Tag Archives: shine

Opinion: Ramsey Wrong on Unemployment Benefits

(Note: This is an op-ed piece written by attorney Bruce Shine — a Democrat — for the Kingsport Times-News.)
Someone needs to tell Ron Ramsey he lost the GOP primary for governor in August of 2010. Increasingly Ramsey is running around the state with a Tennessee highway patrolman as driver playing governor and issuing edicts from the “Ramsey administration.”
I recognize I’m not the swiftest boat in the harbor, but I thought Bill Haslam won both the primary and the election.
The latest from “Governor Ramsey” deals with unemployment insurance, a subject over which he objectively demonstrates a lack of knowledge.
In a presentation before a luncheon meeting of 60 business executives in Kingsport, “Governor Ramsey” made the bizarre statement that Tennesseans on unemployment enjoy “a benefit … (which) has become a lifestyle.”
Seeking to ingratiate himself among the business community, “Governor Ramsey” concluded individuals in Tennessee enjoyed living on “an average” of “$285” as a weekly unemployment benefit. The entitlement, according to Ramsey, discouraged the unemployed from getting a job.

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