Nailing Naifeh

You've probably heard that Tenn. House Speaker Jimmy Naifeh has penned an open letter accusing (most) state Republicans for disingenuous, partisan rantings about last year's legislative session. ("Naifeh takes shots at GOP lawmakers in op-ed" : Political Animals). That's fine, and it is smart--even after the horse is arguably out of the barn, for him to frame the issues to his advantage.

But it is hard to frame the spendthrift-turned-panhandler situation in a positive light . . . unless you ignore all the facts. I liked the body slam from commenter Royce E. Burrage Jr.:

"[Naifeh wrote] 'House democrats put $250 million of a $1.3 BILLION revenue surplus into savings.' Isn’t that special…especially when the revenue surplus was further enhanced with an increase of over $200 million, estimated, due to increased taxes, bringing the total to an estimated $1.5 BILLION or more. So, they barely saved the estimated tax increase. With a FY 2008 State budget of $27 BILLION, a “rainy day fund” of $750 million represents a mere 2.8% reserve based upon current spending. Grandpaw would guffaw, and he was a farmer with no credentials in accounting.
. . . .
During the 2007 period of the current legislative session, democrats, specifically our Finance & Administration Commissioner, Mr. Dave Goetz, a democratic appointee, told Tennesseans that State revenues were running at all time highs. Six months later we were told, as cited in the news media, by this very same individual that his department has been preparing for a budget shortfall for the past 5 years; “We knew this day was coming; it’s here. We’ve been preparing for this for the better part of five years. We’re ready to manage our way through it.”

Which is it Mr. Goetz, Mr. Speaker Naifeh?