REVIEW & OUTLOOK
Dr. Dean Rediscovers Mediscare
He was right--in 1995.
Thursday, October 2, 2003 12:01 a.m. EDT
Three cheers for Howard Dean. The old Howard Dean at least. In 1995, the then-Vermont Governor broke ranks with many Democratic partisans to support at least some of the Republican Congress's plans to reform entitlements such as Medicare. Now his Presidential primary opponents are trying to crucify him for it.
At last week's debate Dick Gephardt accused the Democratic front-runner of siding with Republicans during the 1995 Medicare reform fight. "You've been saying for many months that you're the head of the Democratic wing of the Democratic Party. I think you are just winging it," said the former House Minority Leader.
But Mr. Gephardt had more. "Howard Dean even met with Gingrich" (gasp!), he charged over the weekend, "and Newt Gingrich said they had 'agreed in principle' to cut Medicaid" too. Added rival John Kerry, "Despite what Howard Dean would have you believe today, he undeniably supported cutting $270 billion from Medicare."
There is truth to the various Gephardt-Kerry charges, if no reason for the hysteria. Dr. Dean did once support raising the retirement age to 70. He did support moves to slow the growth of Medicare spending, if not necessarily the Republican voucher-style reform proposal. And he does appear to have been open to the Gingrich Medicaid reform proposal, which would have reduced aid to the states but freed them from costly federal mandates.
"The direction is not a bad direction--decentralization, more block grants, but not total freedom for the states," Dr. Dean said of the GOP program in early 1995. His view on Medicaid made particular sense, then and now, from the point of view of a Governor. Runaway Medicaid spending is a major cause of the recent crisis in state budgets.
Far from being outrageous, these positions are all perfectly defensible, even far-sighted. Anyone who is serious about public policy knows that entitlements for the elderly can't continue on their current path forever. Sooner or later the promises will collide with Baby Boom demographics and something has to give. Democrats themselves used to understand this.
Democrats of all stripes cooperated on a bipartisan plan in 1983 to gradually raise the Social Security retirement age to 67. For elderly programs created when average life spans were far shorter than today, an even later retirement age shouldn't be off the table. In the 1990s, Louisiana Democrat John Breaux also became a champion of market-oriented Medicare reform. "Defending Social Security and Medicare against reform is like defending a sick patient against treatment," his former Senate colleague Bob Kerrey wrote at the time.
The irresponsible position is to do nothing until the crisis arrives. In being open to the Gingrich reforms, Dr. Dean was showing political common sense and even the kind of leadership that voters want from, dare we say, a President.
Alas, in his stretch run for the Democratic nomination, Dr. Dean is now walking away from his own record. "Nobody up here deserves to be compared to Newt Gingrich," he pleaded during last week's debate. He told CBS's "Face the Nation" on Sunday that he no longer supports raising the retirement age and that he only supported those Medicare cuts that President Clinton eventually signed.
That's too bad. Dr. Dean's retreat will only encourage more Mediscare demagoguery. And that in turn will only delay the day that the inevitable reform in senior entitlements occurs. Witness the filibuster threat of Democratic Senators should House-Senate conferees produce a Medicare prescription drug bill with even a modest amount of Medicare reform.
The Gephardt-Kerry attack offered Dr. Dean the perfect opportunity to establish himself as a genuine outsider when it comes to the "rules" of Washington debate. He might also have shown he isn't a paint-by-numbers liberal. By grasping instead for the Mediscare Democratic party line, the good doctor is missing a chance to lead. |
