Senator defends war in Iraq, NCLB, Social Security reform

By David Heiller

Argus News Editor

Editorís note: The Caledonia Argus interviewed U.S. Senator Norm Coleman, a Republican from Minnesota, on February 9 on a variety of subjects. Colemanís staff set up the interview as part of a community outreach that Coleman is doing with local media outlets and city officials. What follows is a question and answer format of our interview.

ARGUS: Do you support country-of origin labeling on meat products?

COLEMAN: I support the concept with a big ìbut.î I would like it to be voluntary. I think itís a better system if itís voluntary. One of the concerns is the cost that that has on the producer. Implementing the system as itís proposed would have a significant cost on the producer, and that concerns me greatly. I also think itís important to understand that country-of-origin labeling is not an animal ID program. Itís not going to impact things like BSE. Itís a marketing program.

ARGUS: One of the most frequent things that I hear when I go my meetings is that there are a lot of unfunded mandates. that seem to keep popping up. Do you hear that concern much and what are you doing to address that.

COLEMAN: First of all, I hear that concern a lot. I used to face that concern myself when I was a mayor. The reality is there is legislation in Washington that says you canít do unfunded mandates. So when things are passed we take a look at that. The bottom line is that it is very very frustrating for Washington to tell you youíve got to do something.

Just going back to your country-of-origin question. There is a bill that will make it voluntary, which I think all farm groups support. What I was looking for as you were talking is what some of the costs were. The costs that Iíve seen from the farm groups is about $2 per head for hogs and about $5 a head for cattle. Those are some significant costs. So in the end, if youíre going to do it, do it in a way thatís not going to drive some of the producers out of business.

ARGUS: Responding to the unfunded mandates, you mentioned on unfunded mandates that you questioned it yourself, but are you running into a lot of roadblocks on that or things in general?

COLEMAN: When you say roadblocks, hereís one of the realities you run into. If you talk to educators, what theyíre going to say is the biggest unfunded mandate is special ed. The law basically set a goal of 40 percent federal funding. We were till a few years ago 12 percent federal funding. Weíve upped it to about 19 percent. Folks are still struggling because weíre only halfway where we need to be. Iím co-author of a bill that will allow us to get to that in the next 5-6 years. But itís still frustrating to your folks, for instance, human service people, when they talk about out-of-home placements. So there are a lot of things in the works. The challenge is trying to change it in a cost-effective way. I thin weíve got to get away from the partisanship and politics of it, recognize what has to be done and figure out a way that it can be done responsibly.

Weíre going to face this year in the budget by the way less than 1 percent growth in the discretionary programs. Weíre going to face some very tough issues, and I already have some deep concerns. Iím pretty concerned about cuts in the farm program. I think weíve got to look elsewhere. Iím concerned about cuts in the community development block grants, the effect that that has on local communities.

ARGUS: A question I hear a lot is there are no new taxes coming, yet we have this tremendous debt, interest rates on our debt, the war in Iraq is costing a billion dollars a week. Does all of that add up and how do you work that all out.

COLEMAN: One, in terms of the war in Iraq, you cannot have economic security without national security. The cost of 9/11 not just personally but on the economy is staggering. A trillion dollars. So we fight the war in Iraq. As a result you see elections in Afghanistan, election in Iraq, elections in Palestine. Iím hearing talk about peace in a way that I havenít heard before. That has an impact. A more stable Middle East has an impact ultimately on our security here, on lessening the threat of terrorism. We pay that price because we have to pay that price. Itís either pay now or pay later, itís either pay it there or pay it here.

In regard to the deficit, that is of deep concern. Itís why the president says, ìIím going to ask people to put their money where their mouth is and Iím going to submit a barebones budget.î Then weíve got to deal with that. But the deficit as a percentage of our national gross domestic product is smaller today than it was in the 70s, 80s, and 90s. We have a 1.5 trillion dollar economy. As a result deficits are a small percentage, a very small percentage of that. It still doesnít mean you ignore them. It means that you do those things to generate economic growth and thatís what the tax cuts did, and thatís why you continue to make sure we make permanent some of the tax cuts, getting rid of the marriage penalty, keeping the 10 percent bracket for the lowest level, keeping it that low, for small business such as increased expensing and and bonus depreciation. All those things get money in the marketplace, they grow jobs. You do that and as best you can you keep a lid on spending. We will have to limit spending to less than one percent. What we cut is going to be subject to debate.

ARGUS: No Child Left Behind, do you support that?

COLEMAN: First of all, I would hope everyone would support the concept of No Child Left Behind. What does it say? It says two things. It says that each child has a right to a quality education, and secondly it says, ìLet us put in place a system using local, by the way, local standards.î The states set the measures. But letting parents know whether their kids are learning, thatís a pretty basic concept. Education begins at home. I think itís fair for the federal government to tell every parent to know whether their kids are learning, and if they arenít learning, we should do something about it. The challenge becomes how do we respond, and it gets back to your first question you raised about funding. And the answer to that is something that the Secretary of Education has consistently said, give people at the local level more flexibility in terms with dealing with some of the requirements of No Child Left Behind.

ARGUS: Social security, do you support the initiative that the president is promoting?

COLEMAN: A couple things to lay on the table. First, we have to do something, and we should get away from the argument about whether itís a crisis. Itís a reality that as baby boomers retire, the number of workers per retiree decreases. Anyone 55 and over has nothing to worry about, youíre actually out of this debate because weíre not changing a thing. If you accept that, then I think we have to have a discussion about how weíre going to deal with the reality that weíre going to have this massive number of people retiring and not enough folks to pay to keep the system going. The bottom line is the young worker of today runs a great risk of putting in 12 percent of their pay check each and every week going into a system that will not be able to pay them back. So I think we have to have a conversation. I support the direction the presidentís taking. I would hope that others would engage in the conversation, not ignore it, and figure out a way to deal with it. Itís something that grandparents should be talking to their kids and asking their kids and grandkids, ìWhat do you want?î

ARGUS: Do have any money for a new Houston County jail?

COLEMAN: (Laughs). I get that question from a number of different communities, because thatís not an unusual issue. I have one of my staff, Laurie Hettinger, she works with local communities on their projects. There are pots of money within the federal government to deal with issues like jail funding. I have a larger concept of a rural renaissance which would provide federal bonding dollars going to local communities for infrastructure. My advice on that is to contact my office.

Coleman can be contacted though this website: coleman.senate.gov, or by calling 800-642-6041.

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