Alan Levine: America needs the kind of leadership Jeb Bush can provide

 While Jeb Bush goes through his methodical process of deciding whether to run for president, it has been interesting to read the pundits — most of whom don’t know him, and many who seem to have forgotten a few things.

So, just sharing some random thoughts about what I’ve been reading:

— It amazes me that as governor of Florida, Bush was hailed as one of the most conservative governors in the nation, and yet today, there are those in the Republican Party who say he is not conservative enough.

This is a governor who cut taxes every year even while refusing to sign the Grover Norquist Tax Pledge.

He was unapologetically pro-life and believed in the free market and did everything in his power to reduce the size of government.

He inspired his staff with two questions whenever there was a problem: is it the government’s job to solve the problem rather than letting markets work? and if the government does have a role, how can it take the least active role possible?

He looked for solutions to problems, and owned them rather than blaming others if the solutions didn’t work.

— And BECAUSE he was conservative, and BECAUSE he believes that one of the biggest threats to our nation’s future is our troubled education system, he has advocated for higher standards in education.

Bush eschews those who make excuses for how poorly our students perform on standardized tests compare to some other countries.

African Americans and Hispanics had more education gains under his reforms than any other segment of our population, and because of his reforms, more kids are serious about their education.

Some may run away from high standards because they are spooked by the political consequences, but that’s not what leaders do.  They educate voters and explain their positions.

Too many politicians seek an advantage by scaring voters.  Seems we need more of that kind of statesmanship these days.

— While many today argue that Medicaid is broken, he took steps to fix it. He passes the most aggressive reforms in the nation at the time.

And his reforms actually worked, according to an analysis done by the University of Florida.  Also, while many complain about Medicaid fraud and abuse, he actually did something about it, with his Health Care Agency winning the Florida Tax Davis Productivity Award because of the millions of dollars in savings.

— Because of his “No Place Like Home” initiative, Florida saw a 36 percent growth in the number of adoptions of kids out of the child welfare system.

— He has the courage to challenge those in his party who believe we can succeed by forgetting that we are a nation of immigrants. Opponents of immigration reform think that the way to solve illegal immigration is to send them back to where they came from.

Bush knows this is wrong, and instead, wants to see policies that recognize the root cause of why people risk their lives to cross our borders to earn money to send to their children at home.

No, he doesn’t want people coming here illegally, but he also knows why they do it.

— Bush never took a policy position that didn’t have as its basis the love of people and our entrepreneurial spirit.

Find me a governor who did more for people with developmental disabilities.  And by “doing more,” I don’t mean government handouts. He did everything he could to help families help themselves.

He fought to remove kids from institutions and have them put into homes where they could thrive. He believed so much in these people that he never made excuses for them and never allowed them to make excuses for themselves.

— Believing in the power of markets (which only work well when people have information), Bush was the first governor in America to publish health care outcomes and costs on the Internet. Other states followed him.

— He believes in innovation and science.  I recall when the federal government gave states a Medicaid bailout in 2003, Florida received hundreds of millions of dollars.   Under enormous pressure to spend the money on recurring expenses in a broken Medicaid program, he chose instead to invest in Florida’s long term health by investing in the biotech industry — recruiting Scripps, Torrey Pines and Burnham to Florida — and today, they are conducting real translational research here in partnership with some of our leading academic institutions.

Whatever Jeb Bush decides, if there are those in our party who want to change history and call him something other than a conservative, you will have tough work.

His record is one of achievement, and it doesn’t lie.

Certainly, he made mistakes, and no doubt those will be highlighted. But as a man with integrity and a will to do what is right, he will never have to apologize to those who stake out positions solely because it’s where their “base” is rather than leading and perhaps defining where their “base” should be.

That is what leaders do, and it is what America sorely needs.

Alan Levine has served as Florida’s Secretary of Health Care Administration and also served as a member of the Louisiana Cabinet as Secretary of Health and Hospitals.  He currently serves as a member of the Florida Board of Governors and is the President and CEO of a major not-for-profit health and hospital system.  Column courtesy of Context Florida.