Thommy The Greek?
We know about our junior senator’s history with embellishing details about his personal life. We might have stumbled across another similar episode:
As the lone U.S. senator of Greek heritage, it was no surprise that Tillis was recently sought out by Katerina Sokou, Washington correspondent for Greece’s venerable Kathimerini publication, and asked his view on the fiscal crisis that now grips the land of his ancestors.[…]
Say WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA …??? Why is this the first we’re hearing about this? It didn’t come up in his historic term on the Cornelius Town Council, his primary battle against conservative John Rhodes, or during any of his eight years in the state House. We didn’t hear about it during the epic 2014 battle he had with HAG-an and the pizza man. (Thom is GREEK?)
We took a trip over to that magical place called Google to see what we could find about the origins of the surname Tillis:
Spelling variations of this family name include: Tillisch, Tillis, Tillish, Tillies, Tillich and others.
First found in Prussia and Denmark where the name emerged in medieval times as one of the notable families of the region. From the 13th century the surname was identified with the great social and economic evolution which made this territory a landmark contributor to the development of the nation.
Not a word about Greece there. Anyway, we go on into this article to learn that Thom Tillis is actually an expert on his, um, ancestral homeland of Greece:
[…] “Greece has to stay in the euro,” he replied without hesitation. “I met with economists on the Greek situation. Everyone agreed that the euro is the common currency [of Europe] and that Greece must remain in the European Union. A Greek exit from the EU and the euro would mean the Greek economy would be difficult to sustain.”
But Tillis quickly added: “Just because Greece chooses to remain in the Euro doesn’t mean things can go on as they were. The Greek government has to make major changes in its spending policy and entitlements. When I was speaker in North Carolina, the state was gripped with a deficit and we made a fundamental policy decision to adopt austerity budgets for four years.
“Today, we have one of the best performing economies in the U.S. and our unemployment dropped from 10.6 percent to 6.4 percent. Greece could learn from North Carolina.”
North Carolina state government. The national government of Greece. What’s the difference? Of course, we all know how well that austerity went.
Apparently his time on the Cornelius Town Board AND at the front podium in the House chamber made him an expert on all kinds of world affairs:
Other international issues come up often with the junior Armed Services Committee member. Tillis strongly believes the Russian seizure of Crimea last year was wrong and recalled how “a retired general told [the Armed Services panel] Russia could take Estonia in 24 hours if it chose to. It’s very important that we step up our support for Ukraine and for the NATO alliance.”
As for the Islamic State, Tillis urges “training, advising, and assistance” of allies in the Middle East to “wipe ISIS off the planet.” In pursuit of that goal, he feels Turkey “can be helpful.”
Apparently, somebody named “Marc Rotterman” is really impressed with ol’ Thom’s first six months in office: 
“I think the reason Thom’s counsel is sought after is because of the unique experience he brings to the U.S. Senate,” said veteran Tar Heel State GOP consultant Marc Rotterman.
“He was speaker of the [state] House of Representatives when North Carolina was in the middle of a fiscal crisis, and he helped get the state out of the red and in the black.
“And across the aisle, Democrats knew Thom was approachable and someone they could work with. In Washington, that’s a rare commodity.”
you have a rare talent sir – for understatement.
i have thoroughly enjoyed this site since i found it.
don’t let that go to your head please
we need good dissections of the fecal matter that we constantly get fed.
I would call him Thommy the moron. I had no idea we had someone this clueless representing us in the Senate.
Keeping Greece in the euro? What nonsense! Since the Greek crisis began five years ago, most of the British financial experts have been saying the opposite, that to recover, Greece needs to get out of the straightjacket of the euro which takes away the economic tools that a country with its own currency would have to turn their economy back to growth.
A good contrast is Iceland, which had a deeper financial crisis hit after the Greek crisis was ongoing, which included both of Iceland’s major banks collapsing. Fortunately, Iceland still had its own currency, the kronor, and thus had to tools to turn things around, which they did. Iceland is now well on its way to recovery. Straightjacketed in the euro, Greece lacks those tools. Iceland had been considering joining the euro, but after seeing firsthand how not having the euro was more of a benefit, they voted overwhelmingly to abandon any thought of joining the euro.
When the euro first came out, The Economist magazine called it ”a political project with economic consequences” and pointed out that its major flaw was that ”one size does not fit all”, predicting just the sort of disasters that have befallen Greece, Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Ireland. Quite a few other thoughtful economists, including Milton Friedman, predicted the same thing.
Nigel Farage, leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) had quite a good speech on the subject of Greece in the European parliament which can be viewed at this link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94UcyJnRcGU
The voters of Sweden and Denmark voted to not join the ruro, and they are probably thanking their lucky stars they did so. The newly elected president of Poland has said he will oppose Poland joining the euro unless the citizens are allowed to vote on it. Germans were denied a vote, but polls from pre-euro to the present show that if given a choice, they would go for their beloved Deutsch Mark instead of the euro.
Absolutely agree with your post. He is more of a dumb### than I originally thought. Definitely confirmed with his open mouth insert foot remarks reminds me of the Queen from District 2. She must be schooling him.
Does it really surprise you that Tillis is siding with the Obama position against the position of conservative economists? It has been the Obama regime doing some major arm twisting with European countries to keep Greece in the euro. is that just stupidity or does it reflect Tillis’ real underlying ideology?
So why isn’t Thommy the Greek leading the charge to cut spending and entitlements in the US government???! He and the Republican leadership in Washington wouldn’t know an austere budget if it came up and bit them in the butt.
I agree. Thom is working on more entitlements at this moment.. I really hope conservatives can send a strong message this election cycle. I understand the GOP election plan is to get the Hispanic vote and some of the Black vote so they don’t need conservative support. I will NOT be holding my nose and voting for Burr and Company no matter who is running against him.
Anybody but Burr.
Between fiscal years 2013 and 2014, total government spending in North Carolina increased by approximately $972 million, from $42.9 billion in fiscal year 2013 to an estimated $43.8 billion in 2014. This represents a 2.3 percent increase. The cumulative rate of inflation during the same period was 1.58 percent, calculated using the Consumer Price Indices for January 2013 and January 2014.