Mitch Daniels: "Keeping the Republic"
http://thedianerehmshow.org/shows/2011-09-26/mitch-daniels-keeping-republic
Mitch Daniels is serving his second term as governor of Indiana. Since he took office in 2005, he has gained national attention for putting Indiana's fiscal house in order. He is credited with turning a $700 million deficit into a billion-dollar surplus. Many of his supporters were disappointed when he decided not to run for president. The governor's detractors contend he's anti-union, anti-immigrant and has done little to help struggling families. In a new book, Daniels explains his policy decisions and how to restore prosperity to America. A conversation with Governor Mitch Daniels.
Guests
Governor Mitch Daniels
Republican governor of Indiana; he was director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush; and was a senior aide to President Reagan.
Gov. Mitch Daniels Answers Audience Questions
Q: I've lived in Indiana for 10 years and moved to our particular town because of the wonderful school system. Under Mitch Daniels, we've seen funding for public education at all levels reduced every year. How can he boast about being fiscally responsible, when his cuts steal from our future by denying the best possible education for our young people? - From Robyn via Facebook
A: Robyn, those are simply not the facts. Spending on K-12 is far higher than when we arrived and has gone up every year except one, when virtually every state in the country was reducing it further than we did. It is rising again this year, plus we have resumed our drive to fund full day kindergarten for every 5 year-old.
As I said on the air, 56% of every Indiana state tax dollar goes to K-12, the highest percentage in state history and the highest in America.
That said, more money has not led to better results, in Indiana or anywhere else. Since you obviously care about the academic achievement of our kids, please be a vocal supporter of the reforms we have passed this year. They are the kinds of actions that people from President Obama to me agree on.
Q: You've been a supporter of investing in infrastructure. What do you think of President Obama's infrastructure plan in the "American Jobs Act?"
Q: I live in Indiana. Daniels sold off our state's assets and told us we had a surplus of money that we can use for a rainy day. Our unemployment is higher than I've ever seen in my lifetime. Could you please ask him what he meant by a "rainy day?" Thank you.
- From Cheryl via Facebook
A: Rebuilding America's infrastructure should be another goal on which people who otherwise disagree should come together. I think there is a far better route than the old-school, centrally-driven approach the President just proposed. The two keys are to welcome rather than spurn private capital as part of the solution, and to jettison as much of the ponderous and redundant federal regulatory rulebook as possible, so that projects don't take years just to get started.
Cheryl asks indirectly about this subject. She incorrectly says we "sold off state assets." In fact, we sold nothing, but through converting our Toll Road, which we continue to own, to a tightly regulated public utility, we harvested billions of dollars which we are reinvesting in a record infrastructure building program. None of these dollars – zero – went to our rainy day funds. Those funds, which were below empty when we arrived, have been rebuilt to a reasonable surplus. We used them during the recent downturn to avoid the huge cuts to public education, Medicaid, and other services that happened in almost every other state.
Read an Excerpt
Excerpted from "Keeping the Republic: Saving America by Trusting Americans" by Mitch Daniels by arrangement with Sentinel, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc., Copyright (c) Mitch Daniels, 2011:
Comments
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Gov. Daniels underestimates us when he says that we believe that we are paying into social security and expect an equal amount out. I am a 31-year-old dad and small business owner. I pay into social security because I love my grandparents, and my friend's grandparents. I pay into the system, instead of paying them directly because I also care about my parents and I want them to have social security. I care about my parent's friends, my friends, my wife, and my children. I want a social security system because I want them all to have social security, not just myself.
This is another example of the Greediest Generation assuming that the rest of us think like they do: looking out for number one.
Daniels was the Director of OMB during the G.W.Bush administration. Need we say more? the Clinton surplus disappeared, his estimate of the cost for the war in Iraq were wildly off the mark. And this is whom we look to for advice?
I'm a hoosier who's very glad that he didn't run for POTUS. His management of the state has ensured that Indiana will remain a lower tier state for the remainder of my life.
My mother's family has farmed the northern border of Indiana for four generations, so I claim some Hoosier even if I left the area a long time ago. So this fourth generation half-Hoosier is disappointed on the three following fronts:
1) Gov Daniels betrays his more compassionate governance style by throwing women under the bus through his anti-life reproductive policies. He lost support in my family when he relegated women's health below that of livestock.
2) Gov Daniels, who claims the president pandered by providing small checks to seniors even though there was not a Social Security COLA for two years, displays his own pandering by using the term "Ponzi" scheme to describe SS. Diane, thank you for not giving an inch here and holding Gov Daniels accountable for his language.
3) Gov Daniels fails to recognize that many seniors have had their 401(k)s decimated over the last four years. His parents and senior family members may not be of modest means, but those in my family are. Those small checks mean the difference between protein on the table and the thermostat set at 68 as opposed to 62 for at least a few weeks during a winter.
The big fraud about Social Security is that the government has been borrowing the SS trust fund for general revenues and now many conservatives tell us the 2.4 trillion dollars can't be paid back to SS. Governor Daniels should tell us whether and how he proposes to pay Social Security back.
