Administration left wondering what went wrong.

• Author: Weidenbaum, Murray
• Position: ObamaCare

THEY NEVER LEARN. That is an accurate description of the major participants in the national debate on health care. Here is some evidence: a few months ago, C-SPAN covered an unusual, but fascinating, meeting of the domestic policy advisers for every president from Richard Nixon to George W. Bush. As you would expect, they disagreed on most specific policy issues. However, they reached unanimity on two important pieces of advice to a new presidential administration: the vital need to set priorities at the outset, thus avoiding the problems that result from trying to do everything at once, and the importance of presidential leadership--especially the avoidance of letting Congress write the president's programs.

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Clearly, the White House was not paying attention. The new team started off with a focus on dealing with a rapidly declining economy and rising unemployment. Whether you are a big government liberal or a small government conservative, that was a very sensible decision. However, other priorities quickly were added to the stimulus bill and the policy agenda. These ranged from new energy and environmental programs to long-term investments in science, education, etc. The result is that only a small fraction of the $787,000,000,000 appropriated by Congress for getting the economy going again is scheduled to be spent in 2009, or even in 2010, when unemployment likely will remain quite high. In many cases, the bulk of the "stimulus" money will not be expended until 2011-14--or even later. It is no surprise that the public is concerned that the Federal deficit is hitting all-time highs while unemployment continues to rise.

That is the background for the ongoing debate on health care reform. To compound the problem, the lack of White House leadership in legislative matters has resulted in a variety of House and Senate committees coming up with a dizzying array of alternative responses to the health care situation. Consequently, it is not surprising that the public is confused and unhappy with the course of the national debate on health care.

Let us step back a moment and consider how events might have proceeded if White House personnel had taken the advice of the Washington veterans who preceded them. The initial focus on getting the economy out of the ditch was correct. In fact, we can recall that several experienced public policy economists (Democrats and Republicans) urged Congress to split the stimulus bill into two...