MEMPHIS, Tennessee — In Monday's Ransom Note: you're fired!
Those are two of this president's favorite words, and today he used them to abruptly fire two members of the TVA's board of directors, including the chairman.
Why did he do it? One reason is what President Trump described as the "ridiculously overpaid" CEO of the TVA, Jeff Lyash. Lyash is the country's highest paid federal employee, earning $8.1 million last year. No one helped pay more of that salary than the people of Shelby County. It's one of the ultimate ironies in this debate over whether MLGW should leave the TVA and potentially save ratepayers hundreds of millions of dollars.
Memphis has one of the highest poverty rates in the country, yet as the TVA's number one customer we shoulder more of those fat executive salaries than any other city.
Trump also said if the board doesn't fire lyash, he will, and he threatened to fire the whole board if it doesn't reverse a decision to outsource I-T workers from other countries.
Of course, politics are at play here. Both issues play well into Trump's "drain the swamp," "America first" narrative.
Supporters of leaving the TVA tell me the president just helped them put a spotlight on TVA's misplaced priorities. This just got a lot more interesting.