In the winter of 2007, then-President George W. Bush visited Chattanooga to push his health care agenda — and, tangentially, to eat barbecue.
The visit lasted less than four hours, but it will probably will be most remembered for an unscheduled stop at Porker’s Barbecue, an iconic restaurant at 1251 Market St. that closed in 2017 after a 28-year run.
Bush and his entourage popped into the restaurant for lunch to the amazement of regular customers. The 43rd president dined on wood-smoked ribs and baked beans, according to news reports in the Chattanooga Times Free Press.
At about the mid-point of his second presidential term, Bush was here to stump for his effort to tweak federal income tax laws to provide assistance for buying private health insurance. This was three years before the U.S. Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010 that redefined the way people buy non-employer-based health insurance policies.
While in the city, Bush took a tour of Erlanger hospital and attended a round-table discussion about health care at the Chattanooga Convention Center. He talked to a worker who said he had to switch to a high-deductible health insurance plan to make ends meet, and chatted with business owners who said they were struggling to provide health insurance to their employees.