Highlights from our first ever TENNESSEE HOLLER FEST, featuring inspiring voices from across the state lifting up the issues we face – including STELLA PARTON, JUSTIN JONES, REP. JIM COOPER, REP. STEVE COHEN, THE EQUITY ALLIANCE and much more.
Here’s a quick highlight reel.
Watch the FULL VIDEO HERE and LISTEN TO THE PODCAST
Rep. Jim Cooper talks about the Coronavirus and what we should learn from it.
Trump has left our Kurdish allies to die, even after they lost 11,000 in our fight against ISIS. The Protest of Trump’s betrayal of our Kurdish allies in Nashville was massive.
Watch and share our video – also on Facebook and Twitter.
Congressman Jim Cooper was also there.
CLIP: “I rarely participate in protests… but this is TOTALLY WRONG.” – @repjimcooper at the #NashvilleKurds protest yesterday.
FULL VIDEO: https://t.co/M7tBrDcggq#KurdsBetrayedByTrump pic.twitter.com/xwBzIyb78b
— The Tennessee Holler (@TheTNHoller) October 12, 2019
This week throughout Tennessee public hearings for comments about Governor Bill Lee’s possibly illegal block grant proposal are being held. A Block Grant would hand a giant lump sum of medicaid dollars to a group of people who have already shown they don’t actually care about the suffering of poor Tennesseans, having rejected billions of Medicaid expansion dollars for no non-political reason.
It has cost us BILLIONS. We’re #1 in Rural hospital closures, medical bankruptcies, at the bottom in opioid deaths, infant mortality, the list goes on. Medicaid expansion would help all of those things. A block grant will only exacerbate them.
The hearing in Nashville was emotional, but Lee and the TN GOP wouldn’t know because they weren’t there, and they didn’t have anyone there to record it or take note of the comments.
We were there though. Below are a few clips.
Rep. Jim Cooper: “I had hoped Gov. Lee’s religious faith would’ve given him more of a heart for the poor, especially as we anticipate the Day of Prayer he has called.”
Cooper exposes Lee’s (illegal?) Block Grant as a bad deal for Tennessee & our most vulnerable:
“These aren’t just numbers. There are real people suffering… This is a faithful state- we should be helping the poor, not hurting them.”
Holler co-Founder Kanew speaks up:
“If it wasn’t for my family there are times I wouldn’t have anything to eat. It’s so humiliating.”
DEVASTATING testimony from a woman who lost Medicaid to a paperwork snafu. Governor Lee’s proposal will lead to more of these stories, not less:
This week Rep. Jim Cooper visited the Central Labor Council lunch in Nashville and spoke to a rapt audience about the need for unity and togetherness in the coming election, when the labor movement would be a key part of a “winning strategy” in the hopes of preserving key programs like Medicare and social security.
Cooper spoke about rampant inequality the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Gilded Age, acknowledged that the system isn’t fair, but reminded everyone that “the rich people are out there voting”.
Watch the HIGHLIGHTS: