Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee was sworn into his second term of office on Saturday, touting his first term achievements in education, health care and rural economic development while calling out critics for \u201ctoxic incivility.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTennessee is leading the nation, and it\u2019s good that we reflect on that and celebrate it,\u201d said Lee early in his 20-minute speech.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Among what Lee termed accomplishments were a controversial Medicaid waiver, the first in the nation. Tennessee gained approval for the block grant, which replaces an Obama-era Medicaid expansion, just days before then-President Donald Trump left office in 2020.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lee also cited the creation of the Tennessee Investment in Student Achievement, a new education funding formula that starts state funding at the same amount for each child and adds money based on individual needs from economic disadvantages to disabilities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Lee noted the attraction of the massive Ford Blue Oval City to rural West Tennessee, saying \u201cTennessee is proof that the state with the workers will win every time.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Democratic lawmakers wasted no time firing back on Lee\u2019s first-term claims.<\/span><\/p>\n Sen. Jeff Yarbro of Nashville tweeted, \u201cTennessee is \u2018leading the nation\u2019 in hospital closures, medical debt, foster care instability, opiate overdoses, juvenile detention, childhood obesity and violent crime. There\u2019s plenty of work for @GovBillLee if he decides to take on these real problems.\u2019\u2019\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cWe want to lead the nation in lifting up children and working families. We want to lead the nation in defeating poverty and creating opportunity. We want to lead the nation in seeking justice for all Tennesseans,\u201d said Senate Democratic Caucus Chair London Lamar of Memphis.<\/span><\/p>\n After reciting a portion of Theodore Roosevelt\u2019s \u201cMan in the Arena\u201d speech, which begins with the words, \u201cIt is not the critic who counts, nor the man who points out how another man stumbles,\u201d Lee took aim at those who have criticized his job performance.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cYeah, we will have critics \u2013 critics who thrive on toxic incivility and divisiveness . . . We should never believe differences are a platform for demonization, or that one man has any greater value than another,\u201d he said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n The governor briefly stated what his priorities might be for his coming term in office, making a thinly-veiled reference to chronic problems in the Tennessee Department of Children\u2019s Services \u2014 where lack of staff and an insufficient number of foster homes have led to children being forced to sleep on the floors of state office buildings \u2014 noting the need to \u201cprotect children in our custody and in our state with a better foster care and adoption process.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Other priorities Lee gave were the creation of a transportation strategy and efforts to conserve Tennessee\u2019s environment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Despite his claims of success, Lee\u2019s first term was marked by controversy over several of his initiatives.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n In July, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services ordered state leaders to modify the Trump-approved block grant, requiring the state to add dental coverage and forbidding TennCare \u2014 Tennessee\u2019s healthcare program for the state\u2019s neediest residents \u2014 from cutting coverage for expensive drugs deemed necessary by doctors.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n A school voucher program barely passed in a 2019 legislative vote marked by allegations of bribes offered by former House Speaker Glen Casada, who has been indicted on federal charges related to another issue. Legal challenges to the Educational Savings Account program, which provides state funds to families to use to pay for private schools, were settled in November.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Joining Lee on the dais were U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty, all seven members of the state\u2019s congressional delegation, and four of Tennessee\u2019s five living ex-governors: Republicans Bill Haslam, Lamar Alexander, and Winfield Dunn and Democrat Phil Bredesen.<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Gov.](\"https:\/\/tennesseelookout.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/Lee-inaugural-8-scaled.jpeg\")
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