Sen. Johnny Isakson, R-Ga., sat down with The Telegraph to discuss hot-button topics: health care, the economic stimulus bill, and the rising federal deficit. Isakson is running for a second term in the Senate.
QUESTION: What message are you going to take to the voters in your re-election campaign?
ANSWER: I am a tenant in their house. I’m going to run on my record and things I’ve tried to accomplish, the things that I’ve stood up for. Which is what, I think, elections ought to be about. I’m one of these people who are very positive. I like to talk about solving problems, I like to talk about what Georgia’s problems are and what we need to do to solve them.
QUESTION: The Democratic National Committee ran an advertisement recently that called a bunch of GOP lawmakers “hypocrites” for opposing President Obama’s economic stimulus bill and touting projects in their home states funded by it. How do you respond?
ANSWER: Well, I voted against the stimulus and, to the best of my knowledge, I’ve never done what they allege. I haven’t done a press event around a grant, or something like that. But you have to understand, which I think you probably do understand, I’m elected to fight for my state, and we’re one of the 50 states. So I may not support a program that passes, but I don’t think that means my state should be exempted from participating in the program, so as long as its completive in nature.
QUESTION: So when President Obama in Savannah this week said, “because of the Recovery Act, there are more than 300 transportation projects under way in Georgia right now,” do you believe that you and Sen. Saxby Chambliss are partly responsible for that?
ANSWER: Again, I don’t think you can find something where I took credit for something. I didn’t vote for the stimulus. We got a $2.1 billion hole in the state budget for 2012, which you heard me reference. Eighty-five percent of it went to supplant state salaries. Fifteen percent of it went to road projects.
QUESTION: Do you think the stimulus was a failure? Did it save or create jobs?
ANSWER: I don’t think the way the stimulus was structured was beneficial to the economy like a true stimulus would be. Look at the state’s accountability book and look at the facts and figures and you can make a determination for yourself. Saving jobs is important if it’s your job, but creating new jobs through innovation, research and development is where you grow the economy back. You only maintain the status quo if you supplant state money for a job that already existed. The main thing is to get growth that brings in more jobs.
QUESTION: You talked about the federal deficit. I don’t think anyone denies that it’s a staggering sum. But you in the House voted for Medicare Part D, all of the war supplemental funding bills, and both Bush tax cuts. Are you partly responsible for the deficit as well?
ANSWER: Everybody who is in elected government has to accept responsibility for what they have done and what the country has done. People like you can pick at anything. I think if you go pick at the macro sense of my votes, I was picked the 15th most conservative member of the United States Senate. I got the “Friend of the Taxpayer Award” (from the National Taxpayers Union). Personally, I’ll take issue with you for calling the Bush tax cuts increasing the deficit. If you study the facts, you understood that federal revenues went up after the ’03 cuts, not down, which is also what happened in 1983, which is also what happened in 1962 when John Kennedy was president.
QUESTION: On the health-care bill: Will you go to the floor and offer amendments and participate in the debate?
ANSWER: You obviously haven’t followed what I’ve done in the Health Committee. I offered a lot of amendments when we did the markup in the Russell (Senate Office) Building. I’ve participated in the debate throughout. Of course we don’t have the opportunity to do amendments now, because the president has decided to is take the Senate bill, which we did offer as many (amendments) as (Senate Majority Leader) Harry Reid would let us. I’ve forgotten how many, I think eight, which are basically eight principles which were talked about at the summit. If you look at the record, it’s unfair for you and it’s unfair for the president to characterize us as not participating in the debate or just saying “no.” We offered lots of alternatives.
QUESTION: Regarding reconciliation: Is it truly without precedent to use it?
ANSWER: It has precedent, with the Republican Presidents and Democratic Presidents. The two most recent precedents are 1993 — when President Clinton did it with the tax bill in Congress, then (party control of) Congress flipped in 1994 — and 2005 when President Bush used it and Congress flipped in 2006. So I think those are pretty good indicators, either way, whether it’s a Republican or a Democratic effort to pass policy with reconciliation, the general public doesn’t like it.
To contact writer Thomas L. Day, call 744-4489.
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