Bredesen Watch:

A Killing Failure, August 23, 2005
Gov. Phil Bredesen's record on TennCare reform has gone from atrocious to abysmal. From the editorial in today's Tennessean:At this point in the painful process of TennCare cuts, the absence of the much ballyhooed safety net is simply inexcusable. Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration never minced words about the stark reality of cuts in TennCare enrollment. But throughout the process, the administration was quick to assure everyone of its intention to build a safety net to...

Surplus Confusion Update, August 18, 2005
NASHVILLE - Today's Tennessean story about the state's revenue surplus may help clear up the confusion over two conflicting press releases issued yesterday by Gov. Phil Bredesen's office and his Department of Finance & Administration....

Bredesen Continues Silence on Kelo Ruling, August 12, 2005
John Emison of Knoxville-based Citizens for Home Rule emails that Gov. Phil Bredesen continues to ignore a letter seeking a statement on the governor's position on the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in Kelo v. New London. Emison writes......

A Better Plan Than Phil's TennCare Reform Slash, August 05, 2005
While Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has been playing at Medicaid reform ever since he took office, South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford has been working on some truly innovative reforms. [Hat tip: Ben Cunningham]...

Bredesen Silent on Kelo Ruling; Governor Making No Moves to Protect Private Property Rights in Tennessee, August 03, 2005
NASHVILLE - States across the country are rushing to pass laws to counter the potential impact of a U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that allows state and local governments to seize homes for private development, reports USA Today. South of Tennessee, the legislature was called into special session to pass legislation the specifically state, cities and counties from taking private property for retail, office, commercial, industrial or residential development. Gov. Bob Riley signed the...

He Hasn't Said No, August 03, 2005
An anti-tax group, flanked by five legislators, called Tuesday for Gov. Phil Bredesen and members of the House and Senate to sign an anti-income tax pledge for the upcoming elections in 2006. The Nashville City Paper story notes that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who has steadfastly refused to rule out seeking an income tax if re-elected, called the stunt "pure political posturing" and "nonsense." The only way to guarantee Bredesen won't seek a state income...

Gov. Bredesen's Blog Has A Pulse. Barely., July 25, 2005
Gov. Phil Bredesen has posted his third blog entry ever, and the first since May 22, on his underwhelming Phil Blog. He actually posted it back on July 19, but when a blogger only posts something once every two months, you don't get into the habit of checking his blog every day. And, no, his blog still doesn't actually allow readers to post comments or make it easy to email the Guv....

Inside the Loop, July 21, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is currently considering calling a special session to enact ethics reforms covering legislators and lobbyists. But a few months ago Bredesen demonstrated just how little he minds the too-cozy relationship between legislators and lobbyists with one of the many appointments a governor makes while he's in office. MetroPulse comments......

Shredding His Credibility, July 19, 2005
Gov. Phil Bredesen may have stopped the shredding, but continues to refuse to open to public scrutiny certain files involving allegations of sexual harrassment against administration officials and employees. I can't believe how oblivious Bredesen appears to be to how damaging his penchant for shredding and secrecy is to his credibility on government ethics issues. Trent Seibert's Tennessean article today is another fine piece of work even if he hadn't quoted me. I told Seibert...

Hidden Things, July 17, 2005
The Tennessean has a deeper look at document-shredding in the governor's office....

Bredesen Calls For End to Shredding of Documents, July 15, 2005
NewsChannel5 reports: Bredesen To Order Halt To Document ShreddingGov. Phil Bredesen is putting a halt to document shredding in the state personnel department following two well publicized cases of shredded records in sexual harassment investigations.Of course, shredding the documents was perfectly okay with Bredesen before the news media found out about it....

Gov. Shredesen, July 15, 2005
The Tennessean in an excellent editorial today: "The governor should be open in his handling of sexual harassment cases and stop closing files and shredding documents." That would be Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who is now trying to position himself as a leader on governmental ethics....

