Things I am not worrying about today: The government remotely turning off my electric cook stove.

 by Rod Williams, April 21, 2024- Almost every day I see Facebook post or news stories on rightwing media espousing conspiracy theories or telling me things I should be worried about. This is the second one today. This is way down on my list of things I am worried about. This ranks down there with shady sidewalks and smart meters on my list of concerns.

Recently the government floated a trial balloon about banning gas stoves. I oppose a ban because I believe in consumer choice. I have a gas stove and have had electric stoves and I much prefer gas. It is hot instantly and I can better control the heat. I just prefer it.  However, I am not fearful of the government remotely turning off my electricity. This makes no sense. Both the gas company and the electric company are public utilities. If the government could remotely cut off my electricity, it could remotely cut off my natural gas. 

People who have this fear need to go completely off-grid and become full-fledged preppers. 

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Things I am not worrying about today: computer chips in my car.

 by Rod Williams, April 21, 2024- Almost every day I see Facebook post or news stories on rightwing media espousing conspiracy theories or telling me things I should be worried about. This is today's. This is way down on my list of things I am worried about. This ranks down there with shady sidewalks and smart meters on my list of concerns. 

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House passes aid package for Ukraine and Israel. My reaction.

 The House pushed through a series of votes in a rare Saturday session to approve $95 billion in foreign aid for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies. Democrats and Republicans joined forces after a grueling months-long fight.

My Comment:

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Supreme Court strikes a blow for property rights. Cites the Nashville Knight sidewalk case brought by the Beacon Center

Reposted from The Beacon Center, April 19, 2024 -According to a Beacon poll released this week, the rising cost of housing is among the most significant barriers that Tennesseans face on the path to financial stability and growth. The Supreme Court’s decision this morning in Sheetz v. El Dorado County will help. 

The rise in housing costs is due in no small part to the rise in permits and fees. Government can prohibit builders from building on their property until the builders acquiesce to extortionate government demands. In a landmark case from 1987, the Court rebuffed the California Coastal Commission’s efforts to force property owners to give up a third of their property for beachfront access. The Commission’s logic for withholding the permit was that further construction would impose a “psychological barrier” for passing motorists who wished to see the ocean, and that property owners must remedy that “problem” by allowing beachgoers to pass through their property. 

It’s unsurprising that the Supreme Court rejected the Commission’s arguments in the 80s, but much more surprising is what some courts have done since. Many courts have drawn an exemption for “legislative exactions.” In other words, property owners could win in court if an unelected bureaucrat placed unreasonable conditions in the permitting process, but not if their elected legislature did the same thing. 

The Supreme Court solved that problem today in Sheetz. In a unanimous decision, the Court rejected the arbitrary exemption for legislative exactions. It held that a county’s decision to charge a $23,420 traffic impact fee for a residential building permit would be subject to constitutional scrutiny even though a legislative body imposed the fee. 

If all this sounds familiar, it’s because Beacon’s clients recently tackled the same issue and won. In Knight v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville and Davidson County, Beacon and the Southeastern Legal Foundation secured an important Sixth Circuit decision rejecting an exemption for legislative exactions. The Sixth Circuit invalidated Nashville’s sidewalk ordinance—enacted by the Metro Council— that required property owners to pay for the construction of sidewalks miles away before they could build on their own property. The Knight decision deepened disagreement in the lower courts on this issue and helped get the Supreme Court to strike a blow for property rights in today’s ruling. Indeed, the Supreme Court cited Knight in its opinion, and the victory for Mr. Sheetz (represented by Pacific Legal Foundation) will benefit property rights nationwide. 

What’s next? We know legislative exactions are subject to constitutional analysis, but whether any exaction is constitutional is a question for another day. One thing is for certain: government will continue to try and extort property owners in the form of permit conditions, but those property owners—now armed with precedents in Knight and Sheetz— will be well-positioned to fight back. Beacon will continue to represent Tennesseans free-of-charge in cases to help keep down the cost of housing and to elevate fundamental property rights. 

 

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Marjorie Taylor Greene Is No Neville Chamberlain

By Kevin D. Williamson, The Dispatch, Apr 19, 2024 - Irritated by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s tireless dedication to serving Moscow’s interests, Democratic Rep. Jared Moskowitz offered an amendment to the Ukraine aid bill that would have renamed her office the “Neville Chamberlain Room.” It was an ugly, stupid, juvenile insult. 

