The Week

The invasion of Haiti is a vital option this week.

After all his zig-zags, Senator Dole has produced a market-oriented health-care bill that 40 out of 44 Republicans can support. Considering that Mr. Dole’s aide, Sheila Burke, was a chief sculptor of John Chafee’s Clinton-on-the-installment-plan, this represents real progress. It means a united GOP can offer a clear health-care choice: incremental reforms that will work, versus “government health rationing.” The problem is that Mr. Dole is still bobbing and weaving. On a recent Brinkley show, he wouldn’t skewer “universal coverage”—“I think it’s a goal”—and when asked about a filibuster said, “I don’t think that’s a strategy we have even thought about.” Mr. Dole is cautious by nature, but the time is approaching when he will have to show his cards. If he stays firm, that will mean saying unpleasant things: such as that “universal coverage” is an Ira Magaziner fantasy, and that Republicans plan to filibuster any Clinton-like bill. The air has left the health-care balloon; most surveys show it fourth on the list of voters’ concerns, behind taxes, crime, and education. And, as Karlyn Bowman points out in Public Attitudes on Health Care Reform (AEI Press), the public never supported the Clinton plan; it just reacted favorably to a Clinton speech. So, no Republican is going to lose an election on this issue—except Mr. Dole if he softens, and thus relinquishes his shot at the GOP nomination in 1996.

Featured Tags

The invasion of Haiti is a vital option this week.

After all his zig-zags, Senator Dole has produced a market-oriented health-care bill that 40 out of 44 Republicans can support. Considering that Mr. Dole’s aide, Sheila Burke, was a chief sculptor of John Chafee’s Clinton-on-the-installment-plan, this represents real progress. It means a united GOP can offer a clear health-care choice: incremental reforms that will work, versus “government health rationing.” The problem is that Mr. Dole is still bobbing and weaving. On a recent Brinkley show, he wouldn’t skewer “universal coverage”—“I think it’s a goal”—and when asked about a filibuster said, “I don’t think that’s a strategy we have even thought about.” Mr. Dole is cautious by nature, but the time is approaching when he will have to show his cards. If he stays firm, that will mean saying unpleasant things: such as that “universal coverage” is an Ira Magaziner fantasy, and that Republicans plan to filibuster any Clinton-like bill. The air has left the health-care balloon; most surveys show it fourth on the list of voters’ concerns, behind taxes, crime, and education. And, as Karlyn Bowman points out in Public Attitudes on Health Care Reform (AEI Press), the public never supported the Clinton plan; it just reacted favorably to a Clinton speech. So, no Republican is going to lose an election on this issue—except Mr. Dole if he softens, and thus relinquishes his shot at the GOP nomination in 1996.