Free Republic

NASHVILLE -- Gov. Phil Bredesen congratulated President Barack Obama Monday on the passage of the federal health care overhaul, but he cautioned the Medicaid expansion envisioned by the bill will cost the state $1.1 billion and pose financial "challenges" down the road. The bill will add 250,000 lower-income Tennesseans to TennCare when Medicaid provisions of the bill take effect from 2014 to 2019, according to state estimates. A Democrat who last year called the bill the "mother of all unfunded mandates," Gov. Bredesen told reporters he still thinks the bill that passed Sunday in the U.S. House remains a "huge...

..."With regard to President Obama's plans to use savings from Medicare waste, fraud and abuse, Gov. Bredesen noted similar arguments were made with regard to TennCare, an effort in 1994 to expand the state's version of Medicaid to cover many more people. "Tennessee has been there and done that," said Gov. Bredesen, who became governor in 2003. "That's exactly the argument for TennCare and it didn't turn out that way. Maybe they (federal government) will do a better job ... than we did in managing TennCare in the 1990s and the early part of the 2000s. I had a sense...

This week, Tennesse Governor Phil Bredesen signed House Joint Resolution 108 (HJR0108), authored by State Rep. Susan Lynn. The resolution “Urges Congress to recognize Tennessee’s sovereignty under the tenth amendment to the Constitution.” The House passed the resolution on 05/26 by a vote of 85-2 and the Senate passed it on 06/12 by a vote of 31-0. Six other states have had both houses of their legislature pass similar resolutions - Alaska, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Louisiana - but Tennessee is the first to have such a resolution signed by the Governor. A GROWING MOVEMENT Passage of...

Good for Governor Spunk. Phil Bredesen on Thursday vetoed the guns-in-bars bill which had passed both houses of the legislature by wide margins. With the backing of law enforcement and restaurant owners, he said allowing gun owners to take concealed weapons into places that serve alcohol “crosses the line” of responsible gun ownership. A hunter and gun owner himself, Bredesen said he supports Second Amendment rights, but pointed out that those rights carry a responsibility. “Americans have also understood for more than two centuries that there are sensible rules to be applied to the exercise of those rights,” he said....

·11250 Waples Mill Road ·   Fairfax, Virginia 22030    ·800-392-8683 Statement From Chris W. Cox, Executive Director NRA - Institute for Legislative Action On Governor Bredesen’s Veto Of House Bill 962 Thursday, May 28, 2009 Along with more than 200,000 law-abiding Right-to-Carry permit holders in Tennessee, I am disappointed Governor Phil Bredesen vetoed House Bill 962. This bill would extend self-defense rights of permit holders to restaurants. This is a shock and a major disappointment to gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment because Governor Bredesen had committed to supporting this legislation. 36 other states, including seven states that border Tennessee,...

Statement From Chris W. Cox, Executive Director NRA - Institute for Legislative Action On Governor Bredesen's Veto Of House Bill 962 Along with more than 200,000 law-abiding Right-to-Carry permit holders in Tennessee, I am disappointed Governor Phil Bredesen vetoed House Bill 962. This bill would extend self-defense rights of permit holders to restaurants. This is a shock and a major disappointment to gun owners and supporters of the Second Amendment because Governor Bredesen had committed to supporting this legislation. 36 other states, including seven states that border Tennessee, provide this protection to law-abiding citizens. During the 2006 campaign, Governor Bredesen...

When Tom Daschle's highly publicized tax problems derailed his bid to become secretary of health and human services two weeks ago, it slammed the breaks on the momentum of one of President Obama's biggest campaign promises — health care coverage for all Americans. No potential HHS candidate has emerged yet who has inspired the excitement and passion many health care reform advocates — both on and off Capitol Hill — expressed for Mr. Daschle. When Mr. Obama nominated Mr. Daschle for the HHS post in November, Ron Pollack, executive director of the liberal health care advocacy group Families USA, called...

Unable to post text from a Gannett newspaper. To summarize, Moveon.org is trying to derail Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen's consideration for Health and Human Services Secretary. They claim Bredesen gutted TennCare, the state insurance program for the uninsured. Bredesen did cut services in TennCare to keep it solvent. He's a democrat who leans more towards fiscal conservatism than your typical beltway Dem. He has repeatedly refused to get on the "we need an income tax" bandwagon and simply said we need to live within our means. Link to Story

Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen spoke publicly this afternoon for the first time since his party lost a numerical majority in the Tennessee House of Representatives and said "the people have spoken." Bredesen first congratulated Illinois Sen. Barack Obama on his presidential victory and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander on his win. He then spoke of how much he admired the service and character of Alexander's Democratic opponent, Bob Tuke. Turning his attention to the state legislature, Bredesen said, "The people have spoken and now we need to get to work." Bredesen said he has spoken to Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey and...

Gov. Phil Bredesen said he doesn't believe the information was part of a bigger political plot. "I think it's just somebody who has some time on their hands, which is a problem in its self, who is doing this kind of thing to show that he had access or to answer a question about somebody," said Bredesen. However, Republican Party Chair Robin Smith is skeptical of the governor's response. "The facts that are involved could impact very drastically the outcome of this November's election, so we're not talking about an internal affairs matter of impropriety. We're talking about strong allegations...

