WHAT DREAMS MAY COME (via Kevin Whited):

Back Peddling (Jacob T. Levy, 12/26/03, New Republic)

It is a foul political season for those of us with sympathies for the New Democratic agenda. Joe Lieberman's campaign is showing a few signs of life, but they are far too little, far too late. Clintonistas have mostly gravitated toward Wesley Clark, still a blank slate on domestic
policy, or John Edwards, in many ways an Old Democrat who happens to have youthful good looks and enough of a drawl to remind them of the good ole days. And presumptive nominee Howard Dean is calling for a rollback of deregulation and explicitly distancing himself from Bill Clinton's Democratic Party. On the other side we face a GOP that is determined to buy its way to electoral dominance, abandoning its free-market and small-government principles in all but rhetoric. Among other things, the administration seems convinced it can impose protectionist measures while still triumphantly concluding a hemispheric free trade agreement, several smaller trade deals, and the Doha round of WTO negotiations. Unsurprisingly, it hasn't worked; the protectionist measures have torpedoed most of the trade talks.

In retrospect, it appears that the New Democratic moment was a fragile one, and its highlights more than a bit accidental. Welfare reform, NAFTA, and the WTO were all essentially products of the interaction between Clinton, a small minority of moderate Democrats, and a majority (but not an overwhelming majority) of congressional Republicans.

Pity the poor New Democrats, who have seen the failure of Clintonism lead to the co-opting of their movement by George W. Bush. Mr. Levy's post-mortem is nonsensical, as his complaint about trade amply demonstrates. Bill Clinton signed a couple treaties that Republicans initiated and passed, but couldn't get authority to negotiate further; while Mr. Bush won that authority and is cranking out new agreements quite rapidly. Meanwhile, the spirit of Welfare Reform lives on in the voucherization that lies at the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act, the MSAs in Medicare Reform and the pending privatization of Social Security.

You can hardly blame the poor guy for covering his eyes and ears and denying reality, but that's what he's doing. George W. Bush's compassionate conservatism/ownership society is the realization of Third Way dreams, but in those dreams it was Democrats not Republicans who led the way.

MORE:
MSAs Unleashed! (Greg Scandlen, 01/01/2004, The Heartland Institute)

The Medicare reform measure passed by Congress in November included a Health Savings Account (HSA) provision that renames--and dramatically expands and improves--the Medical Savings Account (Archer MSA) pilot program launched in 1996.

Unlike some other provisions of the new bill, MSA expansion will go into effect quickly. On January 1, 2004, all 250 million non-elderly Americans will be permitted to choose a Health Savings Account. By contrast, MSA participation was limited to small businesses and self-employed persons, and the number of MSAs was capped at 750,000.

For America’s senior citizens, Medicare MSAs were reauthorized by the measure and appear to be permanent.

Posted by Orrin Judd at December 30, 2003 11:02 AM