UNBELIEVABLE that everyone says there hasn't been any increase in the cost of living for the last 2 years.
Gas is higher than ever even though the price per barrel is LESS than when Bush left office.
Our average cost of groceries for a family of 3 has gone up by 50% and rent has gone up 5% every year. Adding to this, there hasn't been an equal change in pay!
Please, someone explain how that's not an increase in the cost of living.
Why are the Republicans being blamed already if there is a government shut down? The House passed a funding bill, but the Senate tabled it. The senate and the Democrats appear to be the ones blocking funding for disaster relief so that they can protect their sacred cows. Under Bill Clinton, Democrats were willing to make offsets for disaster relief. Why are they so intransigent now?
Exactly, please only have on guests who agree with my core belief system, one that is not open to new information or opinions with which I disagree. I come here to have my view of the world reinforced, not challenged. I'm on strike until you improve guest selection!
Diane,
Thanks for allowing Governor Daniels on your show. Now please be a journalist & don't show your bias so clearly. Tough questions are one thing, but continually interrupting him to contradict him is another.
Gov. Daniels- thank you for being on the show & thanks for standing your ground. I will take the ponzi scheme analagy several steps further & call it a mafia-like extortion of the American people - totally against our will & Diane is WRONG- it is ABSOLUTELY illegal & unconstitutional!!! I appreciate your politeness while not letting her get away with her "statements of fact."
I should be clear and forgot to include quotation marks after my sentence ending debt!
Those figures are attributable to Linda J. Bilmes and I thank her for making them available.
It should read:
"We've spent more than $1 trillion in Iraq, not counting the $700 billion consumed each year by the Pentagon budget. And spending in Iraq and Afghanistan now comes to more than $3 billion weekly, making the wars a major reason for record-level budget deficits.
Two years ago, Joseph Stiglitz and I published The Three Trillion Dollar War in which we estimated that the budgetary and economic costs of the war would reach $3 trillion.
New figures now indicate that those estimate were far too conservative—the cost of the wars will reach between $4 trillion and $6 trillion!"
The point is the same....the man has no credibility.
Gov. Daniels' comment that "when FDR approved SS the average American lived to age 62" is not relevant and misrepresents the data. Since more babies and young children died of infectious diseases in the 30's, those who lived beyond age 50, had a much HIGHER average age span than 62 and did therefore use retirement benefits.
I believe that increasing the tax on the wealthy is not sufficient alone. We need to generate more revenue from everyone. The periods when taxes were greatest were paradoxically the times when the country has grown the most, so to say that raising taxes will "kill growth" is a straw man. I am a yellow dog Democrat, but I would support a flat tax that disallows all tax exemptions except a cost of living deduction of $30,000 per adult individual per household.
I think we should also consider at a federal level to control our spending by federal bonds that are directed at funding specific projects. Americans don't want to write a blank check to Congress to spend on whatever they choose, but they don't want to jeopardize spending critical to training our workers for high-tech future or maintaining infrastructure.
Congress could also eliminate the controversy on abortion funding by allowing taxpayers to check one of two boxes to support abortion services or abstinence education, so they could direct the government how to spend money on this controversial issue.
The Governor, and most of his Republican colleagues, constantly harp on "smaller government". It has become the buzz word for Republicans. What exactly does this smaller government look like? Does it mean a smaller budget for congressional office expenses and travel? Does it mean that we reduce the number of seats in the Congress? Which departments would they like to see go away? It seems ironic that Republicans want smaller government yet whenever we have had a Republican administration government expands....
I would like to know where these "overpaid" public employees are. I worked for state government and was paid the same as university professors -- that is, professors who had a nine-month contract, while I had a 12-month contract! No one I knew at work was there because we were highly paid. We were there because we were dedicated to public service, and that was true of 90% of the people I met who worked for the federal government in SAMHSA (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration).
Of course Indiana pays a higher percentage of K-12 costs since it took on that responsibility as part of the real estate tax reform.
Governor Daniels is correct that the lack of growth in the economy is putting us in a deeper and deeper hole. Where he is missing the boat, is that cutting government spending = frantic firing of people, often people with great expertise and experience, that will not be easily re-researched or quickly re-learned, or available to be taught to the next generation of Americans in wisely and safely managing our public health, engineering our transportation, fairly and consistently providing guidelines for business and identifying and exploring growth areas for the way forward. The imagination boggles at the loss of public wisdom and resource as well as immediate and unquestionable contribution to decreased government income as these people move to retirement and social security and medicare or unemployment roles or take a job someone else, now on unemployment would have gotten. Put this against the possibility that a tax break to the wealthy might be going to American job creation, but just as likely is going to investment overseas---- ???? This is a bad bet. Lets get/keep people working anyway we can and keep as much of the resources of the American government intact, so that we will continue to be strong in the future.
We should not let people, without the imagination to see what the employees in the government are doing to make our lives better everyday, intimidate us into disrespecting the value and sincerity and importance of the work of others.