Falling For Bredespin, July 13, 2005
The WSJ's Brendan Miniter falls for some serious spin from Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who is trying to position himself nationally as a leader on Medicaid reform, while at home he not reforming the state's version of Medicaid, TennCare, at all. Miniter writes:To fix the system, he's pulling the plug on TennCare and returning the state to traditional Medicaid. That will still mean the state will be splitting the tab with the federal government, but...

Bredesen's Dismal Poll Numbers, July 13, 2005
Jay Bush at Blogging for Bryant notes that Gov. Phil Bredesen's approval rating has fallen five points to 48 percent in the last month. An incumbent polling under 50 percent is vulnerable....

It Looks Bad, July 08, 2005
A reader emailed to remind me that First Health Group, the managed-care company given a $30 million raise by Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration after it was found to have violated the terms of its contract as the TennCare program's pharmacy benefits manager - resulting in TennCare overspending - turns out to have been acquired six months ago by a managed care company founded by none other than Phil Bredesen. In a court hearing Wednesday on...

Bredesen Gave What Lobbyist Asks For , July 07, 2005
How serious was Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen about reforming TennCare? So serious that, when the company that serves as TennCare's pharmacy benefits manager was found to be grossly incompetent - causing TennCare to spend too much money - the Bredesen administration did what Bredesen's good friend urged the administration to do: It gave the incompetent company a contract extension without competitive bidding, tripled the firm' fee to $45 million, and hired another company to take...

Ethics Lapse, July 06, 2005
Don't miss Tim Chavez' column today on Gov. Phil Bredesen's new "ethics commission."Bredesen appointed a panel Friday without ordinary citizens. And it will be led by a former Republican senator who was part of Lt. Gov. John Wilder's leadership team in the Senate and a former past chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party who co-managed Harold Ford Sr.'s first congressional campaign. Hopes of recommendations that would bring sweeping change to the corrupt process on...

Why Some People Are Going to Die, July 05, 2005
When former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen ran for governor in 2002, his chief selling point was that, as a former healthcare company executive, he had the relevant managerial expertise to fix TennCare, the state's exorbitantly expensive, waste-riddled, out-of-control healthcare program for the poor, elderly, disabled and uninsurable sick. Which means you really have to work hard to stifle a snort when you read this Tennessean headline:Governor’s early decisions may now beblocking his own TennCare reformsBredesen's...

Bredesen Ignores Open Records Request, June 28, 2005
Given that Gov. Phil Bredesen has told two conflicting stories about his conversations with then-state Sen. John Ford regarding TennCare and Ford's client Doral Dental, I two weeks ago today submitted a request to the governor's office under the state's open record laws for copies of all emails, written communications, memos and transcripts of telephone conversations, from January 2003 through the present day regarding OmniCare and Doral Dental between the governor's office, TennCare administrators, the...

Late to the Party, June 28, 2005
The Tennessean today concludes its three-part series on the culture of corruption at the state legislature. A good round-up, with an interesting paragraph noting that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen "says he favors more disclosure of what lobbyists do." Oh, really? Then why, Gov. Bredesen, when legislation was proposed a few months ago to require more such disclosure from lobbysists, where you nowhere to be found in the effort to try to get it passed? Why...

As Calls for Ethics Reform Grow Louder..., June 26, 2005
State Rep. Stacey Campfield has a long post the need for reform of ethics rules covering the state legislature and lobbyists - and also spotlights the incestuous relationship between lobbyists and the administration of Gov. Phil Bredesen....

Echo Chamber, June 26, 2005
Echoing what I've been saying for three long weeks now, Tennessean columnist Larry Daughtrey today notes that Gov. Phil Bredesen "wasn't much interested in legislative behavior a few months ago," even though now he is considering calling a special legislative session on legislator and lobbying ethics reform....

Bredesen Bloviates While Sick Protestors Go Hungry, June 26, 2005
Sharon Cobb has continuing coverage of both the TennCare cuts protest at the state capitol and Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's rather disastrous appearance at the National Press Club. Bredesen was at the National Press Club to discuss Medicaid reform while protesters were occupying his office to protest his unwillingness to reform TennCare instead of just slash a few hundred thousand people from the rolls - and the governor will not permit food and water to...

