Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Bredesen Typical Democrat...Rewriting History

This from Phillip Bredesen's 2006 campaign website, located here.The website of the next Governor of Tennessee is located, here. Governor Jim Bryson.

It's hard to believe more than three years have gone by since my last 95-county grassroots campaign across Tennessee. I inherited some tough challenges, and being Governor hasn't always been easy. But I'm proud to report that we've made real progress in some critical areas.

I ran for office in 2002 with a commitment to the people of Tennessee. I wanted to make it easier for our children to get a quality education, for hard-working Tennesseans to find good jobs and for our state to put the budget crisis behind us, once and for all. Since then, we've made major strides in each of these areas while holding the line on taxes and living within our means.

I've had the chance to visit many of the 300 new pre-kindergarten classrooms we opened in 2005, and met with K-12 teachers who are finally getting the pay raises they deserve. Improving schools means that our children, no matter where they start in life, will have an opportunity to go as far as their dreams and talents will take them.

Working with local communities, the state has helped bring more than 85,000 jobs to Tennessee since 2003 and attracted more than $10 billion in new business investment. I'm going to keep strengthening our efforts to expand existing businesses and recruit new jobs.


I've insisted that we aggressively attack fraud and abuse in TennCare and take control of this once-runaway program to keep it from bankrupting our state. My original plan didn't cut anyone from the rolls, but the state was forced to take a different course. Despite the challenges, we've preserved coverage for children and the sickest and neediest Tennesseans, and we're managing the program to ensure it no longer threatens our fiscal stability.

This is almost an afterthought, here is Bredesen's rewrite of history. Bredesen ran as the Healthcare Manager/Guru that could and would fix TennCare. His fix for TennCare was to reduce benefits and cut people from the roll. This is not what he said in the rural counties in 2002, during his campaign and not what he said 2 years ago when he went to save Tommy Kilby's backside. They went to Fentress County arm in arm and Bredesen said I need Tommy Kilby to fix TennCare and then their fix was to sign a death warrant for the very people, that sent Kilby back to Nashville.

At the same time, I'm focused on finding new options to provide affordable health insurance to the 600,000 uninsured Tennesseans who are not on TennCare.They are NOT on TennCare because you, Kilby and the rest of the demos, cut them.In 2006, I announced a groundbreaking new initiative known as Cover Tennessee to provide affordable, portable insurance to working adults, no matter where they work. I've also put forward proposals to provide health insurance to children in low-income families and chronically ill adults who can afford to buy coverage but can't get it due to pre-existing conditions.

In addition to all this, I've worked with the General Assembly to pass tough legislation cutting illegal methamphetamine labs by 50%. I've launched the new Tennessee Heritage Conservation Trust. I've worked hard to restore the public's trust in government with tough new ethics policies. And the list goes on.

As Governor, I'm proud of what we've accomplished together. But if we're going to continue moving Tennessee forward, I need your help. Spread the word about our record of success and encourage your friends to visit this web site. Look for it to change regularly as the campaign gears up. Get involved today by signing up to join my re-election team. I look forward to seeing you soon.

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