Will states rise again?

Mike Leavitt, former Utah governor and secretary of Health and Human Services under President Bush, has authored an essay for The Ripon Forum on health-care reform. (Read it here.) In it, he wonders whether states can rise up and organize, the way he tried to get them to do 15 years ago.

He also rails on Washington’s efforts at health-care reform, saying “Washington has become a runaway train.” He would prefer health reform on the state level, but says, “Water will run uphill before Congress will voluntarily give up power.”

Fifteen years ago, Leavitt, as governor of Utah, co-chaired the Conference of the States along with Democratic Gov. Ben Nelson of Nebraska. The idea was to get each state Legislature to vote to send delegates to the conference, which would then decide how to restore the balance between states and Washington that the Founding Fathers had envisioned. United, the conference could negotiate for some real changes from Congress.

The whole idea was derailed mainly by the right-wing, oddly enough. They worried the Conference of the States was secret code for “constitutional convention.” Some of the extreme left felt the same. I remember Leavitt telling me at the time how frustrating this was.

But the real death-knell came when Republicans took over Congress and passed welfare reform. There’s nothing quite like a little success to make everyone feel they have at least accomplished something and can now relax.

A few weeks ago, Leavitt told me he sees some interesting parallels between today and 1994. As you recall, there was a health-care debate underway then, too. And that fueled anger that led to a GOP takeover of Congress.

History seldom repeats itself that perfectly. But I agree that the balance between states and the federal government has gotten seriously out of whack.

Let the states handle health reform on their own, with some basic federal guidelines. That would be cheaper and more effective. What do you think?