ConservativeHome's Big Ideas blog

Dan Coats: If we're going to save America, we need growth, which means we need to cut spending and reform entitlements...and we can't wait until 2012

No one can accuse Dan Coats of running for the Senate to put a new political feather in his cap. In November, Senator Coats re-claimed the seat from which he retired in 1998 when he thought he had hung up his political cleats for good. Motivated by what he saw as a Washington-generated crisis of historic proportions, he decided to get back in the game to do his part to rescue America's future from fiscal ruin.

ConservativeHome's Ryan Streeter recently put four questions to Senator Coats about why he ran again, what he thinks about our chief domestic and foreign policy, and what's different about his second tour of duty so far. Some main points from the interview (read it in its entirety below):

• He was driven to run again by a gut-level concern for the future of his country. "I watched as families and businesses were making sacrifices, cutting their own budgets, living with less. It seemed as though everyone except the federal government was doing that. I honestly was worried that America would become a second-tier country...We simply cannot be the first generation to turn over a country to our children and grandchildren that is in worse shape than when we started out."
  
• A growth agenda demands getting spending under control, including entitlements. "We need pro-growth policies, and to start, we have to cut spending and reduce the deficit. In that regard, we need to look at every area of government, and ask them to take a haircut – larger than what they think they need...We simply need to restructure our entitlement programs and make them solvent."
• We can't wait around for 2012. "We have got to make tough decisions right now, in this Congress...We simply cannot be the first generation to turn over a country to our children and grandchildren that is in worse shape than when we started out."
• Expanding middle class entitlements, as in the health care law, is exactly the wrong approach to address our problems. "We should not be throwing the middle class a life raft. We need to go upstream and change the economic environment. Taking the right approach to growth and prosperity is where government can and should be spending its time right now."
• Coats is still the compassionate conservative that he was before the term was coined. "It is clear there are limits to what the government can do, and it is probably good that there are. The role of volunteer and community groups and faith-based organizations have always played a fundamental role in promoting and protecting the common good in our communities."

RS: You have just been re-elected to the Senate seat you held from 1990-1998. It's certainly not a normal thing for a former Senator to "come out of retirement," as it were. Why did you do it?

Senator Coats: I was first elected to the House in 1980. I came to Washington when Reagan did, and one of our first major votes was whether to increase the debt ceiling. It was the first time in 200 years the country had to decide to do this, and it was astounding to everyone that the ceiling at the time exceeded $1 trillion. It just seemed historic and immense. Now we are debating a debt ceiling that is in excess of $14 trillion.

During those years, we saw the Reagan agenda implemented: a commitment to limited government, fiscal responsibility, and a focus on growth. It was a privilege to participate in that exciting decade. What we were trying to do was to remain steadfastly constitutional and to focus intensely on improving the fiscal health of the country.

In 1998, I honored a term limit pledge after my years in both the House and Senate, and I never, ever anticipated coming back.

But after 2008, I sat watching the liberal agenda unfold so quickly with such massive spending and government overreach that I couldn’t help thinking, “Everything I had worked for during my time in Congress– limited spending, supporting and promoting the private sector, keeping America strong worldwide both fiscally and in terms of security – was being thrown overboard. I watched with alarm as deficit spending and debt surpassed anyone’s imagination. All I could think was, “How could we become out of control so rapidly and to this extent?”

Meanwhile, during a time of recession, I watched as families and businesses were making sacrifices, cutting their own budgets, living with less. It seemed as though everyone except the federal government was doing that.

I honestly was worried that America would become a second-tier country.

So when the opportunity came along to run for this seat, I decided I had little choice.  I realized that life had been good to me, but I just couldn’t sit back and enjoy the fruits of my labor. I couldn’t think of letting my children and grandchildren deal with the consequences of what had become an out-of-control government. I concluded America was in trouble and we needed to work hard to make it the kind of country that it has been for so long and that all of us aspire for it to be.

Like so many people, I wanted to get off the couch and join the rallies. I wanted to be involved.

And so I decided my best contribution would be to get back in the arena and promote an agenda of limited, constitutional government, fiscal responsibility, personal freedom, and strong national security.

