Tennessee Legislature Punts on States Rights – Part I
May 7, 2012 at 11:46 am in Accountability, News by Shelby Blakely 8 Comments
A bill designed to shift government healthcare programs from federal to state control has been tabled for the second year in a row by Tennessee House Republican leadership.
In May 2011, HB 369 had been waiting over 3 months for the Health and Human Resources Committee to approve the Health Care Compact, an interstate agreement to return regulatory control of healthcare programs to the state level. By contrast, the Senate counterpart SB 326 had already passed out of multiple committees. House HHR Committee Chairman Glen Casada tabled the bill out of concern over the political capital invested in the bill to compact activists, saying “We can’t have too many battles in one year. If we push this to January 2012, we can get it right through.”
January 2012 came and went. So did February. In March the HCC bill passed out of the HHR Committee. Over the next 6 weeks HB 369 would move through three more committees, House leadership then scheduled the full house vote on the last day of the legislative session, more than 90 days after Casada’s original January 2012 promise.
According to Mark Herr, President of Tennessee Center for Self-Governance, if during the vote legislators in the room actually voted the Health Care Compact would likely be on its way to the Governor’s desk.
A record number of legislators refused to cast votes. Out of ninety-nine members, forty-five voted for, twenty-six against, and four voted present. Eight more were excused, leaving a sizable sixteen representatives physically in the room but refusing to cast votes of any kind.
Earlier in the day a criminal justice bill passed ninety-four to two, leaving little doubt as to the number of lawmakers present. Other controversial bills had also been voted on the same week, producing far lower non-votes. HB 3576 prohibits colleges from denying recognition to a student organization on the basis of religious content. For that vote, fifteen lawmakers were absent with one present and no representatives refusing to vote.
“Refusing to vote means one out of 6 constituents had no representation on this bill…they were completely disenfranchised” says Lynn Moss, Tennessee State Coordinator for Tea Party Patriots. “Tennessee legislators refusing to push a button right in front of them reminds me of the Democrat Wisconsin legislators who ran away from their jobs. The only difference is the gas mileage.”
-Shelby Blakely is a Tea Party Journalist and coordinates Government Accountability News. She can be reached at shelby.blakely@tppjournalism.org
The display by the House of Representatives in Tennessee will go down in the voting archives as one of the most shocking of all time! This bill would’ve been a clear message to the Federal Government that Tennesseans’ wanted to take back what is constitutionally a state issue….health care! The exercise of “not-voting-while-present” smells of President Obama’s record and is an outrage for the citizens’ of Tennessee. The House of Representatives successfully and single handedly left the citizens of Tennessee fully exposed and unprotected for whatever may come from Washington, D.C and the Dept of Health and Human Services. The scare tactics and doomsday games that the politicians play with the public will continue to offer imaginary umbrellas under which they scurry. The frictions and failures that come will be the facts that the non-voting Representatives hid from and chose to ultimately ignore. Shame is the word of the day in this case…..
What party did these non-vote Representatives belong? Are they yellowdog Democrats? Is the message here We the Democrats decide on when to represent the people according to our elitest agenda?!
The vast majority of non-voting reps were GOP.
I am Ashamed of my state for this, and it will Not be forgotten, That much I will promise. We are makeing and keeping records of what each rep. does and how they vote, Not just in my district but across the state.Better think about this. There is at least 6 Tpartie orginizations in every county in the state and most of the people who are not members, support us 100%.We shortened a lot of political careers in the last election and we can and will do it again.
I seem to recall that the State of Tennessee took control of their health care in the last ten years and it was a disaster. They had to repeal it. Perhaps they feel it’s an impossible situation for the State. People in Congress can’t conceive of a free market solution to health care and are arrogant enough that they won’t admit government failure and consider it.
Who ever is up for election in 2012 vote them
Why should federal or state control healthcare? Get the government out of the healthcare industry.
Great idea. Burden the states with more expenses. While the federal government is Monetarily Sovereign, and so can pay any bill of any size, and never can go broke, the states are monetarily non-sovereign, and so are going broke.
Do you folks have even the slightest notion about the differences between Monetary Sovereignty and monetary non-sovereignty?