Just when it seemed likely 2002 would go down in the history books as nothing more than the 100th anniversary of the invention of Crayola-brand crayons, a series of surprisingly good things happened in the final two months of the year.
I write this shortly before Christmas, and pray nothing happens in the weeks until you read it to prove me wrong. But right now, 2002 is looking like a pretty good year to me.
Some Public Policy Victories
On November 5, an unexpectedly large number of candidates for state and national elected office who supported school choice, market-based health care reform, and free-market environmentalism won their races and are now in positions to put these ideas to work. In addition,
- a judge upheld the settlement of antitrust charges brought against Microsoft Corp. by the U.S. Department of Justice and nine state attorneys general;
- voters defeated a referendum in Oregon calling for single-payer health care, advocates of anti-market health care policies in the U.S. Senate lost their influence, and President George W. Bush decided to make the smallpox vaccine available to the general public before a terrorist attack;
- voters in Oregon also defeated an initiative for mandatory labeling of foods containing bio-engineered foods. The Bush administration approved reforms of the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act and is proceeding to implement key elements of the Healthy Forests Initiative; and
- the Mississippi legislature adopted meaningful tort reform, proving it can indeed be done.
All this is good news for advocates of individual empowerment and limited government. While The Heartland Institute focuses on changing public opinion rather than having a short-term impact on public policy, our efforts may have played a role in each of these victories.
The Microsoft Case
On Friday, November 1, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly approved a proposed settlement of antitrust charges brought against Microsoft. This was good news, because the Microsoft case never was about whether consumers were harmed by Microsoft’s products or trade practices. They weren’t. It was, rather, about whether companies in the twenty-first century would be allowed to use antiquated and irrational antitrust laws to hobble their more-efficient competitors, force them to surrender intellectual property, and even break up industry leaders.
Thank goodness that didn’t happen. In February 2001, Heartland published a book–Antitrust After Microsoft: The Obsolescence of Antitrust in the Digital Era–telling the real story behind the Microsoft case. We distributed copies far and wide and received a lot of attention for what was really at stake in the case. (See the book review on page 2 of this Heartlander.)
In January 2002, I submitted a letter to the Antitrust Division of the U.S. Department of Justice endorsing the settlement. It turned out to be one of only 47 of the more than 30,000 letters submitted to the Department of Justice considered “major” and forwarded to Judge Kollar-Kotelly. Mine was one of only five such letters that favored the settlement.
Did our book and my letter make a difference? Possibly. That alone is enough to make my entire year!
Health Care Reform on its Way
Heartland long has been critical of plans to replace the country’s private, competitive system of health care finance and delivery with a Canadian-style single-payer system. Such schemes would diminish competition and choice and encourage bureaucracy and waste.
Conrad F. Meier, managing editor of Health Care News, was a popular source of information and commentary before and after the November 5 ballot defeat of a voter initiative in Oregon to create a single-payer health care system. His letter to the editor on the subject ran on election day in the Wall Street Journal (circ. 1,752,639). Following the election, Meier appeared in a score of other newspapers, including the Atlanta, Georgia Journal-Constitution (circ. 327,213) and Raleigh, North Carolina News & Observer (circ. 161,604).
In another victory for free-market health care, Bush announced in December the smallpox vaccine would be made available on a voluntary basis to the general public before a terrorist attack. An essay I wrote on this topic for the November issue of Health Care News was distributed nationally by United Press International on November 1. It was then favorably cited in an editorial endorsing public access to the vaccine in the Sunday, November 11 edition of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (circ. 266,590). That editorial in turn was reprinted by more than a dozen newspapers nationwide.
The November elections changed the political dynamics of the health care reform debate in a very positive direction. Republicans, who usually oppose single-payer plans and other anti-market proposals, gained some 300 seats in state legislatures. They also recaptured the U.S. Senate, reducing the odds of Congress passing some of the wackiest ideas in the health care debate. Those include stripping patent protection from innovative drug manufacturers, writing a prescription drug benefit for seniors to be administered by the Medicare bureaucracy that would cost a trillion dollars or more over 10 years, and of course that perennial Democratic favorite, single-payer health care.
Bush’s people say they will push for tax credits for the uninsured, a privately administered prescription drug benefit, and Medicare and Medicaid reform based on competition and consumer choice. That’s music to my ears.
Progress on the Environment
November 5 also brought the good news that voters in Oregon rejected a ballot measure calling for mandatory labeling of all food products containing biotech foods. Heartland Science Director Dr. Jay Lehr’s commentary on this subject was sent to all the major media outlets in Oregon, though to our knowledge it was reprinted in only one (the November 2 issue of the LaGrande, Oregon Observer (circ. 7,000)). Lehr called the initiative “a shameful case of exploiting ungrounded public fears that Oregon voters ought to emphatically reject.”
Heartland’s authors, in particular Lehr, have been strong advocates of using biotechnology to feed the hungry and reduce the impact of agriculture on the natural environment. In a letter that appeared in the November 4 issue of the Chicago Sun Times (circ. 468,170), Lehr writes, “Study after study of biotech products has been unable to turn up a single negative outcome in the face of overwhelmingly wonderful advances in human nutrition.” That piece was subsequently distributed nationwide by CNNMoney.
Lehr was a keynote speaker at the 136th Annual Convention of the National Grange, which took place in Portland, Oregon on November 12-16. Approximately 800 people attended the event … and nearly 200 of them signed up for free subscriptions to Environment & Climate News. Lehr’s speech on biotechnology and the future of farming was remarkably well-received, and he was literally mobbed by new fans and question-askers after his presentation. Afterwards, scores of people made their way to the Heartland booth to find out more about us.
The Bush administration is acting to reform the New Source Review provisions of the Clean Air Act, subject of a Heartland Policy Study issued in July, and is implementing key elements of the Healthy Forests Initiative, which we featured on the front page of the October issue of Environment & Climate News.
Tort Reform
In October and November, the Mississippi legislature passed legislation capping jury awards in medical malpractice cases and punitive damages across the board. These were major victories in the fight against lawsuit abuse. That they occurred in Mississippi, widely reported to be the worst state in the nation for defendants, suggests there’s hope for the future of tort reform.
Heartland authors have called for tort reform for many years, most recently in issues of Health Care News, where a crisis in malpractice insurance is leaving some communities without emergency care or OB/GYNs. In May of this year we launched a biweekly newsletter, titled Lawsuit Abuse Fortnightly, that we send to approximately 1,300 reporters, civic leaders, and elected officials nationwide. The newsletter describes outrageous examples of lawsuit abuse, seeking to draw public attention to how trial lawyers are misusing the nation’s legal system for their own personal gain.
The tort reform movement nationwide has grown bigger and more effective just in the past year, and now seems poised to make a difference in several states. This is good news for consumers and the Rule of Law.
Momentum in 2003
A few positive developments over a two-month period does not constitute a trend. It is certain we will see set-backs and disappointments in the coming year. But the events of November and December clearly give us momentum going into 2003 that we lacked earlier in the year.
So goodbye 2002 and welcome 2003! It looks like we’re off to a good start.