Say what you will about Marjorie Taylor Greene, she is no Neville Chamberlain.

Neville Chamberlain was an honorable and decent man, a patriot and a statesman who led the United Kingdom during the first months of World War II before serving honorably in Winston Churchill’s war cabinet for the few months he had left to live before dying of cancer. ...

.... As prime minister, Chamberlain miscalculated in what turned out to be the most consequential decision of his political career. He believed, wrongly, that he could buy off Adolf Hitler and thereby avoid an unprofitable war with a continental tyrant. Avoiding unprofitable wars with continental tyrants has historically been a considerable part of British foreign policy, and it has often been the right policy. It wasn’t the right policy vis-à-vis Nazi Germany. It fell to Chamberlain to admit his error and to announce the declaration of war. ...

Neville Chamberlain made the wrong decision at the most important juncture of his public life. But he was an authentic statesman who put service over self, even at the cost of his reputation, personal fortune, and health. For most of the world—and particularly for Americans, who care so little for history—all that remains of Neville Chamberlain is his worst mistake. But he did what he thought was right, received very little thanks for it in the end, and never stopped working for his country until the last few weeks of his life, when he was physically unable to continue. ... 

Marjorie Taylor Greene is no Neville Chamberlain. Not on her best day. (read it all)

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Nashville’s Transportation Improvement Program

 by Rod Williams, April 19, 2024- Today Mayor Freddie O'Connell held a press conference and revealed the details of his proposed transit plan. To learn more about the proposal follow this link.

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Majority of Guns Reported Stolen Taken from Vehicles

Metro Nashville press release, April 17, 2024- The MNPD strongly encourages Nashvillians to lock their automobile doors, secure any valuables---especially guns, and remove the keys.

MNPD’s special initiative to combat car theft and related crimes, begun on February 1st, has resulted in 330 arrests and the recoveries of 182 stolen vehicles and 84 guns.

So far this year, 220 guns have been stolen from vehicles in Nashville, five were taken from autos just last week. The total number of guns stolen this year in Davidson County is 318, which means that nearly 70% of guns stolen so far in 2024 have been taken from automobiles. Last year at this same time, 353 guns had been stolen from vehicles, a 37% decrease so far this year.

Going hand in hand with vehicle burglaries is vehicle theft. Too many automobiles remain easy targets because keys are left inside or made available to thieves. Just like guns taken from vehicles, these stolen autos are also routinely involved in criminal activities, including carjackings and robberies.

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Gov. Lee Joins Coalition of Governors in Opposing UAW’s Unionization Campaign

 NASHVILLE, Tenn., April 16, 2024 – Today, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee joined five other governors in issuing the following joint statement opposing United Auto Workers (UAW)’s unionization campaign:

“We the Governors of Alabama, Georgia, Mississippi, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Texas are highly concerned about the unionization campaign driven by misinformation and scare tactics that the UAW has brought into our states. As Governors, we have a responsibility to our constituents to speak up when we see special interests looking to come into our state and threaten our jobs and the values we live by. 

The reality is companies have choices when it comes to where to invest and bring jobs and opportunity. We have worked tirelessly on behalf of our constituents to bring good-paying jobs to our states. These jobs have become part of the fabric of the automotive manufacturing industry. Unionization would certainly put our states’ jobs in jeopardy – in fact, in this year already, all of the UAW automakers have announced layoffs. In America, we respect our workforce and we do not need to pay a third party to tell us who can pick up a box or flip a switch. No one wants to hear this, but it’s the ugly reality. We’ve seen it play out this way every single time a foreign automaker plant has been unionized; not one of those plants remains in operation. And we are seeing it in the fallout of the Detroit Three strike with those automakers rethinking investments and cutting jobs. Putting businesses in our states in that position is the last thing we want to do. 

The experience in our states is when employees have a direct relationship with their employers, that makes for a more positive working environment. They can advocate for themselves and what is important to them without outside influence. The UAW has come in making big promises to our constituents that they can’t deliver on. And we have serious reservations that the UAW leadership can represent our values. They proudly call themselves democratic socialists and seem more focused on helping President Biden get reelected than on the autoworker jobs being cut at plants they already represent. 

