The World According to Oatney

Phil Governor

Regulars will likely note that I did not blog yesterday about the second inauguration of Tennessee Governor Phil Bredesen. The speech was a grand one, with all of the customary lauds and plaudets. He spoke of his "third way" of politics, a phrase borrowed from British Prime Minister Tony Blair that he used four years ago. Bredesen won, as he pointed out, an overwhelming mandate this time around, carrying all of Tennessee's 95 counties.

What was not mentioned was what was not done. The TennCare crisis, a health care crisis that his own party created after being warned by Republicans that socialized medicine would bankrupt the State, was ended, at least in the fiscal sense, during his first term. It was ended by pulling the health care plug on the neediest and most vulnerable Tennesseans-the old, the handicapped, the sickest of the sick-again, over Republican and conservative objections (many Republicans and conservatives did not believe that these people who had now grown to depend on "the system" should have to pay the price for the system's initial and ultimate stupidity)-Governor Bredesen did not seem to care.

Bredesen was presented with a chance to step in and do something about illegal immigration since the State issues driving certificates to illegals. When some in the legislature wanted to step in and put an end to this dangerous practice, Bredesen refused to back them.

Tennessee is in sound fiscal shape, though, and we still have no income tax, just as the Governor had promised. We also don't have a Governor that acts to do much of anything else, either.

Labels: Tennessee politics

posted by Deacon David Oatney @ 2:01 PM