June 30, 2007

Bredesen Breaks Oath of Office, Violates Constitition By Signing Unconstitutional Budget Into Law

The City Paper reported Friday that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has signed the state’s nearly $28 billion budget into law, having done so on Thursday, two days before the beginning of the new fiscal year. The City Paper outlines the basic budget - what money goes where - but what neither The City Paper nor any other mainstream media outlet in Tennessee has yet bothered to tell the people of Tennessee is that, by signing the budget into law, Gov. Bredesen has broken his oath to uphold the state constitution.

That's because the budget he signed into law is blatantly, inarguably and utterly in violation of the state constitution - and the administration knows it. The State Treasurer admitted that the state doesn't adhere to the plain language of the constitution regarding the growth of spending each year (see video). The budget Bredesen signed into law contains almost $670 million in illegal spending - about $110 for every man, woman and child in the state. By signing the budget into law, Gov. Bredesen has, in effect, sanctioned the illegal taking of nearly $450 from each and every typical family of four.

That's the bad news.

The good news is that now that Bredesen has signed the budget into law, as of July 1 when it goes into effect every single taxpayer in Tennessee will the legal standing to sue the government to block implementation of the unconstitutional budget and the illegal spending.

Here's hoping somebody does.

And here's an offer to the Bredesen administration: Have your legal counsel read this, watch the embedded video, review the state constitution and the applicable statutory law, and then write something explaining why the administration believes the budget isn't unconstitutional, and I'll publish it here, verbatim.