Tennessee needs a new slate of lawmakers in its General Assembly.
This sad bunch - a super-majority of Republicans, many of whom are even too right-wing to be Republicans - adjourned Thursday night with a horrendous trio of backward bills now on their way to Republican Gov. Bill Lee.
Those bills include one directing the governor to negotiate a new Medicaid waiver to put Tennessee's federal health care money for the poor in block grant form - a change that caps the federal share we get, rather than keep a plan that calls for the federal share to go up as our costs go up; a bill that guts gun safety training; and a governor-sponsored schools voucher program reportedly aimed at the poor but in reality helping middle class families use tax-payer money for private school tuition and home schooling.
You just can't make this stuff up.
It's up to Gov. Lee now to decide whether Tennessee will create a concealed carry-only handgun permit that doesn't require training that includes actually firing a weapon. All the permit holder will have to do is watch a video.
Folks, imagine if all we had to do to get a drivers license was watch a video.
But the Senate voted 18-11 Thursday for the National Rifle Association-acked bill.
The Tennessee chapter of Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America earlier this week delivered lawmakers a letter signed by 35 Tennessee gun safety instructors in opposition to the bill.
As for the the health care waiver bill, you do the math. Currently, the federal government pays an agreed-upon percentage of each state's Medicaid costs, no matter how much those costs rise. Tennessee receives about $7.5 billion in federal money for its $12.1 billion Medicaid program.
Republicans say they can run a more efficient version of TennCare, our version of Medicaid that covers 1.3 million low-income pregnant women, mothers and their children, as well as some disabled and elderly Tennesseans.
Democrats and advocates for the poor fear that the GOP is simply looking to open up opportunities to cut services for that population - its most vulnerable people.
In our delegation, only Democrat Rep. Yusuf Hakeem and Republican Rep. Robin Smith, a former nurse, voted against it.
The vouchers bill passed Wednesday. The pilot, which will begin in the 2021 school year, excludes Hamilton County at the request of our lawmakers who want to give the 60-odd forms of school choice we already have - including many new initiatives - a chance to work before giving taxpayer money to private schools and home-schooling parents.