04-15-2016, 01:27 PM
Bill Haslam is currently the governor of Tennessee, one of the most strongly Republican states. He is also the richest elected official in the United States according to Forbes Magazine. He has a net worth of over $2 billion, due mostly to being the son of Jim Haslam who founded the Pilot/Flying J Corporation.
Bill started out as the Mayor of Knoxville. While he was Mayor he appointed his opponent from the mayoral race (Madeline Rogero) Director of Community Development. Haslam claimed he was inspired by Abraham Lincoln who appointed former campaign rivals to cabinet positions. This was the first clue I had that Bill was more than just some rich kid who wanted to play politics.
He was very successful in his two terms as Mayor. In 2010 he steamrolled into the Governors office winning both the Republican primaries and the general election by over 20 percentage points. In his 2014 re-election it got ridiculous when he got 88% of the votes in the Republican primaries and over 70% of the vote in the general election (although in many areas of Tennessee democrats do not even take the time to vote in general elections).
Although Haslam has been very conservative, he has also shown signs of being a savvy politicians. He appointed a Muslim as international director of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. This may not sound crazy to many of you, but in Tennessee it caused several State Representative to call for his impeachment.
The right wing extremists have also made allegations of "open homosexuals" being involved in policy decisions for the Department of Children Services. But Haslam signed a Sate law that overturned a Nashville City ordinance that barred discrimination against hiring of homosexuals. Of course as a good politician he claimed that overturning the city ordinance was not about homosexual rights but instead about the power of the Sate to pass legislation on this issue.
Of course he announced that Tennessee would not take part in the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA because Obama care was evil, but in a brilliant move he proposed his own plan. It was supposed to be totally different from the ACA plan but still "leveraged by federal money". Personally i think the Right's opposition to the ACA will come back to bite them. Lots of people in certain states are going to start suffering the consequences of high health care cost or lack of health care. And although hard core party members (on both sides) are known to vote against their own interests at times, I think this will have a big impact on a lot of families in states where the legislature has rejected the expansion of medicaid. Haslam must agree with me, because he tried to get the federal money into Tennessee while still saying that he opposes Obamacare. His first attempt to pass it through the legislature failed, but I think he will get it done before this term is up in 2018.
Haslam has had a lot of success bringing manufacturing jobs back to Tennessee by opposing unions and paying "incentives" to companies to build in Tennessee. He has also reduced the State budget.
But here is what inspired me to write this thread....
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have made the Bible the state’s official book.
“In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text,” Haslam ® wrote in a letter to the speaker of the statehouse.
“If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance,” continued Haslam. “If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book.”
Brilliant political move. He vetoed the Bible as State Book, but still kept the support of the hard core Bible Thumpers.
Haslam will only be 62 for the 2020 election. Keep an eye on him.
Bill started out as the Mayor of Knoxville. While he was Mayor he appointed his opponent from the mayoral race (Madeline Rogero) Director of Community Development. Haslam claimed he was inspired by Abraham Lincoln who appointed former campaign rivals to cabinet positions. This was the first clue I had that Bill was more than just some rich kid who wanted to play politics.
He was very successful in his two terms as Mayor. In 2010 he steamrolled into the Governors office winning both the Republican primaries and the general election by over 20 percentage points. In his 2014 re-election it got ridiculous when he got 88% of the votes in the Republican primaries and over 70% of the vote in the general election (although in many areas of Tennessee democrats do not even take the time to vote in general elections).
Although Haslam has been very conservative, he has also shown signs of being a savvy politicians. He appointed a Muslim as international director of the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development. This may not sound crazy to many of you, but in Tennessee it caused several State Representative to call for his impeachment.
The right wing extremists have also made allegations of "open homosexuals" being involved in policy decisions for the Department of Children Services. But Haslam signed a Sate law that overturned a Nashville City ordinance that barred discrimination against hiring of homosexuals. Of course as a good politician he claimed that overturning the city ordinance was not about homosexual rights but instead about the power of the Sate to pass legislation on this issue.
Of course he announced that Tennessee would not take part in the expansion of Medicaid under the ACA because Obama care was evil, but in a brilliant move he proposed his own plan. It was supposed to be totally different from the ACA plan but still "leveraged by federal money". Personally i think the Right's opposition to the ACA will come back to bite them. Lots of people in certain states are going to start suffering the consequences of high health care cost or lack of health care. And although hard core party members (on both sides) are known to vote against their own interests at times, I think this will have a big impact on a lot of families in states where the legislature has rejected the expansion of medicaid. Haslam must agree with me, because he tried to get the federal money into Tennessee while still saying that he opposes Obamacare. His first attempt to pass it through the legislature failed, but I think he will get it done before this term is up in 2018.
Haslam has had a lot of success bringing manufacturing jobs back to Tennessee by opposing unions and paying "incentives" to companies to build in Tennessee. He has also reduced the State budget.
But here is what inspired me to write this thread....
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday vetoed a bill that would have made the Bible the state’s official book.
“In addition to the constitutional issues with the bill, my personal feeling is that this bill trivializes the Bible, which I believe is a sacred text,” Haslam ® wrote in a letter to the speaker of the statehouse.
“If we believe that the Bible is the inspired word of God, then we shouldn’t be recognizing it only as a book of historical and economic significance,” continued Haslam. “If we are recognizing the Bible as a sacred text, then we are violating the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State of Tennessee by designating it as the official state book.”
Brilliant political move. He vetoed the Bible as State Book, but still kept the support of the hard core Bible Thumpers.
Haslam will only be 62 for the 2020 election. Keep an eye on him.
![[Image: 4CV0TeR.png]](https://i.imgur.com/4CV0TeR.png)
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![[Image: N1t0F.jpg]](http://i.imgur.com/N1t0F.jpg)
