The General Assembly returns to work in the next week with Republicans wielding power in both the House and Senate for the first time in more than a century. Change at the top means a new Senate leader for the first time since 1992. Not only has Democrat Marc Basnight lost his top job as Senate president pro tem, he’s resigning from the Senate one day before the new legislative session starts. Rick Henderson, managing editor of Carolina Journal, discusses Basnight’s impact and the implications of his decision to step down from office. Speaking of stepping down, Erskine Bowles recently retired as president of the University of North Carolina system. But that doesn’t mean Bowles is leaving the public stage. On his first official day of retirement, Bowles discussed his work with President Obama’s debt reduction commission during a presentation to North Carolina bankers. The leadership change in the General Assembly means changes for Democratic Gov. Beverly Perdue. Perdue is urging the new legislative leadership to enact a series of major procedural changes, including new limits on the length of legislative sessions. You’ll hear highlights from Perdue’s discussion of the topic with state lawmakers. Government-run health care is “bad medicine.” That’s the assessment of libertarian syndicated columnist Deroy Murdock, a senior fellow at the Atlas Economic Research Foundation. Murdock explains why he believes the federal health care reform legislation enacted in March 2010 must be repealed. Earlier, we mentioned that Republicans have not held the upper hand in both chambers of North Carolina’s General Assembly since the 19th century. Troy Kickler, director of the N.C. History Project, joins us to discuss the circumstances surrounding the GOP’s last turn at leading the legislature.
GOP Takeover Prompts Basnight’s Resignation
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