{"id":16593,"date":"2020-02-19T09:07:39","date_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:07:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/?p=16593"},"modified":"2020-02-19T09:07:39","modified_gmt":"2020-02-19T15:07:39","slug":"sometimes-lawmakers-just-arent-that-smart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2020\/02\/sometimes-lawmakers-just-arent-that-smart.html","title":{"rendered":"Sometimes, lawmakers just aren’t that smart"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"
Illinois state capitol; https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Illinoiscapitol2.jpg<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

In the news last week:<\/p>\n

\u201cTampon Tax Break Faces Resistance in Tennessee; A proposal to include feminine hygiene products during Tennessee\u2019s annual sales-tax holiday is facing resistance from lawmakers concerned about the lack of limit on on [sic] such purchases.<\/a>\u201d AP, February 11, 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cMale lawmaker frets about loss of state income if tampons are included in tax-free holiday<\/a>\u201d \u2014 Washington Post<\/em>, February 13, 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cA male lawmaker worries women will abuse a tax break to hoard tampons; \u2018That is what our elected representatives think of us,\u201d one menstrual equity advocate says.\u2019<\/a>\u201d \u2013 Vox,\u00a0February 13, 2020.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennessee Republican fights tax-free tampon bill, says people may buy too many tampons<\/a>,\u201d Daily Kos, February 12, 2020.<\/p>\n

The background, as explained by the Vox article, is this:<\/p>\n

A debate erupted this week in the Tennessee state legislature over the danger of women buying too many tampons.<\/p>\n

The concern came up during a hearing Tuesday about taxation of the products. Specifically, Democratic lawmakers in the state have proposed a bill to include tampons and other menstrual products in Tennessee\u2019s yearly sales tax holiday, a three-day weekend when residents can buy things tax-free.<\/p>\n

But state Sen. Joey Hensley, a Republican, worried that this might lead to out-of-control tampon-buying.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would think since it\u2019s a sales tax holiday, there\u2019s really no limit on the number of items anybody can purchase,\u201d he said, according to the Associated Press. \u201cI don\u2019t know how you would limit the number of items someone could purchase.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hensley\u2019s remarks have gotten nationwide coverage, with some questioning his grasp of the human menstrual cycle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

But Hensley defended himself to Vox:<\/p>\n

The lawmaker told Vox in an email that he is not actually against adding tampons to his state\u2019s tax holiday, and that his concern was merely \u201cgetting the facts regarding the cost of the bill.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And the remainder of Vox\u2019s reporting, at least, goes on to discuss the campaigns in various states to make tampons sales tax-exempt or even provide them free of charge to various groups \u2014 but not before, in reporting and on twitter, everyone had a good laugh about yet another foolish Republican lawmaker.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s have some more laughs, shall we?<\/p>\n

In Illinois, we have a bill which proposes the banning of individuals pumping their own gas, the\u00a0Gas Station Attendant Act.\u00a0 As WCSJ News reports,<\/p>\n

A Cook County lawmaker has introduced the Gas Station Attendant Act. The proposed law was introduced into the Illinois General Assembly on Feb 5th by Illinois Democratic State Representative Camille Lilly.<\/p>\n

The legislation states that no gas may be pumped at a gas station in Illinois unless it is pumped by a gas station attendant employed at the gas station.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

After her proposal received howls of derision on twitter, and more measured objections both locally<\/a> and nationally<\/a>, Lilly sought to explain herself:<\/p>\n

In a statement her office has released since then, however, Lilly said that HB 4571 \u201cis not intended pass as is,\u201d adding that the bill\u2019s intention \u201cis to give consumers the option to be serviced by a gas station attendant, in addition to the self-service option currently used.\u201d. . .<\/p>\n

During a Feb. 14 interview on WGN Radio 720, . . . Lilly . . . placed some blame for the confusion on the Illinois Legislative Research Unit, the nonpartisan legislative research agency that state lawmakers rely on to do the legwork of translating their intentions into actual policy. Lilly said the description online is not what she intended to propose.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

At the same time, however, Lilly has been claiming that one of her objectives is to \u201ccreate jobs,\u201d which suggests that she would mandate that customers be able to request service by an attendant at no additional charge, paid for by the rest of us.<\/p>\n

Finally, hee\u2019s a proposal out of Alabama, as reported by Cheryl Magness at The Federalist<\/a>, citing WSFA 12 News<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Last week Alabama state Rep. Rolanda Hollis introduced a bill that would require men in the state to get a vasectomy at the age of 50. The bill would also require a vasectomy after a man has had three biological children.<\/p>\n

Asked about the bill on Twitter, Hollis responded: \u201cThe Vasectomy bill is to help with the reproductive system. This is to neutralize the abortion ban bill. The responsibility is not always on the women. It takes 2 to tangle. This will help prevent pregnancy as well as abortion of unwanted children.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Magness continues,<\/p>\n

Hollis is not the first lawmaker to employ the strategy of proposing regulation of male biology to make a point about supposed governmental intrusion into female biology. On March 11, 2019, Georgia Democrat state Rep. Dar\u2019shun Kendrick proposed a \u201cTesticular Bill of Rights\u201d in her state. Instead of requiring vasectomies, Kendrick\u2019s bill sought to ban them.<\/p>\n

Kendrick told Rolling Stone<\/a> she was \u201cdead serious\u201d and that the point of the bill was to \u201cbring awareness to the fact that if you\u2019re going to legislate our bodies, then we have every right to propose legislation to regulate yours.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There are surely an endless supply of legislators who say and do appalling things, from both political parties.<\/p>\n

Is the take-away that men are stupid (for a failure to understand or properly sympathize with the burdens women face when menstruating)?\u00a0 That women don\u2019t understand economics or that they abuse the legislative process and waste time and money to make a symbolic point?<\/p>\n

I tend to go with:\u00a0 state legislators (and city council members, for that matter) aren\u2019t necessarily all that bright.<\/p>\n

Depending on the particulars, being elected is as much about having the right connections and falling into the right circumstances as any particular skill, let alone having the sort of wisdom that we imagine our leaders ought to have.\u00a0 It\u2019s all the worse when a lawmaker \u201cinherits\u201d a seat from a spouse or parent or relative or \u201csponsor\u201d of one sort or another, or is appointed when a seat is vacated and keeps the seat indefinitely, but \u201clawmakers say the darndest things\u201d can happen even in nominally competitive races, too, and it has nothing to do with political party or race or sex or any other such characteristic, however much reporters and pundits might like to assign blame that way.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the news last week: \u201cTampon Tax Break Faces Resistance in Tennessee; A proposal to include feminine hygiene products during Tennessee\u2019s annual sales-tax holiday is facing resistance from lawmakers concerned about the lack of limit on on [sic] such purchases.\u201d AP, February 11, 2020. \u201cMale lawmaker frets about loss of state income if tampons are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2209,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1406,1403],"class_list":["post-16593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-dumb-legislation","tag-politicians"],"yoast_head":"\nSometimes, lawmakers just aren't that smart<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"In the news last week: "Tampon Tax Break Faces Resistance in Tennessee; A proposal to include feminine hygiene products during Tennessee's annual\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/janetheactuary\/2020\/02\/sometimes-lawmakers-just-arent-that-smart.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Sometimes, lawmakers just aren't that smart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In the news last week: "Tampon Tax Break Faces Resistance in Tennessee; 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