The Prop, June 22, 2005
"I’m not interested in being a prop for some big media event," Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said yesterday - at a meeting with a group of protesters who had occupied his office to protest the meat-axe the governor is taking to the state's healthcare program for the sick, poor, disabled and elderly. Bredesen, who promised to reform TennCare but has no real reform-plan, met with the protestors in front of numerous television cameras. According to...

Sit-In, June 21, 2005
Sharon Cobb has an update from the TennCare cuts protest at the governor's office. It seems the official policy of the administration of Gov. Phil Bredesen toward the protestors is to starve them out. Given that these protesters are people who are beset with various illnesses, that's pretty macabre....

More TennCare Documents To Embarrass the Governor , June 16, 2005
Sharon Cobb has posted more damning documents from the files of the administration of Gov. Phil Bredesen regarding his handling of TennCare. My favorite is the hand-written memo by a former TennCare director in which it is stated that "the price of failure is high - the governor's future is at stake." Yeah. That's waaay more important than the lives and health of 323,000 Tennesseans too. Will the mainstream media report these documents and...

Will Phil Drink the Lobbyists' Gall?, June 15, 2005
SBK, one of my regular commenters, posted a comment to this post about legislative and lobbying ethics reform in the aftermath of the Operation Tennessee Waltz arrests that was so plainly on target that I decided to edit it into a blog entry all its own. SBK writes:As ethics reform is a subject of self interest to the lobbyists they should have no more access to the process than any other Tennessean who is looking...

Ethics Best Practices, June 15, 2005
As Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen mulls whether to call a special session of the legislature to address legislative/lobbyist ethics reform in the aftermath of the arrest of four sitting legislators for taking bribes from a lobbyist - and as the Bredesen adminstration asks the lobbyists to help write the new ethics rules - Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt has been doing a little research into how other states handle such things and has produced...

Chavez: Blogs "Taking Aim" at "Bredesen's Supposed Fix of TennCare", June 15, 2005
Thanks to Tennessean columnist Tim Chavez for the mention in his column today about the battle over TennCare. Chavez mentions this blog and two others (GeoTennCare and Sharon Cobb) as good sources of info on TennCare and Gov. Phil Bredesen's handling there-of....

Bredesen Invites Foxes to Reform Henhouse, June 13, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen, who actively ignored the critical issue of legislative/lobbyist ethics back before four sitting lawmakers were arrested on federal felony corruption charges after accepting cash bribes from a lobbyist in the Operation Tennessee Waltz FBI sting, is considering calling a special legislative session to consider ethics reform affecting lobbyists. So who did he call in for the first prepatory meeting to talk about the shape of possible legislation? Lobbyists. And the lobbyists...

Bredesen Lied, June 13, 2005
It's a big scoop. Sharon Cobb has documented proof that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's administration has been telling lies about TennCare, playing politics with the program and with people's lives.A six month investigation into TennCare reform has unearthed some startling documents and disturbing revelations about Governor Bredesen and his administration’s plans to blame the Tennessee Justice Center for the TennCare cuts, then as part of their political strategy, reenroll some of those cut from TennCare...

Watch This Space, June 11, 2005
Nashville journalist and blogger Sharon Cobb has been working on a big scoop involving TennCare and the administration of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen - and she's alerted some other Tennessee political bloggers that she'll be sharing some of the "smoking gun" documents with them as she publishes her scoop. Now, it seems she's about ready to release the scoop, posting the following in a comment to my previous post:There are internal memos that show this...

Grandstanding Waltz, June 10, 2005
Grandstanding, v, To perform ostentatiously so as to impress an audience. - The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition The AP reports that Gov. Phil Bredesen said yesterday he is leaning toward calling lawmakers back to Nashville in the fall to pass special ethics legislation. This of course represents a complete switch from Bredesen's pre-Operation Tennessee Waltz position on legislative ethics reform which was an active policy of disengagement from the issue....

