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Go Home Setting The Bar High

THE PLANK JULY 22, 2009

Setting The Bar High

BY AUTHOR INFO NEEDED

Tennessee GOP Rep. Marsha Blackburn wants to make sure we don't expand the definition of "emergency" to include trifling inconveniences that kill thousands of Americans or hundreds of thousands of people abroad:

Let's agree that we're going to have PAYGO enforcement. That we're not going to cry 'emergency' every time we have a Katrina,
every time we have a tsunami, every time we have a need for extra
spending, that we don't go call for a special appropriation that allows
us to circumvent the PAYGO rules.

In related news, those with a taste for nostalgia can listen to the theme for the mid-70s TV show "Emergency!"--scored by Nelson Riddle, no less--here. It somehow seems an apt accompaniment for the current moment in GOP politics.

--Christopher Orr

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6 comments

I think we should do this first time TN gets hit with a string of tornadoes or has flooded areas.

- tnmats

July 22, 2009 at 2:26pm

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Which happens more frequently than you realize.

- zardoz67

July 22, 2009 at 4:28pm

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Bunch of whiners!  So your house is gone, your dog is dead, your wife is missing and your kids have no food to eat and nowhere to sleep.  

What's the problem?

- desertdog

July 22, 2009 at 4:48pm

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I'm sure Rep. Blackburn agrees with me that that whole WW2 thing as a response to the so-called attack on Pearl Harbor was a typical attempt to create an "emergency" so the feds could spend money.

"Day that will live on in infamy" -- yeah, right!  "Day that will live on in accountancy" is more like it.

- ironyroad

July 22, 2009 at 5:11pm

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very funny everyone. I am thinking about getting into an motorcycle accident without a helmet in order to prepare myself to run for Congress in TN. I really do not think I can be that stupid without some outside assistance.

- blackton

July 22, 2009 at 5:33pm

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"So your house is gone, your dog is dead, your wife is missing and your kids have no food to eat and nowhere to sleep."

But your next stop: country music stardom!

- ratnerstar

July 22, 2009 at 7:59pm

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