Phil Bredesen on Corporations Democratic TN Governor

Pay for corporate tax cuts by closing loopholes

Marsha Blackburn (R): Yes. "People can keep more of the money they earn throughout their lives."

Phil Bredesen (D): No. "They threw a few crumbs to the middle class to give these huge breaks to wealthier people & corporations."

Q: Address debt and deficit?

Blackburn: Promote "balanced budget; cut bureaucracy," and "across-the-board spending cuts."

Bredesen: "Pay for corporate tax cuts by closing loopholes," rather than adding $1.5 trillion of debt.

As mayor, enticed the NFL's Oilers to relocate to Nashville

During his terms, Bredesen pushed economic development, built schools, a new downtown library and successfully enticed the NFL's Oilers to relocate to Nashville, as well as the NHL franchise now known as the Nashville Predators. Along the way, he built an arena, now home of the Predators, and a stadium for the Titans.

While Bredesen was still mayor, panicky state Democrats persuaded him to run to succeed Democratic Gov. Ned McWherter in 1994. He lost to Sundquist. Eight years later in 2002, Bredesen ran again, this time to succeed the term-limited Sundquist.

Plan for robotic factories of the future

The lesson here is not that factory work is obsolete; far from it. The Wolfsburg complex employs 54,000 people in good, high paying jobs. But most of them don't position and bolt and weld. They invent, they design, they purchase, they contract, they do the logistics to make sure the machines have parts to work with, and they program those machines and fix them when they break. And yes, some of them still load parts and check results, but you can already see a future in which those jobs get fewer and farther between.