We want to keep good paying jobs and continue to grow the American auto manufacturing sector here. A successful unionization drive will stop this growth in its tracks, to the detriment of American workers.”

In addition to Gov. Lee, signatories include: Governor Kay Ivey (AL), Governor Brian Kemp (GA), Governor Tate Reeves (MS), Governor Henry McMaster (SC), and Governor Greg Abbott (TX).

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Tennessee House approves certificate of need reform

Rep. Clark Boyd, R-Lebanon, presents certificate of need
 reform in front of the Tennessee House on April 16, 2024.

 By Jon Styf, The Center Square, April 18, 2024- The Tennessee House passed removing several health care services from the state’s certificate of need laws, which will now head to the full Senate.

The bill removes CON requirements in counties without an acute care hospital starting July 1, 2025, but begin a 10-mile buffer for competing companies building a new free-standing emergency room.

The bill would then remove burn units, neonatal intensive care, ICF, IDD (intermediate care for disabilities), PET and MRI facilities from CON on Dec. 1, 2025.

House Bill 2269 removes ambulatory surgical centers, linear accelerators and long-term care hospitals from CON on Dec. 1, 2027 and open-heart surgery centers on Dec. 1, 2029.

The bill passed the House 76-12.

CON laws were mandated by the federal government in 1972 and regulate how many medical facilities are available in an area and what services they provide in an effort to reduce consumer costs. Even though Congress later eliminated the CON requirement in 1987, many states retained them.

The bill came from negotiations after a joint working group studied CON in Tennessee and put forward recommendations.

Rep. Aftyn Behn, D-Nashville, said during discussion that she would have preferred that Medicaid being expanded along with CON repeal like it was in North Carolina would have made the bill better.

She asked sponsor Clark Boyd, R-Lebanon, why Medicaid expansion wasn’t included and Boyd said “Because I didn’t want to. You can always file a bill next year if you’d like to do that.”

Representatives in House committee mentioned issues related to Ballad Health’s monopoly in Northeast Tennessee are a large issue impacting residents.

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Interest on National Debt Becoming Uncle Sam’s Biggest Bill

 by Craig Eyermann, Independent Institute, Tuesday, April 16, 2024 - The U.S. government borrows an average of $10 billion daily, which means the national debt increases by $1 trillion every 100 days. It is no secret that paying interest on the national debt has become the fastest-growing category of government spending during President Biden’s tenure. That’s the inevitable outcome of combining an oversized national debt with excessive spending and rising interest rates.

Already, the cost of paying the gross interest on the national debt exceeds $1 trillion—that’s just the cost of interest on the existing national debt. How big will that number grow when Uncle Sam borrows another $10 billion a day, every day through the rest of the year? Especially when the interest rates the government pays on the national debt won’t go down as early or by as much as expected?

Michael Hartnett is an investment strategist at Bank of America Global Research. In his weekly “Flow Show” note for investors, he ran a bearish scenario to answer these questions. Here are the main takeaways from his analysis.

• US government spending past 5 months = $2.7tn, up 9% YoY... on course for $6.7tn in FY24; US national debt rising $1tn every 100 days...set to hit $35tn in May ’24, $37tn by US election, $40tn in H2’25 (doubling in 8 years); spending up, deficits up (9% of GDP average past 4 years), debt up -> interest payments up = $1.1tn in past 12 months & set to rise by $150bn in next 100 days
• US Treasury has aggressively shifted refunding toward <1-year T-Bills ($21tn issuance past 12 months), lowering maturity of debt to ≈5 years, increasing sensitivity to short rates, incentivizing Fed to cut rates;
• Unchanged rates/yields & debt trend next 12 months & US refinancing rate is 4.4% & annual interest costs jump from $1.1tn to $1.6tn

How the fastest growing category of government spending becomes the biggest

According to President Biden’s budget proposal for the federal government’s 2025 fiscal year, Social Security is set to be the year’s biggest budget line item at $1.46 trillion. Should the cost of paying the interest on Uncle Sam’s national debt reach $1.6 trillion by the end of the year, it will become the biggest single line item in the U.S. government’s budget.

Hartnett’s bearish analysis presents a worst-case scenario by assuming 2024 may see no interest rate cuts. However, unless interest rates fall much faster than predicted, interest on the national debt will become Uncle Sam’s biggest budget expense sometime next year.

Craig Eyermann is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute.

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