May 29, 2005

Bipartisan Bredesen

State Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, Tennessee's first blogging legislator, reports from inside a meeting with Gov. Phil Bredesen debunking Bredesen's claim of being a bipartisan leader.

The Republican caucus had a meeting with Governor this morning. He brought up how we need a bipartisan effort, how he works with us to help the state, and how he invites us to attend when grants are given out in our districts. He said we need to work together for our state to fix TennCare, how he has an open door policy and how he returns phone calls so help him out now.

I raised my hand and was recognized to ask the Governor if we were in fact working together to fix TennCare, then why hasn't the most qualified person-a doctor and a legislator, Dr. Hensley--been allowed to serve on the TennCare oversight committee.

Dr. Hensley has a wealth of knowledge and is basically shut out because of partisanship. The Governor more or less mumbled a bit about working in a system. In other words, he was saying "tough."

... We talked about TennCare some more. The Doctor said how nice it was to finally meet the Governor and get to speak to his staff for once.

We went upstairs and voted on the budget. Dr. Hensley's amendment was killed, even though it was improved since my post yesterday and even covered more people for no more money.

We passed the budget as it stood. Even though there was a lot of good in the budget, there was too much waste - and it turned my stomach. I voted against it.

You would think that, with TennCare reform a pressing issue, Gov. Bredesen would want to consult with a physician legislator like state Rep. Joey Hensley, a doctor from Hohenwald who was elected to the legislature at the same time Bredesen was elected governor. But even though both have worked in the same building for more than two years, the sad truth is that Bredesen has not even bothered to introduce himself to Hensley, much less involve him in the TennCare reform discussions.

Why? Because Hensley is a Republican. And Bredesen is a Democrat.

That's not bipartisan. It's not good leadership, either. But it's the Bredesen way.

UPDATE: Bruce Barry is praising Hensley's effort - to save 67,000 TennCare enrollee's coverage - a proposed budget amendment killed by Bredesen's allies. Barry:

Rep. Joey Hensley's (R-Hohenwald) amendment to the budget bill would have steered that money away from Gov. Bredesen's plans to beef up the state's health care "safety net." Well-intentioned though the safety net plans are, moving the money back into TennCare makes sense because then it would draw $180 million of federal matching funds. Last time I checked, $280 million for health care for otherwise uninsured sick people beats $100 million every time.

But not, apparently, if it stands between the legislature and adjournment.

Let the record show that it was a Republican doctor that tried to save those people, and a Democratic governor and healthcare multi-millionaire who didn't.

And let the record also show that on the day Bredesen signs the $26 billion budget for fiscal year 2005-06 into law, he will break the biggest promise he made when seeking the governor's office in 2002: He promised to fix TennCare, not to gut it.
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For more scrutiny of the Bredesen record, see Bredesen Watch.