Sen. Richard Lugar addresses health care, climate debates, but says recession is the most immediate concern while in Jeffersonville

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August 14, 2009

It’s all about the timing

By DAVID A. MANN The News and Tribune Fri Aug 14, 2009, 01:41 PM EDT

After the 2000 national election, the U.S. Senate was deadlocked — 50 republicans and 50 democrats.

The body was polarized and many of its committees were evenly spilt.

And those 60 votes it takes to stop a filibuster were far from obtainable.

“And it’s been hard to come by until this last election in 2008,” said Sen. Richard Lugar, the Senate’s most senior Republican.

“It’s now 60-40,” he said, describing the number of Democrats to Republicans in the Senate. “The magic 60 has arrived. And some Democrats, they would say ‘this gives us an opportunity … to get on with what we believe is the important business of the nation.”

That brief bit of history was how Lugar, Indiana’s senior senator, framed a lunchtime discussion on national affairs that ranged from health care reform to energy and foreign relations.

The senator’s speech — in front of economic development agency One Southern Indiana at the Sheraton hotel — was buttoned-down and cordial, a far cry from the clamorous town hall meetings on health care making news across the country.

The senator explained the current debates, health care reform and carbon emissions — two of the major priorities that President Barack Obama has pressed for since taking office — by putting them in perspective with events of the recent past.

“[Obama] starts this situation with a very large worldwide recession going on,” Lugar said.

Late last year, unemployment was rising and the gross national product was declining, he said. And then president George W. Bush and other lawmakers had to come up with a way to bring capital to various banks to rescue the financial system.

Before Bush left office, the automobile industry was facing trouble, as well.

“I can remember Dick Cheney coming over to the Senate and saying, ‘we’re not going to let these companies fail on our watch,’” he said. “Still, it’s an iffy proposition as to whether the recession has concluded.

“It’s in framework that the president then launched, very early on, the health care debate. That I feel was an unfortunate decision at that particular juncture.”

With unemployment up, corporate losses and lack of revenue coming in from taxes, federal government revenue was drying up and expenses have continued to rise.

The result is a $1.8 trillion deficit for this fiscal year — something Lugar said was four times larger than any deficit in history.

“That is a staggering situation. Where do you get the money; this is not just a bookkeeping operation.”

Lugar said that as Obama pitched his ideas for health care reform, the president initially said that it wouldn’t affect the deficit.

However, the senator pointed out, the federal Office of Management and Budget estimates show that it will cost an additional $1 trillion more in spending over time.

“We have a very lively debate going on. My suggestion is this is probably healthy in the sense that for the first time, a lot of people have probably thought about it,” he said. “My hope would be that we have a vigorous debate that we understand that it was untimely to have this debate at this particular moment.

“First things first. Frankly the jobs issue is critical, and so is the profitability of American business, and without them you’re not going to have health reform.”

CAP AND TRADE

While the health care debate has gotten more attention, Lugar said the debate on a cap and trade system of controlling carbon emissions could be coming soon. The president and a number of Congress members are serious about reducing the amount of carbon emissions going into the atmosphere, he said,

The feeling is that if legislation isn’t passed, there will be less leverage to convince China and India to do the same, he said.

“They’re probably right in that respect,” Lugar said.

He spoke of a recent breakfast that he and Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., had with a delegation from China regarding carbon-emission caps, in which the Chinese said that their system of growth is dependent on energy.

“They would say ‘don’t count on us to enter into any treaty that would require us to reduce CO2 emissions by 5 percent by 2020,’” he said, pointing out that the United States and Europe both had industrial revolutions.

Scientists are saying that climate change could cause human displacement, spark wars around the globe and completely disrupt international trade, Lugar said.

“We do have an obligation to our children, our grandchildren, the earth to think about these things.

“Once again, for the moment, the debate is not a timely one. If we take the steps that some members want to take, I predict we’re going to have a further recession.”