Friday, February 6, 2009
Politics / Woods The Backlash Against Bredesen
Posted by Jeff Woods on Fri, Feb 6, 2009 at 7:23 PM
That the governor is a serious candidate should be obvious from the level of vitriol directed his way by liberal health-care advocates. A sampling:
"A lot of elected officials are in bed with the insurance industry, but Phil Bredesen doesn't stop there. He let them pay to redecorate his mansion. We can't think of anyone more wrong for health care reform or more wrong for America," said Jacki Schechner, spokeswoman for Health Care for America Now. "This is a guy whose single greatest health care achievement is stripping 200,000 people of health care coverage in Tennessee - a move that was not only bad policy but an unconscionable act."
Ron Pollack, executive director of Families USA, said if Obama named Bredesen to head HHS, it would create "a firestorm" and lead to "enormous confusion and anger among the very people you need to help get health care reform enacted. Gov. Bredesen presided over the largest public health cutback in the history of our nation so it would cause enormous difficulty for President Obama if Gov. Bredesen joined the health reform team because he represents the antithesis of what the president is trying to achieve."
Politico reports "so far, the criticism has not knocked Bredesen from the ranks of the oft-mentioned." But it's hard to imagine that Bredesen can overcome such strong opposition from the interest groups whose support Obama will need to reform health care.
Comments (4)
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Typical liberals. Scream and holler and cry like little babies. So Bredesen decided to quit throwing money at the problem that was TennCare. Sounds reasonable. But, of course, the liberals are opposed because they want a huge, bloated, expensive bureaucracy to run our health care.
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You have to love a credible source: I started on-air as a sports reporter in Hagerstown, Md. I was a one-woman-band - shooting, writing, editing, and working the teleprompter with my foot. After almost two years, I moved to NYC and joined Pseudo.com - the world's first interactive TV network. Incredible concept, ahead of its time, and victim of the dotcom bust. The following years were filled with a series for Discovery International, a pilot for the History Channel, a pilot for the Travel Channel, and countless auditions. Client feedback research for a big investment bank paid the bills. I then took a gig with Kuma and made news reports for their reality-based video games. CNN came calling in February 2005, and on Valentine's Day, I started covering the Internet as a beat on national TV (Yes, I was the Blog Chick). Since leaving CNN last summer, I started this site, caught up on sleep, reconnected with friends and family, wrote a little for Americablog, and threw down the gauntlet. I said I'd leave TV to help fix health care if someone was taking a real stab at it. Turns out someone is, and I'm now the National Communications Director for Health Care For America Now. www.healthcareforamericanow.org
Take the 5 Billion dollars and pass out 32 band-aids to everyone in the united states and call this health care. Make sure there are at least 10 people in some government office to regulate and oversee the band-aid disbursement.
Then take the 50 Billion and pass out really great art work, maybe everyone sick can have their portrait done, framed and with a thoughtful poem. If anyone can do this job I know it is our Governor. By the way maybe all the sick could have a party too, a farewell bash in the basement hall. If this happens we all need to move oversees, all the middle aged people, and the seniors, and lets not forget the sick and the educated doctors.
At least liberals aren't heartless. Conservatives on the other hand are brainless, if they actually like our present form of healthcare. Cut off the people from TN Care and let 'em die, right Floyd. Another shining example of conservative philosophy at work.
