Monday, August 9, 2010
Politics Haslam Admits Visiting Nantucket
Posted by Jeff Woods on Mon, Aug 9, 2010 at 1:09 PM
- Nantucket: The Faraway Land
During the little media scrum, it was once again up to the award-winning Pith to ask the tough questions. We forced Haslam to waffle on the emerging issue of whether or not he’s ever been to Nantucket. In today’s version of the truth, Haslam acknowledges he has visited that island oasis for the wealthy. We guess he’s drawing a distinction between visiting and hanging out at his brother Jimmy’s summer home. We'll have to wait to see how that plays with voters.
In addition, after Mike McWherter’s new criticisms of Haslam as “very plastic” on the Second Amendment, we delved into the mayor's feelings about guns and playing with guns in the woods. Here is the Q&A:
Q: McWherter is talking about guns now. He says he’s been an NRA member longer than you.
Haslam: All I can say is I can assure everyone I strongly support protecting people’s Second Amendment rights, period.
Q: Do you hunt?
Haslam: I have been before. I’m not a regular hunter. My son likes to hunt, and I go with him. I wouldn’t call myself a regular hunter. But I strongly support protecting people’s rights to do that.
Q: Are you against lowering the sales tax on food?
Haslam: I’m not against it. But the question is, as opposed to what? What are you going to cut if you do that? Right now, we’re a billion dollars-plus in the hole. Everybody likes the idea of that. The question is how are you going to pay for that in a budget where we’re already upside down a billion dollars.
Q: Is it irresponsible then for McWherter to talk about cutting the tax on food?
Haslam: It’s one thing to talk about when you’re running to say well, we want to have tax incentives for small businesses and cut taxes on food. The question is again, how are you going to pay for it and how is it going to work? And right now we’re a billion-dollars in the hole. I’d love to say we’re going to do those things but how are you going to pay for it?
Q: So he is irresponsible then?
Haslam: Until we hear an answer about how he’s going to pay for it. It’s one different thing about actually having been in government before. There’s a lot of things I’d like to say I’ll do. But at the end of the line, when you’re the mayor or governor, you’ve got to make that budget balance. And if you’re going to propose a new idea, you’ve got to say how you’re going to pay for it because you’re the one responsible.
Q: Isn’t it only fair to share with the public where you would cut?
Haslam: When I ran for mayor, I didn’t know at that point in time where all we would cut. You have to get in there in the middle of it and see. We probably will have a less top-heavy state government. You talk to people in really no matter what department and they’ll say we have too many chiefs and not enough Indians.
Q: So the reason you’re not telling us what you’d cut is because you don’t know what you’d cut?
Haslam: Anybody if you’re going to lead something, there’s a difference between being on the outside and being on the inside in terms of perspective you have on that.
Q: You’ve never been to Nantucket?
Haslam: No, I’ve been. I just don’t have a home there.
Q: If you’re not a Nantucket Republican, what kind of Republican are you?
Haslam: I’m definitely a Frog Jump Republican.
Comments (3)
Showing 1-3 of 3
Let's see if you're so witty and engaging when you question McWherter? ... or maybe he doesn't need questioning, since you just know any old dem is good enough for you.
like
dislike
Let me see if I got this right.
Haslam is to the left of McWherter on taking the sales tax off of food and on giving tax incentives to small business because he wants to make sure the state's core functions can be performed.
Holy crap. I am a progressive Democrat and I think Haslam may have just gotten my vote.
