During the balanced-budget stalemate, Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole have of ten wistfully said they just wish they could get Bill Clinton alone for a few h ours because they were sure they could wrap up the whole business among themsel ves. The White House doesn’t want to let that happen, perhaps because chief of staff Leon Panetta and others think Gingrich and Dole are onto something. Case in point: Dole and Gingrich arranged for a meeting last November about Medicaid between Clinton and three g overnors — Republicans Engler of Michigan and Leavitt of Utah and Colorado Democrat Roy Romer. During the meeting, Clinton surprised and delighted the three men by offering to let them work out a transfer of Medicaid to the states that he can sign. The so-called “block-granting” of Medicaid is one of the centerpieces of the Republican budget plan. The next day, Panetta called Romer and told his fellow Democrat, whoa there: The president didn’t mean what he said. And so an opportunity for meaningful entitlement reform was lost.
