MILWAUKEE — Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee took to the stage at the Republican National Convention Monday night to emphasize the GOP's message on the economy and the financial burden on middle-class Americans as a consistent theme on the convention's first day.
Blackburn, the Tennessee senator, serves as the official party platform chairman for the Republican National Committee and delivered a brief platform speech on stage Monday afternoon before the evening's address. Blackburn is the only Tennessee senator scheduled to speak at the nearly week-long convention.
Blackburn criticized “Biden economics” for hurting everyday business owners, citing Bordeaux Metals, a company in White Bluff, Tennessee.
“Joe Biden, Kamala Harris and their high inflation, high interest rates, high taxes and Green New Scum are destroying small businesses,” Blackburn said.
The Biden administration touted growth in new business earlier this year, noting that nearly 16 million new business applications were filed between 2021 and 2023, the highest average increase since 2004.
Onstage, Blackburn referenced his role in opposing a state income tax proposal in 2001 when he was a Tennessee state representative.
“We've repealed that,” Blackburn said. “There's no income tax in the state of Tennessee.”
In 2001, The Tennessean reported that then-Governor Don Sundquist, a Republican, and other senators blamed Blackburn and a conservative radio talk show host for inciting mass protests at the Tennessee Capitol that led to the vandalism of the building. “It's unfortunate that things got out of hand,” Blackburn said in 2001.
In his speech on Monday, Buckburn said President Trump's reelection would return the United States to “an era of prosperity.” He also criticized President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for hiring 85,000 new employees at the IRS for “harassing hardworking Americans.” PolitiFact reports that the claim is false and misinterprets a 2021 Treasury Department decision that the IRS must hire to fill all positions within the agency, not just its enforcement division, to replace retiring employees.
“Who is going to look at 85,000 IRS employees and say, 'You're fired?'” Blackburn said. “Donald Trump.”
