Tuesday, July 12, 2005

Bredesen not Sundquist

Tennessee's TennCare program was an unmitigated disaster. Don Sundquist, who won the governor's mansion during my last year at law school, tried to manage it, failed, then tried to impose an income tax (on all income; TN and NH do tax dividend and interest income) on one of the few states without one (Florida, S. Dakota, Texas, New Hampshire, Alaska, Wyoming, Washington, Nevada; see here for more). That failed in the face of huge voter protests.

His successor, Phil Bredesen, decided to kill the program outright, thereby saving Tennessee tons of money. Sundquist is a Republican; Bredesen's a Democrat. Brendan Miniter describes the problems of TennCare and why Bredesen's solution is both sound and despised by much of his own party.

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