Burke calls President Clinton's suggestion of extending Medicare coverage to men and women under the age of 65 "crazy."
"The goal of including more people is right, but the President's plan makes no sense given the added costs and strain on the program," Burke says.
Her criticism of Clinton extends to his current legal trouble.
She was in Washington when a sex scandal forced the resignation of Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.) and remembers "far less tolerance for Packwood than there appears to be for Clinton."
But the Lewinsky affair, Burke says, exemplifies the "scrutiny" that surrounds political figures, making it "harder and harder to get people to leave private life for public service."
For Burke, working first in government and now at the Kennedy School, to which she commutes from her Washington residence, has required balancing family and professional obligations.
"Anyone who works, and especially the commuter, faces a daily sense of guilt that he or she is not spending enough time either at home or at the office," Burke says.
"But, at the same time," she adds, "you just have to get up and do what you have to do even though it's hard."
As a Washington insider for many years, Burke witnessed the development of the Hill into a more amenable climate for women.
"There's still an old-boys' network in Washington," she says, "but in the 20 years I was there I saw more and more women serving as mentors for other women and developing their own networks."
Overall, the adjustment from the pressure-filled environment of Capitol Hill to Harvard's academic climate has proved smooth for Burke.
She says that while she "does not have as much contemplative time" as she had hoped, she is stimulated by "extraordinarily bright people constantly challenging" her.
The most drastic difference between her experiences in Washington to Cambridge, Burke admits, relates to the pace of decision-making.
"If Dole said do X, it got done; if I said I wanted Y, it got done," Burke says. "Academic decision-making is more consultative."