Give It Up, Arlen
From Wall Street Journal's Political Diary:
"The asbestos trust fund is dead! Long live the trust fund!" That's the rallying cry of Pennsylvania Senator Arlen Specter, who spent last week embarking on yet another new strategy for getting his $140 billion experiment in tort reform passed.
Mr. Specter blew his first shot. Nevada Republican John Ensign raised a budget point of order against the bill after debate started a few weeks ago. Mr. Specter fell one vote shy of the 60 he needed to get past that roadblock. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, eager to tackle a few more pressing issues in this election year, told Mr. Specter he could have another shot only if he got 60 Senators to publicly commit to waiving the budget point and also blocking any attempted filibuster of the bill.
Mr. Specter has been a flurry of activity trying to comply. The Pennsylvanian argues that if only Senator Daniel Inouye of Hawaii hadn't been absent because of a sick wife, he'd already have had his 60 votes. Still, Mr. Frist's new demand that 60 Senators go on record in support of the fund is likely to make more than a few previous supporters gun-shy. Word is that Mr. Specter is calling in every favor and cutting deals left and right to get the necessary support. Even so, the letter he's sending around apparently falls short of Mr. Frist's requirements -- it mentions only the budget point of order but not the filibuster.
Better for all concerned would be if the trust fund proposal were allowed to die a decent death. Led by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and Rep. Chris Cannon of Utah, work has continued on a far superior alternative -- known as the medical-criteria bill. This would weed out the vast majority of the bogus asbestos claims in court but it wouldn't leave taxpayers potentially on the hook (as the trust fund would) if claims outrun current projections.
Plenty of Republicans have signaled a willingness to support a medical-criteria bill. Unfortunately, so long as the trust fund remains in play, they will be under pressure from a segment of the big business community keen on the fund approach. If Mr. Specter were truly committed to finding a "solution" to the asbestos mess, he'd step aside at this point and let others have a swing.
-- Kimberley Strassel
*** POSTED MARCH 6, 2006 ***