Congress isn’t as polarized as the national media portrays, Sen. Jerry Moran told Iola Rotarians Thursday. EFFORTS to rein in the deficit and deal with the national debt have to include entitlements — Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security — and service on the national debt, Moran opined, noting that they represent about 70 percent of national spending. AS HE frequently does, Moran dug into his Kansas roots during a prelude to specific comments.
Rather, it may be that some in the two houses “throw a fit, yell and scream” to get attention, Moran said. “On the majority of things we can find common ground.”
Even so, there is division in the country and constituents see those in Congress and the President “as not giving an inch, while in most cases there is an inch to give.” But, he continued, “there are things that are black and white,” and don’t lend themselves to compromise.
Moran said he learned long ago — he was in the House 14 years and is starting his third year in the Senate — that Kansas congressmen have to “work with urban and suburban folks to get anything for Kansas.”
“We need a leader,” Moran said, and no one better suits that role than the president — if President Obama would assume it.
Obama needs to reach out to Congress, but that hasn’t been an outcome of the president’s re-election, Moran said. Whenever Obama meets with congressmen, it’s more like a press conference than a joint session, he said.
“In my view this president (thinks he) is above the fray,” Moran said. “We have to find common ground, and it doesn’t come through the press.”
Congress has a central role in appropriations, but Moran noted, “We control only about 30 percent,” a number he is well aware of being on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Asked whether he thought Medicare reimbursements would be untouched, and meet demands of critical care hospitals such as Allen County Regional Hospital when it opens in the fall, Moran was reluctant to make any predictions, although he thinks the revenue stream, essential to the local hospital, will continue.
A decision, one that might occur from an Obama proposal, is a reduction of reimbursement from 102 percent to 100 percent. That would be a hit for the 137 Kansas hospitals, the lion’s share of which are rural and critical access, which makes them dependent on Medicare reimbursements.
“I support Social Security and Medicare,” in the form they are today, said Moran, mentioning that his parents are dependent on them in their retirement years, which gives them first-hand insight.
As U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins noted during a visit to Iola in March, Moran touted means-testing and a gradual increase in age eligibility as ways to ensure continued solvency of Social Security. He put no numbers on either approach, however, and didn’t mention an increase in the income threshold for taxes to support entitlements.
If pressed, Moran said he thought the programs would be safe for the foreseeable future.
“I know people here are frustrated with (Washington) D.C.,” he said. “I’m frustrated.”
Moran noted that national security has drawn more attention this week because of North Korea rattling sabers.
Moran said he had no stomach for the United States to become entangled in the civil strife in Syria.
The 911 terrorist attacks quickened his interest in looking at international events, but, Moran said he would be “very reluctant to engage where we can’t control the outcome,” such as in Syria. “We can’t police the world.”
President Obama seems to be “edging toward a no-fly zone in Syria,” he added. But, “I don’t want to commit our money or the lives of our young men and women.”
He recalls the lengthy conflict in Vietnam well, Moran said, which left him with two concerns: That the U.S. honor the men and woman who serve the country and “we don’t engage unless we’re willing to commit to victory.”
Moran shares public’s frustration