NASHVILLE — From Fox News to C-SPAN, Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen has been blitzing national media this week in an effort to sell his idea of a “primary” of Democratic superdelegates to break a potential logjam in the party’s presidential nomination battle. “It’s been interesting, and you don’t know what will happen,” Gov. Bredesen told Tennessee reporters Thursday. The governor was in Washington on Monday and part of Tuesday. He has been interviewed by at least 27 national outlets this week. The interest started with a March 19 op-ed piece in The New York Times in which he pitched his...

NASHVILLE - In two draft opinions released today, the Tennessee Ethics Commission's staff suggests that a former top aide to Gov. Phil Bredesen and a prominent Nashville public relations firm have both violated state laws by failing to register as lobbyists. One case involves Robert Gowan, who resigned last November as a senior advisor, then went to work for Southern Strategies Group, a lobbying firm. The other involves Siegenthaler Public Relations, which operates a Web site - www.stopteendrinkingtn.org - that urges citizens to contact legislators in opposition to bills that would allow the sale of wine in grocery stores and...

NASHVILLE — Tennessee isn’t likely to execute any prisoners on death row until next summer, Gov. Phil Bredesen said Thursday. Bredesen, a Democrat, said the state will wait until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on the case of two Kentucky death row inmates who argue the method amounts to cruel and unusual punishment. Bredesen said he doesn’t expect the high court to rule until May or June. “And that’s going to give a huge amount of guidance to governors, and to federal judges and district attorneys, and to an awful lot of people involved in this process,” he said. U.S....

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen on Thursday said that House Judiciary Chairman Rob Briley should resign from his leadership post following a weekend drunken-driving arrest. Bredesen said his fellow Nashville Democrat is “a good man who’s obviously got himself in a lot of trouble.” Briley, 40, was arrested Saturday after police said he took them on a 100 mph chase and failed a roadside sobriety test. Police said they found an empty bottle of whisky in Briley’s car and later charged him with vandalism for damage done to the back of a police cruiser. “Stepping back from the leadership positions...

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen suggested himself as a model for Democratic presidential nominees Monday, though disavowing any interest in a national position and declining to state a preference for any of his party’s presidential candidates. “If one of those presidential candidates who chose not to come here today can sell themselves in Tennessee, they can sell themselves in mainstream America,” Bredesen told the Democratic Leadership Council. None of the Democratic presidential candidates spoke at the DLC gathering, though they were invited. Still, presidential politics was a topic in speeches by former President Clinton, Bredesen and three other Democratic governors...

NASHVILLE - Gov. Phil Bredesen asked the Legislature on Monday to raise Tennessee's cigarette tax by 40 cents per pack and spend most of the resulting $220 million in new revenue on education. "The argument for a cigarette tax is straightforward: Our schools need more money," said Bredesen, adding that 90 percent of the new annual tax revenue would go to local schools or state colleges and universities. The biggest portion of the new money, almost $120 million, would be distributed to local school systems on the basis of how many "at risk" students they have. Currently, the state covers...

NASHVILLE - As he embarks on a second term as governor, Phil Bredesen says he expects to advocate some tax increases and a bigger state role in school funding while opposing a "general xenophobia" toward immigrants. He said he also wants to change the system for selecting the state's top judges, establish a procedure for dealing with incapacitated governors, and be "aggressively bipartisan" in dealing with the new Republican leadership of the state Senate. On the other hand, Democrat Bredesen indicated in an interview with the News Sentinel that he has considerable skepticism toward one key goal of Lt. Gov....

NASHVILLE — Gov. Phil Bredesen said he would rather the Supreme Court wait for the fifth and final justice to be appointed to the bench before selecting a new attorney general, but he acknowledged Wednesday that there was nothing he could to stop the high court from acting sooner. The selection of a new attorney general has already been delayed by a month because of a squabble between Bredesen and the state Judicial Selection Commission over the appointment needed to fill out the five-member Supreme Court. Public hearings with applicants for the eight-year appointment were rescheduled for next week, and...

Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen and his Republican opponent, state Sen. Jim Bryson, staked out their positions Tuesday on issues during the campaigns first televised debate, focusing on immigration, education, TennCare and budgeting. At the West High School debate, the two made clear their differences and some issues they agree on. Bredesen said a re-election is a referendum on his first four years as governor, during which he cut the budget, did not raise taxes and put discipline into the out-of-control TennCare program, a health insurance program for the poor and uninsured. He also noted that his administration sent Tennessee National...

NASHVILLE -- Gov. Phil Bredesen leads Republican challenger Jim Bryson almost 3 to 1 in the race for governor, a new Mason-Dixon Tennessee Poll indicates. The poll, released Monday, also indicates that the proposed state constitutional amendment to prohibit same-gender marriage will win overwhelming approval, with 73 percent of respondents in favor, 20 percent opposed and only 7 percent undecided. The constitutional referendum will appear on the Nov. 7 general election ballot. Advertisement The poll was conducted Monday through Wednesday of last week for The Commercial Appeal, the Chattanooga Times-Free Press and MSNBC. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research of Washington surveyed...