States Act on Congressional Goals

"The minimum wage indexing is especially troubling," he said. "You'll see it most clearly when the economy slows down and job creation slows down. States that pushed to get their minimum wage ahead of the federal wage are going to feel it."

Minimum wage indexing bills are pending in Kansas, Nebraska, Indiana, North Dakota, Minnesota, Rhode Island, Texas, Utah, Virginia and Wyoming, but analysts said it is too early to tell whether any of them will be enacted.

As for universal health care, Keating said it is not "the type of proposal we'd hope to come from Republicans, who usually believe in restrained government, lower taxes and less regulation." He was referring to Schwarzenegger and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R), who steered a mandatory-coverage measure through his legislature and now is considering running for president.

The free-market approach is alive and well in some states, however. In Georgia, where Gov. Sonny Perdue (R) and Republican majorities in both houses were re-elected by large margins, Perdue has proposed solving the health-care crisis by emphasizing preventive care, exercise, healthful diets and access to cost and quality comparisons for medical care. He also called for tax incentives to develop more health care in underserved rural areas.

Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano (D), who chairs the National Governors Association, said its annual meeting next month will focus on how to use government, particularly public schools and colleges, to foster an "innovation economy" that expands opportunity for people of all incomes.

Governors have called for expanded job training, pre-kindergarten and college scholarships for low-income students, all in the name of equipping more people to compete for higher-wage jobs.

In Arkansas, Beebe called for spending $111 million to provide preschool for all children whose families earn up to twice the poverty level. He also proposed scholarships for students in families earning under $25,000 a year. Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter (D) proposed a similar plan.

Napolitano linked health insurance to education in her State of the State address, saying healthy children are better learners and calling for state-subsidized coverage for children in families making up to $60,000. Republicans who control the legislature called the plan too generous and expensive.

"What I sense out there," Napolitano said, "is people asking: Where are we going as a country? What is the economic future that we're going to have? Are we really going to be the generation that hands off an economic future less bright than the one we were handed?"