TN Democratic governor may turn down jobless part of stimulus?

[madfloridian]

Perdue, Bredesen may reject jobless stimulus funding

WASHINGTON — Tennessee and Georgia may turn down some of the economic stimulus money if the restrictions outlined in the package cause budgetary hardship in the future, the governors said Monday.

After meeting with President Barack Obama, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said some provisions in the package for unemployment benefits would force states to expand their programs permanently, even though the stimulus funding only lasts for two years.

“We are evaluating this piece of money, whether it makes sense for us to take it,” he said. “We may well be one of the states that say we can’t take on that portion of it.”

Of issue is the package’s unemployment modernization provisions, which require states to update their unemployment insurance systems and provide jobless benefits to workers who now don’t qualify for benefits.

I don't even know what to say to that.

Having a hard time understanding this governor who has been mentioned for HHS role.

Bredesen's cuts to TennCare were brutal. Is he being vetted for HHS.

Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen is executing the cruelest and largest cutback of public health coverage in the history of the United States. Every day, nearly 2,000 people enrolled in TennCare, the State Medicaid program, are receiving letters of termination or reduction of benefits. Hundreds of thousands of Tennesseans, many of whom are chronically ill and disabled, are living in fear because of Governor Bredesen’s decision to strip them of the only health care they have. Now, more than ever, they need your help.

Unfortunately, the national media has done very little to address this issue even though many people stand to lose their lives as a result of these drastic and unnecessary cuts. To make matters worse, internal State memos and documents, obtained by the Tennessee Justice Center, reveal that the State had orchestrated and implemented these cuts merely as a political strategy, with no regard for the consequences they are having on people's lives. The Tennessee Justice Center is a non profit, non-partisan law office. TJC represents low income families, and all of their clients are on TennCare.

[dkf]

1. But why is there a federal mandate that isn't funded past 2 years?

That doesn't make sense either, does it?

Who is the idiot who set it up that way?

[madfloridian]

4. Doesn't TN have unemployment anyway?

They should. I thought employers funded it as a rule.

[dkf]

6. Only for a certain amount of time.

If they permanently extend it, I imagine unemployment insurance will go up in price, making it more expensive to hire workers.

[1]

2. what is so hard to understand???

"After meeting with President Barack Obama, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said some provisions in the package for unemployment benefits would force states to expand their programs permanently, even though the stimulus funding only lasts for two years."

i would have to think about that kind of "deal" myself.

it sounds much like the mortgages that got us into these problems in the first place. no money upfront, major payments for perpetuity...

no. i have to agree with gov. bredesen on this one. this is a bad deal and one that should be rejected...

[madfloridian]

3. You don't think states should have unemployment programs permanently?

I do.

[1]

5. perhaps if they can afford them. what is your plan for paying for this...

once this magic stimulus money quickly goes away?

this deal that the governor must agree to in perpetuity to get just two years worth of financial help.

do tell?

[Selatius]

7. Maybe they can raise property taxes on large estates within their jurisdiction?

Too often the state-level politicians take the easy way out and soak the poor by levying regressive sales taxes on consumers.

[1]

8. yeah well, maybe they could. and maybe they couldn't...

a smart governor is going to look over any sort of short term "stimilus" dollars offered with perpetual strings attached and consider the long term implications for the state.

a smart governor would consider not just getting elected in the short term with some quick stimulus bucks and consider the implications to the state in the long run.

a smart governor would do that. it sounds like this is a smart governor...



you've never had to deal with the implications of a budget and long term financing issues have you?

i didn't think so...

[Selatius]

9. Actually, yes I have. I wouldn't be worth a damn in business if I couldn't budget and plan.

If you want to identify sources of revenue, you might want to refer to census information on exactly the income is in that state and then move on from there. Don't be so foolishly quick to dismiss responses to your post.

[1]

10. my guess is that you are already not worth a damn in business if you can not see the folly in this..

that is why the great people of tennessee are lucky to have a governor of such wisdom and not you in charge...

