|
 |
| TN Republication Senators Obstruct Measures That Would Help Citizens |
| |
| Tennessee's Republican senators obstruct measures to help citizens |
| Tennessee Republicans continued their grandstanding in the U.S. Senate this week as they chose to play partisan politics instead of helping out-of-work Tennesseans through hard times. Both U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander and Bob Corker chose to vote against an extension of unemployment insurance for nearly 34,000 out-of work Tennesseans and almost $11 million in road projects for the state. Fortunately, the legislation passed and was recently signed into law by the president.
Turning their backs on struggling Tennesseans, the two Republican senators also voted against a 30-day extension of the highway trust fund, which is being used to help pay for Tennessee road projects at Cades Cove Loop Road, Shiloh National Park and Catoosa Wildlife Management Area. This is just plain lunacy. At a time when our economy is experiencing the biggest slowdown since the Great Depression, our leaders should embrace policies meant to stimulate the economy by creating jobs and injecting resources into our communities, not oppose them. | | Tennessee's Republicans continue their hypocrisy |
| To date, nearly $6 billion in stimulus money has been committed to Tennessee, creating or retaining more than 10,000 jobs across the state and providing much-needed infrastructure improvements. The Tennessee Department of Transportation, in fact, recently obligated all of the $572 million in Recovery Act funds made available to it for highway infrastructure projects.
But some Tennessee Republicans have been railing against the stimulus package as nothing more than a boondoggle while playing partisan games in Washington. They are quick to come back home, though, and smile into the cameras while taking credit for stimulus dollars that fund vital infrastructure projects in Tennessee.
- Sen. Alexander, third ranking member in the U.S. Senate's Republican leadership, voted against the stimulus package but afterwards wrote to the Department of Agriculture requesting stimulus money for a project that "will create over 200 jobs in the first year and at least 40 new jobs in the following years."
- U.S. Rep. Zach Wamp, a Tennessee gubernatorial candidate, voted against the stimulus package but afterwards praised a $71.2 million project at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory that would create "170 new construction jobs" with stimulus dollars.
- U.S. Reps. Marsha Blackburn, Phil Roe and John Duncan also voted against the Recovery Act, as did Sen. Corker.
- Republicans want to demagogue about runaway spending and huge deficits, but they are the ones most responsible for it. They supported the failed policies of a Republican White House that nearly collapsed our financial markets.
- Republican lawmakers in the General Assembly talk out of both sides of their mouths, as well. They claim to be protecting the best interests of ordinary, hard-working Tennesseans, but their real intentions are to help themselves and the special-interest groups that help fund their campaigns.
- Republican state Rep. Glen Casada of Franklin introduced a bill in the General Assembly that repeals state law prohibiting corporations from making donations to candidates for office. Casada, the Republican House Caucus chairman, reportedly filed his bill, HB2537, in anticipation of a January ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court concerning a 63-year-old campaign finance law designed to restrain corporate and special-interest influence.
- By a 5-4 vote, the Supreme Court ruled that corporations may spend as freely as they like to support or oppose candidates for president and Congress.
- Tennessee law prohibits corporations from giving money to candidates and political parties for any purpose. But Casada's proposed bill proves Republican leaders in the state Legislature are more concerned about their Big Oil and Wall Street buddies than they are about ordinary Tennesseans. Why should an artificial corporate entity have the same rights as a real person?
- A Washington Post-ABC News poll found that eight in 10 poll respondents say they oppose the Supreme Court's ruling on corporate contributions.
| | Democrats have a real plan to grow our economy |
| | To grow the economy and ensure our leadership in the world market, we need to focus on three key priorities for investment- (1) a series of steps to help small businesses grow and hire new staff; (2) an additional investment in our nation's infrastructure to continue modernizing our highways, railways, bridges, tunnels, airports and seaports; and (3) a new proposal to provide rebates to consumers who retrofit their homes to be more energy efficient.
- The nation's Gross Domestic Product, the basic measure of a country's overall economic performance, grew by 5.7 percent in the fourth quarter of 2009, the fastest growth since 2003, a sign that the economy is moving out of recession.
- Our nation's unemployment rate also fell to 9.7 percent in January from 10 percent the month before, according to the federal Bureau of Labor statistics.
- To date, nearly $6 billion in stimulus money has been committed to Tennessee, creating or retaining more than 10,000 jobs across the state and providing much-needed infrastructure improvements.
- Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen and his administration have provided an environment in the last seven years that has seen the creation of 179,296 new jobs, $29.2 billion in capital investment and 48 corporate headquarter locations in the state.
- About 500 Clarksville-area residents will be working for Hemlock Semi-Conductor after construction of a plant that will make silicon for solar panels. Phase one of the $1.2 billion plant is expected to be complete in 2012.
- German manufacturer Wacker Chemie AG is building a $1 billion plant near Cleveland, Tenn., that will produce silicon for solar panels and employ about 500 people.
- Confluence Solar is going to build a $400 million manufacturing plant in Clinton, Tenn., (East Tennessee) that could employ as many as 250 people who will make components used in the conversion of sunlight to electricity.
- Yet another green-energy company, Hawaii-based ClearFuels Technology, is partnering with Hughes Hardwood to develop a $200 million bio-refinery in Collinwood, Tenn., that will employ 50 people. The plant will convert leftover wood products into diesel or jet fuel and produce six to eight megawatts of electricity.
- The $1 billion Volkswagen automobile plant under construction in Chattanooga is scheduled for completion in 2011 where more than 2,000 workers will be employed.
- Additionally, state and local officials are currently developing a 1,500-acre industrial park in Haywood County to boost West Tennessee's economy. Some Republican lawmakers tried to stop the "megasite" project by removing from the budget money to purchase the land. Haywood County recorded an 18.5 percent jobless rate in December while next-door Lauderdale County recorded an 18.9 percent jobless rate, two of the highest rates in the state.
- The state also has been awarded a $62.5 million federal stimulus grant to build a solar-power demonstration farm on 20 acres next to the Haywood Countymegasite project and develop a solar-power research institute at the University of Tennessee's Knoxville campus. The electricity generated by the solar farm, which is expected to lure to the Haywood megasite other manufacturers interested in developing clean energy, will flow into the TVA's power grid.
| |
| |
|
Posted by Susan Acito at 05:45 PM on Mar-05-2010
Permalink
|
|
|
|