Silent Leadership, June 05, 2005
The Tennessean has a long editorial today urging Gov. Phil Bredesen - who was silent on the issue of legislative ethics before the May 25 arrest of four sitting lawmakers on federal felony corruption charges - to call as special session to adopt tough new ethics laws for legislators and lobbyists. Many of the things they are calling for are things the legislature rejected in the just-finished session. Some of them might have passed if...

Spending Spree, June 04, 2005
Here is the latest draft of my new research paper, Spending Spree: The Bipartisan Assault That is Killing The Constitutional Cap on the Growth of Tennessee's State Budget, for your reading enjoyment. If you have downloaded it previously, this new version contains additional information and corrects some factual errors. When the paper is completely finished, it will be augmented with extensive footnotes, and I'll create an online version with hyperlinks instead of footnotes. The paper...

Bredesen's Lack of Interest in Legislative Ethics Goes Way Back, June 04, 2005
As I have noted before on this site, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen provided zero leadership on the issue of legislative ethics this year, despite the fact that legislative ethics was the topic of primary discussion and public interest during the just-completed session. Throughout the session, the governor was silent on the issue, providing no leadership as the legislature debated various ethics reform measures in the midst of an ethics crisis. Now, as as we learn...

Bredesen Changes Ford Story, June 02, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has changed his story about a meeting he had with now-former state Sen. John Ford in which Ford allegedly requested the state do more business with TennCare contractor OmniCare, a company that was secretly paying Ford big bucks as a "consultant" even as Ford was a state senator with significant power over TennCare.* Today's Tennessean reports:Gov. Phil Bredesen can't recall whether he followed up on then-Sen. John Ford's requests for additional...

A Vote of No Confidence, May 31, 2005
Jay Johnson, who has a new blog at Backassward.com, responds to the email Gov. Phil Bredesen sent to all state employees after the arrest last Thursday of four legislators on a variety of federal corruption charges. Johnson to Bredesen:The real tragedy is that YOU haven't recognized that the public has no confidence in our state government that has existed for a long time before these arrests.Read the whole thing - it's rather pointed and on...

Bipartisan Bredesen, May 29, 2005
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...

On The Good Ship TennCare, May 27, 2005
Tennessee's first blogging state legislator, Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, has a very good post about the TennCare fiscal crisis and Gov. Phil Bredesens's plans to fix things.Governor Bredesen is a successful businessman with much touted experience in healthcare and HMOs. But it must be noted, that he made money in healthcare by removing high-risk people from their health plans. He has brought this same management style and strategy to TennCare.Read the whole thing....

It's Time For Spending Reform, May 24, 2005
State Rep. Stacey Campfield, R-Knoxville, says the pigs are racing to the trough up at Legislative Plaza.Belly-up to the trough boys! We've got a windfall of cash and only a little time to spend it! This may be the feeling of many legislators who specialize in bringing home the pork, but a few of us remember that the pig belongs to the people in the first place. I believe we should give it back!Of course,...

Is Bredesen Really Vulnerable?, May 20, 2005
Nashville Scene political writer Roger Abramson says Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen will "win in a walk" in his re-election bid next year. Matt White insists Bredesen is vulnerable. For the record, Roger is often right, but this time I think Matt is. Bredesen is clearly vulnerable. Abramson notes that Bredesen currently has good "approval" numbers among Republican voters - but those voters were asked their opinion of Bredesen in a vacuum as there is as...

Why Taxpayers Won't Get Surplus Rebate, May 20, 2005
Today's Tennessean front page contains a story I never thought I'd see in that paper - much less atop page one: Give taxpayers back $272M, some say. The story, by Trent Seibert, looks at how Gov. Phil Bredesen and many legislators are rushing to spend $272 million in unexpected revenue - more than half of it from excess taxes collected this year - and why taxpayers won't be getting any of it back.More tax collections...

