Tennessee Governor for Health Secretary Alarms the Left Wing
The far left is going berserk over the idea that Tom Daschle's replacement could turn out to be Phil Bredesen, the Democratic Governor of Tennessee. After TennCare (Medicaid for almost everybody) consumed one-third of the state budget, Bredesen got costs under control by removing 168,000 people from the program and creating a new "three-share" system of limited benefit plans and cost-sharing incentives – as explained in a Wall Street Journal oped and at this blog.
He would be a great choice. As good as it gets among Democrats.
Yes. Bredesen would be great.
He’s the only candidate mentioned so far that seems to have any sense.
He apparently understands economic incentives. So why is he a Democrat?
Governor Bredesen has made the tough decisions and saved TennCare. The cost were soaring and he brought it under control. He has tried very hard to keep our state sound and running smooth during this crisis. I would hate to lose him as our Govenor, but it would make me very proud to have him represent us in Washington. He is truly a honest and caring man. You may not agree with him but he is not in it for his next leg up the ladder. He didn’t even take a paycheck as Governor because our state was in such a mess when he started.
Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen’s possible nomination to run HHS was stymied by the left wing of his own party. MoveOn.org and the Single Payer backers found his pragmatic approach to health care problem solving unacceptable because they want to government to run everything.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123534731159244443.html