I decided I wasn’t going to let age or anything else influence my decision to run. It was simply the right thing to do. 

John Thune: "The Republican Party must reclaim the mantle of reform"

Senator John Thune of South Dakota, whose name has been floated as a potential presidential contender in 2012, recently answered 10 questions from ConservativeHome's Ryan Streeter.

In the interview below Senator Thune says that:

• Republicans need to become reformers again by remembering what limited government, fiscal responsibility, and pro-growth policies require of us.
• America's debt is a national security problem, as Admiral Mullen says, and therefore we need budget reform legislation along the lines of what Sen. Thune proposed this past summer if we're going to get America's fiscal house in order.
• From the real and present danger of Iran's nuclear program to our ongoing commitments in Iraq and Afghanistan, we as a country need to remember just how much it costs to prevent more terrorist attacks.  
• The middle class understands that runaway spending will destroy their children's future. We owe it to them to show serious leadership on fiscal responsibility.

RS: What is your first political memory and/or what event or person first got you interested in politics? 

Sen. Thune: My interest in politics was sparked at a young age. After making five of six free throws during a basketball game as a freshman in high school, I was greeted by a spectator who said, "I noticed you missed one." That spectator happened to be well-known sports enthusiast and U.S. Representative Jim Abdnor. That introduction was the start of a friendship that ignited my career in public service. After completing my MBA at the University of South Dakota, I went on to work for then U.S. Senator Jim Abdnor and have stayed in close contact ever since.

RS: Who is your political hero and why? 

Sen. Thune: President Ronald Reagan is a political hero of mine. I was inspired by the strength of his convictions, by his belief in American exceptionalism and by his willingness to confront the communist threat. There was an authenticity about him that is too often lacking in politics today. He had a big, bold vision for this country but never lost his common touch or his fundamental belief in the greatness of the American people. I had the privilege of serving in his administration and have tried in my public life to live up to the high standard that he set.

Another one of my heroes is former Senator Jim Abdnor, whom I also had the privilege of working for as a young staffer. His decency and integrity were the embodiment of everything that is good about public life and a great example to me.

RS: Looking to 2012, are there 3 big ideas that you think should determine the presidential race (ie, which 3 issues should the Republican candidate use to set him/herself apart from President Obama)?

Sen. Thune: Voters sent a clear message to Washington this past November. Americans are not happy with the direction in which our country is headed and are seeking a new way forward. In order to successfully lead our country to more prosperous days, I believe Republican leaders must return to the time honored Republican principles: (1) A limited government and a government that works, which means unwinding the massive health care takeover, and reform of entitlement, budget, and tax policies. The Republican Party must reclaim the mantle of reform. (2) Fiscal responsibility—living within your means is an American tradition that needs to become a Washington tradition. (3) Pro-growth, pro-jobs policies that focus on free enterprise and free markets as opposed to government expansion. That means reducing America's tax and regulatory burdens on businesses, thereby lowering the cost of doing business in this country, and allowing America's entrepreneurs to be competitive in the global marketplace.

RS: What can Republicans in Congress do beginning in 2011 to respond to the public's mounting frustration with runaway spending, the deficit, and the size of government?

Sen. Thune: According to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, America's biggest national security threat is our national debt. To attack out of control spending and borrowing, this past summer I introduced a budget reform bill, the Deficit Reduction and Budget Reform Act of 2010. My legislation gets our country's fiscal house in order by cutting discretionary spending, reforming Washington's broken budget process, and creating a permanent Joint Committee on Deficit Reduction. There are 26 committees or subcommittees in Congress that spend money, but none that save money. It is high time that changed and my bill does that.

Additionally, I recently proposed a resolution that was accepted by the Senate Republican Conference to cut non-security discretionary spending back to 2008 levels. Since 2008, non-security discretionary spending has increased by over 20 percent, at a time when inflation in our economy amounted to less than two percent. In other words, the federal government has been spending at 10 times the rate of inflation. While every day, hardworking Americans struggle to make ends meet, Washington continues to spend with reckless abandon. This unsustainable level of spending has to stop. We can start by forcing votes on reducing spending back to 2008 levels to see who's serious about fiscal responsibility.