I’m Awake

Posted by Freddie on July 16, 2007 under Uncategorized |

Okay. Now wouldn’t it be great if everyone thought politics and public policy were this fun? In all seriousness, though, the Fiscal Wake-up Tour was probably up there with last year’s FCC hearing in terms of important public policy events happening in our neck of the woods. To Coop’s credit, the event played to a packed house in the Downtown Library auditorium with the overflow room also filled to capacity.

The whole notion of the tour is that America is about to be hit by a fiscal hurricane. So top policy experts from both sides of the aisle have gotten together to let people know that our nearsightedness on policy issues should not continue. We desperately need a public policy long view, and we need the forums of civil dialogue that can allow it to happen.

A quick aside: In Coop’s opening remarks, he gave an interesting definition of government: “… a giant insurance company that’s tens of trillions of dollars in the hole with side businesses in defense and homeland security.” I have long thought that one of the most interesting aspects of American democratic capitalism is the notion of the federal government as the insurer of last resort. And, to me, this does not always make for healthy public policy. I think it’s a too little discussed issue.

The assembled panel was very impressive and clearly knew their stuff. As Coop mentioned, it was a thorough mix of bipartisan and non-partisan, and the panelists had arrived at consensus that we are looking down the barrel of a true fiscal crisis and that the crisis is rooted in our growing federal health care costs. They achieved near consensus (I’m not sure the Heritage fella had bought in) on the notion that universal health care was the soundest solution available. So here’s yet another quarter, this one an order of magnitude more dispassionate than Michael Moore, calling for universal health care.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: The election of 2008 will turn on exactly two issues: 1) Iraq, and 2) health care. I think that America’s growing fiscal crisis centered on health care is, in some ways, a domestic version of global warming. I think the chorus of bipartisan and non-partisan economists and policymakers might grow loud enough (maybe not as loud as Live Earth) to effect meaningful change. But can it happen by November 2008? As we’ve seen with the immigration debate, even those problems that need comprehensive solutions don’t always get them. And as we’re seeing as we deal with the problems of illegal immigration (both in terms of the debate itself and the actual issues involved), band-aid solutions are too often ineffectual.

Helpfully, the Concord Coalition has suggested some questions we should all (yes, this includes our media) be asking the 2008 presidential candidates.

At the end, Coop announced that President Bush would be in Nashville on Thursday for a discussion focused on the budget. After his announcement, when I heard from some unnamed sources that the Bush event would be a PR event more than a serious policy discussion, I couldn’t help but wonder whether Coop was being wry in bringing it up in the first place.