Bredesen's Tax Phil-osophy
I was emailed part of a Phil Bredesen campaign PowerPoint presentation, which has a slide, titled "Phil on the Income Tax," that states the following:

- Phil is against an income tax
- As a businessman, he refuses to remove options that could benefit the economy four years from now
- Phil believes under competent management that Tennessee will not need tax reform within the next four years.

In essence, the Bredesen campaign admits that Phil Bredesen believes an income tax "could benefit the economy." Bredesen believes raising taxes is good for the economy. Only liberal tax-and-spend Democrats believe that.

Accepting that Bredesen really does believe in his heart of hearts that an income tax would help Tennessee's economy, why would the candidate, who is running on a theme of "competent management" promise to avoid implementing something for four years that he believes could benefit the economy? Why is he willing to forego helping the economy for four years? Because he wants to get elected, but knows his preferred economic medicine - higher taxes - isn't popular with the people.

That's why Phil Bredesen says he is against the income tax. A little rhetorical deception to make the medicine go down. But remember what his campaign says on that PowerPoint slide: Bredesen believes the income tax would be a good thing for Tennessee.