Run Hilleary Run!, May 19, 2005
Mark Rose is dispensing campaign advice, and giving Van Hilleary a game plan for a successful campaign against incumbent Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen. But Hilleary isn't running for governor, you say - he's running for the U.S. Senate. I know. So does Mark. But Mark thinks Hilleary ought to switch races and run against Bredesen - and he lays out both a sensible rationale for the switch and game plan for defeating Bredesen. I have...

Bredesen Blogs, May 18, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen actually posted his first-ever blog entry last night. He says all of the postings will be written by him, and won't be recycled press releases.When we put up the new web site containing a Phil blog last week, I didn’t expect that it would create the buzz that it has. Since Monday, I’ve heard from TV, newspapers, people on the street, emails, and lots of traffic in the blogosphere (reported to...

Don't Blame Me, I Voted For..., May 16, 2005
A long time ago , way back in 1987, a wealthy healthcare executive whose only political experience had been losing a race for a seat in the Massachusetts legislator set out to become Mayor of Nashville. He lost. Big. Four years later, after four years of lousy leadership by Mayor Bill Boner (yep! his real name!) that ranged from incompetent to embarrassing, that same wealthy healthcare executive ran again and won as voters' remorse kicked...

Bredesen Poll Update, May 14, 2005
Matt White weighs in on Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's sliding popularity:The most damaging numbers: 50% disapproval among Black voters 66% disapproval among Hispanic voters 43% disapproval among Democrats 48% disapproval among Independants In a flaming red state like Tennessee, where Bredesen won by only 50,000 votes, it is a practical impossibility to win with his base as divided as it is. Typical Democratic constituencies won't vote for a Republican no matter how disaffected they are...

Bredesen's Popularity Slides, May 13, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is becoming the governor with the incredible shrinking popularity, according to the latest public opinion poll from SurveyUSA. NashvillePost.com reports:Six hundred adults in each of the 50 states were interviewed by telephone between May 6 through May 8. All were asked the same question: do you approve or disapprove of the job the governor of your state is doing? In Tennessee, 52% of respondents said that Gov. Phil Bredesen is doing...

Tennessee Surplus Soars in April, May 13, 2005
Tennessee collected $15.8 million more in sales tax revenue in April than it had expected, and rolled up a $59.3 million monthly revenue surplus in April, as the state's overall budget surplus continues to grow. Nine months into fiscal year 2004-05, the state now has a $91.9 million revenue surplus - that's nearly triple the $32.7 million surplus at the end of March. If tax revenue in the final three months of this fiscal year...

Blogging Bredesen, May 10, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen hasn't even posted his first real blog entry yet, but he needs to, if only to respond to a blistering comment posted by commenter Donna Locke over at Rep. Stacey Campfield's blog:Bredesen is so out of touch with what's really going on that he might as well be in a sensory deprivation tank. As for his so-called blog, I'm sure public comment there will register like all the other trees falling...

Governor's Friend Lands Plum Contract, May 04, 2005
The latest story from NewsChannel5 investigative reporter Phil Williams doesn't reflect well on one of Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's cabinet picks, nor on Bredesen's policing of the ethics of members of his administration. The state selected the highest bidder for a contract, and the bidder happened to be: 1. a Bredesen backer, 2. a friend of the commissioner of the Department of Tourism, and 3. The person who recommended Bredesen select her friend as the...

Why So Much GOP Support for Bredesen's Pre-K Boondoggle?, April 29, 2005
Rob Huddleston has a rather blistering look at the 23 Republicans in the Tennessee House of Representatives who helped pass the governor's pre-k legislation. He says the 23 Republicans "voted to continue to spend the State's money recklessly - even if it means spending us straight into an income tax."...

Pre-K Update: Tennessean Urges Support; Leaves Readers Uninformed, April 26, 2005
Today's Tennessean carries an editorial endorsing the governor's plans for a new taxpayer-funded pre-k progrm, and dismisses critics of that plan in a single, condescending and false statement.The only argument worth debating on establishing a solid pre-kindergarten in Tennessee is how to get the program running and to sustain funding once it is. Only a few detractors argue against pre-K either because they are promoting private programs or they don't want to see the state...

