The Case For Howard Dean

TNR - Howard Cohn - The Moral Center

When Dean became governor in 1991, Vermont had a $65 million deficit and New England's lowest bond rating. Arguing that such conditions would starve the state of its ability to help citizens in need and scare away employers, Dean made responsible fiscal management his first order of business, reducing spending and taxes. This allowed him to eliminate the deficit within three years and then build up a rainy-day fund. Today, Vermont has New England's highest bond rating. And, virtually alone among states, it has avoided draconian cuts in its social programs--by tapping Dean's surpluses.

Those results haven't always mollified Dean's critics on the left, who wanted him to be less accommodating to big business and less thrifty with the state's money. But Dean was just as headstrong when it came to pursuing the goals he did share with liberals--expanding health insurance and social services for low-income children. Under Dean, Vermont plowed money into its Medicaid program, broadening eligibility to include working families--families too poor to afford insurance but too well-off to qualify for assistance under the old Medicaid guidelines. As a result, nearly every child in Vermont now has health insurance. A less well-known--but in many ways more innovative--policy triumph of the Dean years was the enactment of "Success by Six." That program offers the parents of newborns home visits from local social workers, who can advise on everything from what you should feed your baby to whom you call if you think you qualify for government assistance. Nine in ten Vermont parents opt for the visits, and state officials say the program helps identify problem cases--like cases of physical abuse--in their early stages.

These successes are why no less an authority than Bill Clinton has said, "Nobody did a better job on health care than [Dean] did as governor of Vermont." Implicit in that quote is what really set Dean apart as a governor: Not only does he have the right priorities; he has the right character. In 1991, it would have been far easier to let Vermont's Democrat-controlled legislature run wild with spending, as it had in the past. But, despite having virtually no political capital to spend--as lieutenant governor, he'd inherited the governorship after his Republican predecessor died--Dean held firm on fiscal policy and won. Similarly, after Dean tried and failed to enact a sweeping health care reform along the lines of what Clinton had proposed for the nation, it would have been far easier to give up and concentrate on narrow, easy-to-pass measures like HMO reform. Instead, Dean kept pursuing universal coverage through incremental expansions.