NO ONE WANTS TO PAY FOR LUNCH:

Former Minnesota Senator and lifelong Republican Dave Durenberger on the rise of the new Bush Republicans in Minnesota and elsewhere: “They talk about freedom and values, but they really don't believe in representative government.” (G.R. Anderson Jr., March 9, 2005, City Pages)

DAVE DURENBERGER HAS BEEN OUT of politics for a decade, but that doesn't mean he's been out of policymaking. These days Durenberger chairs the University of St. Thomas's National Institute of Health Policy. Health care was always a hallmark of his political career--which began with him working in the governor's office in the 1960s and continued with his election to the U.S. Senate in 1978. On a recent morning at his office on the school's Minneapolis campus, Durenberger gestured to a framed photo and letter from Ronald Reagan, dated July 1988. Reagan was congratulating Durenberger on his role in passing a Medicare reform bill that provided better catastrophic coverage, as well as support for nursing home care, prescription costs, and extended hospital stays.

"That was the real Medicare law," he says, adding that it was no small victory that Reagan signed the bill and congratulated Durenberger in writing. Durenberger, a Republican, had fought to convince many in his own party that the legislation was needed. He sighs: "It was, of course, repealed the next year."

It was repealed after Seniors literally assaulted the Democratic committee chairmen in the House who helped pass it. Thus representative government.

Posted by Orrin Judd at March 8, 2005 6:56 PM