Below is a quite hilarious clip from the organizational session of the 106th General Assembly. The newly elected “Republican” Speaker, asks the immediate past Democrat Speaker (and his apparent mentor when it comes to running the House) if he “has” to recognize a Republican Representative when he’s seeking recognition. Great start to this so-called bi-partisan House.
Well, today was an interesting day to say the least. Today – the second Tuesday in January – was the opening of the 106th General Assembly of the State of Tennessee. The day started early, with everyone buzzing about the potential historic nature of the 106th. In November, Tennesseans went to the polls and chose to elect the first Republican majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives since Reconstruction. Their voices, however, were dastardly silenced by a partisan maneuver from a desperate Speaker whose day had past. Instead of electing the Leader of the new Republican majority, Democrats in the House conspired to nominate a rogue Republican puppet Speaker in order to preserve their power.
Click here to read the Tennessean’s take on the day’s drama.
Needless to say, the vote was a surprise and threw a lot of people’s plans right out the window. I’m confident there will be much more drama to come. Check back more for the juicy details.
Well, It’s been a while since I’ve done anything with this site. After a grueling campaign season and John McCain’s loss, I am now back in Nashville getting ready for the next chapter. Check back to see what is new.
I recently came across one of the best analogies for our broken tax system, here it is:
Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten comes to $100. If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1.
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.
So, that’s what they decided to do…
The ten men drank in the bar every day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the owner threw them a curve.
“Since you are all such good customers,” he said, “I’m going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20″. Drinks for the ten now cost just $80.
The group still wanted to pay their bill the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They would still drink for free.
But what about the other six men – the paying customers? How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his ‘fair share’?
They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if they subtracted that from everybody’s share, then the fifth man and the sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer.
So, the bar owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man’s bill by roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each should pay.
And so:
The fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing (100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33% savings).
The seventh now paid $5 instead of $7 (28% savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 (22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).
Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to compare their savings.
“I only got a dollar out of the $20,”declared the sixth man. He pointed to the tenth man,” but he got $10!”
“Yeah, that’s right,” exclaimed the fifth man. “I only saved a dollar too. It’s unfair that he got back TEN times more than I!”
“That’s true!!” shouted the seventh man. “Why should he get $10 back when I got only two? The wealthy get all the breaks!”
“Wait a minute,” yelled the first four men in unison. “We didn’t get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!”
The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up.
The next night the tenth man didn’t show up for drinks, so the nine sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the bill, they discovered something important.
They didn’t have enough money between all of them for even half of the bill!
And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the most benefit from a tax reduction.
Tax them too much, attack them for being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore.
In fact, they might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat friendlier.
For those who understand, no explanation is needed.
For those who do not understand no explanation is possible.
I thought it was pretty interesting…
I know that I have not done a good job of blogging as of late, I apologize. However, here are some pictures of fun things that I have done over the past few days and weeks. Check it out:
So, I know that I haven’t blogged in a while. I apologize, I was in New Hampshire and Maine the past few days.
The RNC has put out the newest Biden Gaffe Clock on their website…and I’d like to share it with you all. Does this guy realize that you can’t just make things up? People can fact check your comments pretty quickly…what is he thinking? And people give the President a lot of grief for his public speaking abilities (or lack thereof)…at least the President doesn’t simply make things up like Senator Biden does.
So, I just happened to run across this video on You Tube, and I felt that I had to share it. I wish I had this much time. What’s even better is that the person named Flippy Cat who does this, has almost 100 other similar videos. Check it out:
I am not a fan of Larry King at all, but Megan McCain was on his show last night. I thought that it was a fun, candid exchange, and I really enjoyed how down-to-earth Megan was. In case you missed it, here’s the video:
Last night, Tina Fey made a quick appearance on Saturday NIght Live’s opening bit as Governor Sarah Palin. I thought it was pretty funny. So, here’s the video, enjoy:
