Farragut plays spoiler and votes against Knox County's 20-year growth plan. What now?
FRANK CAGLE

Remember, Democrats, health-care wizard Phil Bredesen booted 200,000 off TennCare

Frank Cagle
Columnist
Frank Cagle

In the governor's race of 2002 there was basically one issue. The state was having a series of budget shortfalls, and Gov. Don Sundquist was attempting to have the legislature enact a state income tax because the state needed more revenue.

Experts said the state couldn't be financially sound without changing the tax structure. Did you notice that the state is now running surpluses and cutting taxes? So much for experts.

Republican candidate U.S. Rep. Van Hillary argued that state revenues increased every year, but annual increases in the TennCare budget ate the additional revenue. He campaigned against and lobbied legislators not to pass an income tax. A popular uprising killed the income tax, and the sales tax was increased. But it had become apparent that TennCare was out of control and had to be reformed.

(By the way, it was the income tax fight that allowed state Sen. Marsha Blackburn to rise to prominence and win a seat in Congress, and now she's running for the U.S. Senate.)

Phil Bredesen.

Hillary's opponent, Phil Bredesen made a fortune in the health care industry. He was widely viewed as a guy best equipped to fix TennCare. He would do some sort of budget magic. But Republican Hillary would just start throwing people off TennCare. The establishment and the media bought into this scenario.

Bredesen had been an executive and Nashville's mayor running against a legislator – Congressman Hillary. It didn't hurt that Bredesen wrote a $3 million check to his campaign the last 30 days and bombarded Hillary. I watched it up close, handling communications and policy for the Hillary campaign.

So Bredesen won. He then proceeded to cut 200,000 people off the TennCare rolls. So much for budget magic. But he didn't need magic. The sales tax increase kicked in and by year two, Bredesen had another billion dollars to spend. With plenty of money at his disposal, Bredesen was able to be a successful governor.

Much has been made about Bredesen winning all 95 counties when he ran for re-election, It should be noted that the Republican establishment liked him and the party went in the tank. They ran a state senator from Williamson County whom no one had ever heard of and Republican donors sat on their wallets, recognizing a lost cause. Jim Bryson didn't even carry his home county.

I just wanted to remind you Democrats about Bredesen's budget wizardry and the 200,000 people who lost coverage,now that he's running for the U.S Senate. When he bills himself as a problem solver, you might want to ask for a few details.