Pre-K Update: Informed Opinion, April 25, 2005
Today's Nashville City Paper editorial urges the Tennessee legislature to pass Gov. Phil Bredesen's pre-k program. The paper has yet to mention the Tennessee Center for Policy Research's excellent study showing that government-funded universal pre-k is a costly failure that does little or nothing to improve acadamic academic performance. Perhaps the City Paper gets its news from The Tennessean, which has intentionally ignored the TCPR study in its cheerleading for the governor's proposal....

Pre-K Update, April 22, 2005
This report in today's Tennessean reveals that Gov. Phil Bredesen wants to increase funding for his pet Pre-K program to $150 million per year by 2010. The story quotes Drew Johnson, president of the Tennessee Center for Policy Research, a Nashville policy think tank, in opposition to the program but the paper fails to mention or quote from the TCPR's excellent study released Monday showing how government-run pre-k programs are failing to improve academic peformance...

Paved With Good Intentions, April 21, 2005
Blake Wylie blogged the WSMV story about a company that has been caught installing guardrails improperly along many of Tennessee's highways - creating both a safety risk to motorists and a big expense for taxpayers. Wylie: TDOT is now going to be digging up the guardrails Lu installed...all of which is going to be paid for by Tennessee taxpayers, no doubt." But of course....

Pre-K Update, April 21, 2005
Ben Cunningham of Tennessee Tax Revolt emailed regarding Gov. Phil Bredesen's Pre-K plan now apparently sailing through the state Senate:The Pre-K bill made it out of the Senate Education Committee this afternoon on an 8-0 vote. It will go next to Finance, Ways, and Means. Senator Bryson tried to amend the bill to cover only at risk kids but it failed by one vote with Sen. Hagood voting against Bryson's amendment. Coincidentally, I just saw...

Action Opportunity, April 19, 2005
Ben Cunningham from Tennessee Tax Revolt emailed an urgent update regarding Gov. Phil Bredesen's Pre-K boondoggle, which I wrote about here earlier today in a post reporting on a new study by a policy think tank that finds that government-funded universal pre-k programs have little educational bang for the buck. Ben writes:Please call and email Senator Jamie Hagood immediately. She is a Republican from Knoxville and the Chair of the Senate Education Committee. She is...

Policy Analysts Give Low Marks to Bredesen's $25m Pre-K Plan, April 19, 2005
The Tennessee Center for Policy Research is questioning Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's claim that state-funded universal pre-kindergarten is a good investment. The TCPR has released a study, Hard Lessons Learned: Applying 40 Years of Government Pre-K to Benefit Tennessee's Children Today, which concludes that "empirical evidence suggests more early education will do little to improve children’s long-term education outcomes." The study, by Drew Johnson, president of the TCPR, and Darcy Olsen, president of the Goldwater...

How Many People Could TennCare Keep For $870 Million?, April 18, 2005
From the San Francisco Chronicle comes this:The federal government is struggling to find money to pay for such basics as prescription drugs for the elderly. At the same time, government reports estimate that $1 in every $10 spent by the $300 billion Medicare system goes to erroneous, abusive or fraudulent payments. In California, an incomplete accounting identified $553 million in improper payments last year, according to a December Medicare report.There's no good reason not to...

TennCare Politics, April 18, 2005
Tennessean political columnist Larry Daughtrey agrees with me in a column asserting that Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is politically vulnerable because of his inept handling of the TennCare mess and his "reform" plan that consists of slashing 323,000 poor, sick, old and disabled people from rolls:Bredesen was elected largely on the belief by voters that he could, indeed, fix TennCare. Now the Republicans can point out that the only fix he could find is a...

Slashing TennCare Rolls is Not Reform, Phil, April 13, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is one giant step closer to axing 323,000 poor, sick, old and disabled Tennesseans from the rolls of TennCare, the state's version of Medicaid. Gov. Bredesen is a former HMO executive who the people of Tennessee elected as governor largely because they believed his healthcare expertise would help him reform TennCare and save the program. Ah, but they forgot that HMOs make money by paying for the least amount of healthcare...

