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- iHaveNet.com: Politics
by Mary Kate Cary
Last week I interviewed a man whom the
He's former Sen. Alan Simpson, who served as U.S. senator from Wyoming from 1979 until 1997 and was the Republican whip from 1985 to 1995. Two weeks ago, President Obama named him cochair of the
He recalled being surprised at how divisive things had become even in his last years in office. "I dropped by a [Republican] caucus once," Simpson remembers, "and all they were doing was trying to figure out how to diddle Bill Clinton. There wasn't any discussion about their own platform, just how to craft a bill that would trap him. I said, 'Gee, what a waste of time.' They said, 'But you don't understand -- we could bring him down!' I said, 'But how about the country? Anybody here for the country?' Well, that irritated the hell out of all of them."
Compared with Washington these days, Simpson does sound as if he's from another galaxy, one in which Democrats and Republicans met regularly in working groups, cosponsored legislation, even ate lunch together. The system he knew is broken, the changes on
So in the midst of all the ugliness, what possessed him to agree to cochair the commission (which Obama created by executive order) with former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles? "There are six little people running in and out of my house, called grandchildren, who are absolutely just little lambs led to slaughter," he says. "They are totally uncomprehending. They have no idea that when they reach 60 -- under the present system -- they'll be picking grit with the chickens."
The president charged this commission with recommending changes for balancing the federal budget by 2015 and publishing its report by the end of this year. Simpson says everything is on the table. He has spoken with House Minority Leader John Boehner and with Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell (both of whom he praises), but he sees McConnell and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as two prizefighters more interested in scoring points than anything else. "But it's not a boxing match," he points out. "It's our country." Most Americans are tired of the boxing.
The two grandfathers (between them, Bowles and Simpson have 13 grandkids) are doing this not only to avert a fiscal disaster for the next generation but to educate the current one. "When we're through, the American people will know a hell of a lot more than they know now," he told me. He's right: Polls show Americans are ill informed when it comes to the deficit, with wildly contradictory views about how to fix it. A
Simpson dismisses the idea that the budget problem can be fixed by reforming earmarks, cutting foreign aid, and going after waste, fraud, and abuse. At less than 2 percent of the federal budget, he says, those three areas amount to a "sparrow fart." He adds that what needs to be done will be much more daunting and difficult than anyone is willing to say. He's hoping that "these two old cats" will help Americans face facts.
As soon-to-be-former head of the
The former legislator says he has no expectations of success. He knows he'll be savaged by the right, but he doesn't seem to care. "Hatred corrodes the container it's carried in," he remarks, commiserating about
The next year of Al Simpson's life won't be easy. But he recalls his mother's advice: "If you're damned if you do, and damned if you don't, then do." After a moment, he adds, "I live by those words."
Maybe Alan Simpson really isn't from outer space.
Available at Amazon.com:
The Political Fix: Changing the Game of American Democracy, from the Grassroots to the White House
AMERICAN POLITICS
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Alan Simpson on Bipartisanship and the Deficit Commission | Mary Kate Cary
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