Simpson-Reich debate rekindles joy in politics.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: On Colorado

REPORTERS--AND EDITORS--ARE PRIVILEGED people. Not because they make much money, but because they are treated to experiences that the average Joe doesn't experience.

Like interviewing former Wyoming U.S. Sen. Alan Simpson and former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich face-to-face before they are about to address a crowd of 500 people at the University of Denver.

I got that opportunity last month, and walked away from it impressed by the quality of character and pure brainpower of the people this nation chooses and appoints to lead us.

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Reich, a liberal, and Simpson, who is a people-centered, strict conservative, joked with each other about issues ranging from the future of Social Security, to the exploding national budget deficit, to the "shackle" Colorado's Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) places on the state's economic growth.

And by listening to them, a reporter is able to gain not only new knowledge about the interactions of various economic forces, but also new perspectives on each man's political image.

Simpson, for example, bucking the Republican stereotype, says quite candidly that the rich ought to be paying more for health insurance made available through Medicare, which he fears will go broke in five to six years--long before the Social Security trust fund is run dry--unless something is done in Washington to save the program.

Everyone who is earning more than $60,000 in retirement income ought to be paying a full premium for health insurance coverage now afforded them through Medicare, Simpson said. Right now those people pay only 25 percent of the premium, while employees currently paying Social Security taxes pay the rest of the cost of their insurance.

Reich, a trained economist whose grasp of the nation's financial problems is downright stunning, is a little more predictable in his call for a reversal of tax breaks for people who make more than $200,000 a year--breaks engineered in 2002 and 2003 by President George W. Bush, who wants to extend them rather than repeal them.

The tax breaks, Reich said, are...