Stepping Stone, April 09, 2005
Matt White offers a little different perspective on Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen who, as Matt drily notes, left Nashville with a host of expensive problems, and upon becoming governor promptly cut the state budget from $20 billion down to $25 billion. He also has some thoughts on how Bredesen is letting electoral politics rather than effective policy drive his TennCare cuts. Read the whole thing - and remember, Matt worked in the legislature and saw...

Politics Driving Bredesen's TennCare Plans?, April 08, 2005
The leading legal advocate seeking to block Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's plans to cut 323,000 poor, sick and old people from the rolls of TennCare, the state's version of Medicaid, claims the administration is planning the cuts with one eye on the governor's reelection chances.In bolstering his claim that Bredesen has political reasons for cutting so many from TennCare now, Bonnyman referred to PowerPoint presentations and an e-mail that he said were created by TennCare...

Bredesen AWOL on Legislature's Ethics Crisis, April 08, 2005
The Tennessee state legislature is wracked by ethical problems, rated one of the most corrupt legislatures in the nation, beset by all sorts of conflicts of interests, has numerous legislators proposing and passing bills that impact the industries they work in or have financial interests in, and is essentially run by lobbyists. So, what is Gov. Phil Bredesen trying to do about it? Absolutely nothing.Governor Bredesen says he's going to stay out of the debate...

Bredesen: I Like Hillary, April 06, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesden has apologized to New York Sen. Hillary Clinton for apparently dissing her in an interview with a London newspaper, after the story portrayed Bredesen as a possible alternative to Clinton for the 2008 Democratic presidential nomination. His aides say the comments are accurate but placed in the wrong context. I'd bet Bredesen read the story and realized the his comments may have ended any chance he had at being the vice...

TABOR: "Common Sense" Tax Reform for Tennessee, April 05, 2005
Steve Gill has written an excellent commentary on the proposed Taxpayers Bill of Rights amendment to the Tennessee constitution, and the forces that are lining up to demonize and defeat it. Unfortunately, I can't link to it because it is published in the April issue of Business TN, a good statewide business magazine with a lousy website. The story simply isn't available online - not even for money. If you subscribe, or if you happen...

City Paper: TennCare Mess May Make Bredesen Vulnerable, April 05, 2005
Today's Nashville City Paper says in an editorial what I've been saying for weeks now: TennCare is Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's greatest political vulnerability.Once thought invincible, Governor Bredesen will now have to answer GOP charges that while lauding TennCare reform passed in the legislature on behalf of Democratic candidates, he already knew he was going to slash some 323,000 from the program. It is a charge that may be hard to refute. House Minority Leader...

Bredesen: I Was Beatable in '06, April 05, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen said he would have lost the 2002 gubernatorial race if the Republicans had nominated former state Rep. Jim Henry instead of former congressman Van Hilleary, according to NewChannel 5 investigative political reporter Phil Williams. Williams said on a recent airing of the radio show Teddy Bart's Roundtable that in searching the files of former Gov. Don Sundquist he came across a note from Sundquist to presidential campaign advisor Karl Rove in...

The London Times Thinks Bredesen is Swell, April 03, 2005
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen gave an interview to the London Times which writes a rather fawning story about Bredesen's gubernatorial record and presidential chances.Bredesen, 61, was giving his first interview to a foreign newspaper since his emergence earlier this year as a potential dark horse in the presidential race. It appeared to reflect an attempt to raise his international profile amid increasing speculation in Washington that he may become the next southern governor to come...

Sick Politics, April 01, 2005
Republicans in the Tennessee legislature are criticizing Gov. Phil Bredesen for touting his success at passing TennCare reform legislation during the 2004 election (to help some Democratic candidates for the state legislature), and then announcing four days after the election that he was going to cut 323,000 people off the program instead of reforming the program. When Gov. Bredesen cut radio and teevee spots thanking various incumbent Democratic legislators for helping him pass a TennCare...