[Selatius]

11. I'm no longer talking about Obama's stimulus plan. I'm talking about my counter-proposal.

I suggested a method to pay for something outside of what Obama proposes. You said, "maybe they could, maybe they couldn't" without so much as a follow-up. Then, you switch back away from my proposal and harp about how Obama has no proposal beyond the two-year mark.

If the great governor of Tennessee is so wise, why not take into consideration new proposals to raise revenue in-state in light of Obama's short-fall in funding instead of tossing out, as the saying goes, "the baby with the bathwater"? A good governor looks at all options on the table regardless of his party's partisan bent, but somebody trapped by dogmatic party ideology is forever lost and a fool.

[1]

12. ok. thanks for letting me know that...

so we both agree that this "stimulus" unemployment benefits dealio (two years vs forever) is complete bullshit and should never be accepted by any thinking governor? that a completely different approach should be crafted outside of and in place of this short-sighted, small benefit, forever commitment, stimulus silliness?

is that what you are saying?

(and, for the record, i never brought obama's name into this, you did. congress wrote this "legislation", obama just signed it.)


if that is true, we agree. i don't agree on property taxes as a funding source. that is totally wrong for this. i submit that raising income taxes on the wealthy is a far better approach. and i would further insist that tennessee have complete control over their unemployment benefits future and method of funding, never accepting and surrendering to that two year quick fix from this stimulus silliness that would lock them forever into an arrangement that might prove to be horrendously wrong for the state.

is that what we are talking about now?

[Selatius]

14. Yes, we're talking about counter-proposals at this point. Obama is secondary here.

Personally, if I were in the governor's shoes, I would accept the stimulus money only after identifying a source of revenue, but I wouldn't come out and make such statements; I'd keep it close to my chest unless it was an attempt to build up my credentials with more conservative Democrats who may lean to the right on economic issues.

Actually, I would have to stand by your proposal as far as identifying revenue sources. Ideally, the state income tax avoids being too heavy a burden on the poorest in that state, but nearly all states have income exemptions except a handful of them that are ludicrously low. Alabama only exempts the first 500 of income before it falls under its income tax. Mississippi's is 5000 (I oughtta know; I live in this state), and I don't expect most states to be that much better except maybe a handful that truly try to avoid hitting the poorest workers.

Tennessee, incredibly enough, only levies income tax on dividends and interest income only. In terms of avoiding hitting the poorest, they are in position already, but obviously, the idea here could be to entertain raising the tax on dividends and interest income. Obviously, the ones who derive most of their income through dividends and interest are likely the wealthiest. They will be tough to defeat. Raising the sales tax would avoid angering the local monied interests and would be the easy way out to the problem. The workers don't have the Chamber of Commerce and an army of lobbyists to go to bat for them, sadly.

Given that reality, I'd tell Obama personally to go back to Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi to see if the hole can be filled, and in the meantime try to get a tax hike on dividends passed by trying to get workers to realize they all are in the same boat and trying to combat red-baiting tactics of the right wing by saying you're pro-labor, not necessarily anti-capitalist because you know they will come at you from that angle. If the hike passes, then accept the Obama plan because the hole is already filled with the hike and is no longer an issue. If not, then wait to see if Obama can fill it by talking to Reid and Pelosi. If he can't do it, then reject that portion of the stimulus. Hopefully, Reid and Pelosi will do something to avoid Obama and Bredesen running into each other, but I have no faith left in those two.

[Lance_Boyle]

20. TN has no income tax.

At least not on earned wages. I think interest/dividend income is taxed, though. So it already targets the well-off far more than the less-well-off in that sense.

[Winterblues]

17. States don't normally impose Property Tax, that is left to municipalities.

States usually have "user fees", "income tax" or even "sales tax" but usually Property tax and sales tax are left for municipalities, that otherwise would have no revenues.

