Tennessee NO! I will not and should not
posses the power to affect the statues that the Tennessee legislatures should
be resolving with a yea or nay vote. No! I will not take away the sovereign
rights of the people in Tennessee [NO!) Governor Bredesen behave like a
governor and work this out with the legislatures that the people of Tennessee have entrusted their lives and their confidence in. "NO!" Grow up and be accountable and responsible for your actions. "NO!" You will not as a governor and I will not as a judge defecate on your people and then give your legislatures
a childlike excuse to say "It wasn't me." NO! those rights are reserved for the voices and future votes Tennesseans cast so your legislatures decisions, good or bad are assessed through the power of the peoples voice by vote.
I for one "do not" accept the ruling of a judge who takes power into his
own hands and takes away my rights as a citizen of the United States
and my Sovereign rights as a Tennessean. I did not vote for this judges
or any other judges blessing or his grace or any of his rulings to be imposed upon
me as in the power of giving or taking away of laws.
I did not give up my liberties to be governed by one power hungry single
entity as the czar who determines by his single voice the passing of bills and then dictates the laws and policies my legislatures voted in. This is the peoples Sovereign State of Tennessee.
I want my legislatures to take responsibility for those laws and polices
changes as they should be accountable to the voters and residents of Tennessee. They make the decisions on bills. We The People
should be able to exercise our rights through participation in the democratic
process. We don't want judges making or changing laws. That's what my
legislatures do. Judges get your nose out of the house of my Tennessee
legislatures and do your job, Interpret, do not effect,
change or make law.
Mr. Phil Bredesen, you have abused your power as Governor of
Tennessee, you and your legal cronies do not possess the power to
change the democratic process or the Tennessee Constitution as a
democratic process nor does or legislatures under the United States
Constitution possess that power. Laws should not to be made or
changed by a judge. You have in fact turned that right "illegally to
change the law" over to a judges interpretation of the law. In doing so
you have rendered my legislatures useless and blocked their accountability
to me as a voter. They are paid and voted into these honorable and sacred
positions as representatives of the people of Tennessee and I want
representation, not tyrannical rulers. My forefathers shed blood for my liberties and my rights of freedom from these things!
The People of Sovereign State of Tennessee demand that our rights
and the rights and responsibilities of our legislatures be restored to a
democratic process. We don't want to be governed or be ruled under or
through tyrannical ordinance. You must uphold the Constitution of The United States and The Constitution of Sovereign State of Tennessee. We the voters of Tennessee claim our sovereignty and will not forfeit our voices our lives nor our
liberties to any outside entity least we loose our power as the people and the peoples republic of the State of Tennessee under the Republic of The United States and it Constitution. We will not relinquish our rights without a fight.
Randy Rinaldo
867 Hawkins Rd
White Bluff, TN 37187
Posted by: Randy Rinaldo at October 14, 2005 8:13 AM
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Troy Senik, a research fellow at the nonprofit, nonpartisan 