Sen. Jim Bryson has been pushing such legislation here in Tennessee for several years. Check out his site at http://www.senatorbryson.org/

You also snipped carefully. From the same story, comes this that you omitted:

Bryant's doctor, Dean Mire of Knoxville, said when contacted yesterday that the primary cause of Bryant's death was "anoxic brain damage," meaning his heart stopped and no blood flowed to his brain, causing a stroke of the entire brain.

The doctor said he also included on the death certificate as contributing causes low blood oxygen, ventricular fibrillation (a heart irregularity that causes too little blood to be pumped) and "an absence of medicines for one week."

"Anybody who doesn't take their medicine is going to have that as a contribution to their demise," Mire said.

The doctor describes the lack of medication for a week - caused by Bredesen's TennCare cuts - as a "contributing factor" to the man's death.

Did the lack of medication kill him? No - his illness did. But Bredesen's cuts took away the man's medication, and that contributed to him dying of the illness now instead of later.

Bill, I have posted a similar comment here before on this topic, but would like to hear your rebuttal to my contention- We simply do not need TABOR in Tennessee. I am all for limited government and the resulting low taxes, but TABOR undermines these principles by undermining representative democracy. Tax and budget issues should be left up to elected representatives in legislative bodies, not be subject to tyranny of the majority at the ballot box. You cite successes in Colorado, a state that has an income tax that Tennessee (thankfully) does not, but fail to mention California at all. Remember, California is the king of making public policy, including tax and budget policy, by referendum and ballot initiative- in fact, over 70% of California's annual budget is predetermined by previous ballot initiatives before the legislature even meets. Don't know about you, but I wouldn't call California a model for limited government, low taxation and fiscal sanity. It is easy to knock politicians and legislative lobbyists, and I have done it many times, but I would rather take my chances with the devil I know than leave tax and budget policy up to the whims of 50.1% of public opinion. By undermining representative government with TABOR, you leave yourself vulnerable to whatever well-financed, wing-nut interest comes up with a new government program "for our children." Being a native Nashvillian, I would like to think Tennesseans are smarter than California voters, but considering we elected Don Sundquist governor TWICE (as well as approving the looming budget boondoggle known as the Tennessee "Education" Lottery- again, "for our children") I think it is best if we keep taxing authority and budgeting away from the ballot box.