[dansolo]

15. Isn't the answer to have less unemployed people?

My understanding is the people that would be included now are most likely the people who have already used up their benefits. If the stimulus works, and unemployment goes down, then it shouldn't matter if those terms revert back in two years.

[radfringe]

13. Should make it an all or nothing ..... enough of the "cherry picking" n/t

[madfloridian]

16. I think that refers in part to a $25 a week raise in unemployment as part of the stimulus.

" But Crist is not unique among Republican governors standing behind President Obama's economic agenda. Even as Republican Govs. Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Mark Sanford of South Carolina panned the stimulus package on the Sunday talk shows, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger echoed Crist.

"I think that President Obama right now needs team players," Schwarzenegger said on ABC's This Week. "You've got to go beyond just the principles. You've got to go and say, 'What is right for the country right now?' "

Jindal and Barbour say they will reject part of the federal package that increases unemployment benefits by $25 a week, financed entirely with federal money, because it could increase employer taxes.

Not a single Florida Republican in Congress supported the stimulus package, but Crist has emerged as among its highest profile advocates. He said Sunday that Republicans "may be" damaging themselves by opposing the stimulus, and he repeatedly stressed the importance of reaching across the aisles.

"I'm a Florida Republican. And in the Florida way, we work together in a bipartisan fashion to do what's right for the people,'' said Crist, who told Meet the Press' David Gregory he was not ready to say that he supports Obama's less controversial housing plan that includes mortgage modifications for people in danger of losing homes to foreclosure."

http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/state/article978257.ece

I will bet that is why Bredesen is rejecting it. Fine with me, I don't live in TN, and I am retired so it does not shake my life whether he accepts it or not.

I just find myself constantly amazed how posting the simplest thing here brings outbursts of outrage that just don't sound very Democratic in nature.

Must just be me. :shrug:

[Individualist]

18. Bredesen is a DLC member

:puke:

[gratuitous]

19. I suppose raising the unemployment tax is out of the question

After all, states like Tennessee and Alabama like to lure corporations to set up shop there with the promise that they won't have to fund unemployment benefits and such like. This turns into an invisible tax on workers, who are paid less to begin with, and then canned when they become too expensive in favor of a new worker who starts all over again at the bottom of the pay scale. The newly-unemployed worker then has to get another job pronto because he or she can't depend on unemployment benefits lasting long enough to find a new job at a comparable salary. And the employers benefit again, all the while paying less in wages and benefits.

And yet these same states, so very worried about 10th Amendment rights and federal gummint interference in their affairs, seem to have no problem at all with accepting federal assistance for their school systems. And in exchange for that federal money, they turn over the names, addresses, telephone numbers and coffin size for the teen-age cannon fodder needed by the military machine.

It's a puzzlement, it is. Why, if I didn't for a fact know better, I'd be inclined to say they're corrupt. But that can't possibly be the case, so there must be some other explanation.

[Elidor]

21. There are a number of things that aren't being said here

This is precisely what's known as looking a gift horse in the mouth.

"Overall, Tennessee is slated to receive $4.3 billion and Georgia will get $6 billion from the $787 billion package that Congress passed Feb. 13."

Whatever future fiduciary responsibilities that come with that $141 million and $216 million respectively, neither of these two states is going to be out one thin dime. What this all boils down to is, "Sure, we'll take all the money you want to give us, but don't even think about even the smallest tax increase on businesses."

Think about the gravity of that for a moment: they would sooner see families out on the street this year than have to answer to businesses for what would be an insignificant tax increase years down the road. Bredesen is my governor, and frankly he can kiss my hairy little ass.

Even when he was viciously slashing the TennCare roles, I tried not to get too angry. It was disgusting, but it's Tennessee: you know not to expect too much to begin with. But this multimillionaire governor of ours has no concept of what it's like out here. If he can't do something wise for his constituents in this situation, then fuck him. Fuck him. Corporate stooge.