Bill Taylor is a Democratic candidate for Tennessee's 3rd Congressional District.Raised and educated in Collegedale and Chattanooga, Taylor left in 1982 to become the chief financial officer of a Florida hospital. He subsequently held the position of CFO and vice president at Meharry Medical College in Nashville before returning here in 1994 to establish a business, Physician Practice Resources, Inc., in managing and consulting for physicians' groups. Those credentials explain his unique expertise in the subject of health-care spending and how to reduce it while also broadening coverage.
Taylor got into the 3rd District race out of frustration with the partisan stalemate that has impeded constructive action in Congress since the last election. He was especially discouraged by the refusal of Congress to honor the country's bond agreements and raise the debt ceiling to pay the bills "for money they've already spent." His goal is to help bring Congress back to a sensible working center that can get something done.
He sees hope for election by voters who call themselves Republicans but discover they are independents when they talk about the core issues of tax fairness, infrastructure needs and job creation, which can only be improved with bipartisan cooperation. His chief interests are jobs, education, health care and tax reform.
Given his bent for economics as an accountant and a businessman, Taylor reasonably believes there are only three ways for the federal government to boost job creation: direct hiring, using tax credits as incentives for businesses to hire, and by public spending for essential national infrastructure improvements and research to spur innovation. He would focus on the latter two to generate the spin-off hiring in the general economy for manufacturing and infrastructure improvements. More jobs, coupled with tax code reforms to close loopholes and tax avoidance, he says, would generate new revenue to reduce federal debt. He also emphasizes intense focus on education to drive worker productivity and innovation.