Why were Iraq war costs keep off budget during the Bush administration? Why not pull all of our troops from the middle East and Afghanistan and let China solve these problems. They share a common border with Afghanistan and Pakistan and have a network of roads leading
right up to the border. Our human capital is better off spent
working in the USA in WPA projects rather than dying in Afghanistan.
Why were Iraq war costs keep off budget during the Bush administration? Why not pull all of our troops from the middle East and Afghanistan and let China solve these problems. They share a common border with Afghanistan and Pakistan and have a network of roads leading
right up to the border. Our human capital is better off spent
working in the USA in WPA projects rather than dying in Afghanistan.
Diane was spot on in not falling for Gov. Daniels' charm. She didn't let him wriggle off the hook and pressed him on his logical inconsistencies. In one hour she demonstrated why he shouldn't run for president. Good work Diane! You go girl!
This guy has a silk tongue and seems to love sounding like he agrees with whomever is speaking (to make it seem like they agree with him) but he is just another talking point wordsmith. Why would he talk about the viability of social security by using average life expectancies in the past but an exaggerated current life expectancy other than to fool people into buying what he's selling. I'm glad Diane called him out on using the term Ponzi to describe social security though his response was little more than "Diane I couldn't agree with you more. I know it's inaccurate but as long as I got the association in a few heads I don't care."
This guy has a silk tongue and seems to love sounding like he agrees with whomever is speaking (to make it seem like they agree with him) but he is just another talking point wordsmith. Why would he talk about the viability of social security by using average life expectancies in the past but an exaggerated current life expectancy other than to fool people into buying what he's selling. I'm glad Diane called him out on using the term Ponzi to describe social security though his response was little more than "Diane I couldn't agree with you more. I know it's inaccurate but as long as I got the association in a few heads I don't care."
I am curious to know when our state and national officials will address deeper cuts to military expenditures. As a nation, we dedicate vast amounts of our revenue to funding war and homeland security. Some substantial cuts could be made without jeopardizing our security, if done so correctly. The monies cut could be re-directed to education and our needed social welfare programs, with money to spare to help reduce our deficit.
As an 29 year old middle class educator and parent, I am deeply worried about the ability of my and my children's generation to maintain our standard of living amidst rising costs of living. We do need to reign in our spending to reduce the national deficit, but I feel we have our priorities in the wrong places. If we are to maintain our stature as the most powerful nation in the world, we would be far better served if we look to solving the problems in our educational system, so that the next generation of American workers and leaders have the opportunity to better themselves and develop their talents and skills. Developing a more effective educational system for the 21st century, and making post-secondary education options affordable for ALL families would be a great starting point.
Providing baseline social services is a must (social security, medicare, etc), but solving the debt problems requires our politicians to look at the elephant in the room (ie military spending).
The OTHER elephant in the room is the current failure of our representative democracy. It seems many politicians worry primarily about remaining in office, dedicating much time to re-election efforts. In order to stay in power, many politicians stay away from the truly important issues facing our nation, diverting public energy and attention to lesser issues. Term limits may help alleviate this failure, but what politician is bold enough to address this issue, or vote on such a measure?
Mr. Daniels is entitled to his opinions. However, what I hear today does nothign to persuade me he is not what America needs to fix our problems. Unions are the only group that can have enough clout to stop complete takeover of the government by big corporations who already treat us as peasants in their overall plan to push their idology on us.
Dear Diane,
I'm a federal research scientist and my coworkers and I frequently listen to your program while working at the bench. We were greatly dismayed at your program today and had to turn it off; it is ridiculous to blame the federal budget problems on federal worker salaries and pensions. With my PhD, I only earn 1/2 to 2/3 what I would in industry. However, I'd rather make a real difference in the world than just earn money without believing in what I do, and I felt like with my agency I could. Those of us who've joined in the past two decades have pensions far less generous than what was offered before (nothing better than I would earn at a university or in industry). Furthermore, we are not paid overtime or for weekends, and regularly work more hours than is required of us. We're NOT the problem, we work hard and believe in our mission and in serving the American people. Throwing money at wars and stimulating businesses that don't translate that stimulus into better wages or more hiring is the problem. I'm dissapointed that you allow your guests to take this lazy and unjustifiable viewpioint without any challenge. My coworkers and I may give your show another chance in the future, but for now we've got a bad taste in our mouths and are back to classical music while we work.
Just another typical Republican expounding the "starve the beast" philosophy. He made his millions as a corporate executive on the backs of the common worker and by fleecing stockholder with inflated executive salaries. He intends to keep that class them in their place without the aggravation of union representation.
Mitch and George Bush have done commendable work driving the national debt through the roof leaving an insurmountable mess of foreign, domestic and fiscal policy for the next (Obama) administration to cope with. Mitch and the Bush administration could not grasp the concept of funding their multiple-front war follies. But, now he's the expert and it's all the middle class and the unions fault for everything they screwed up.
Diane, this hour's program was a one sided 'book report.' It wasn't news and should have been relegated to the second hour of your program that is usually devoted to discussing works of fiction.
Mitch Daniels, another Republican who wants to destroy government and transfer all the wealth of the nation and the planet to the top 10%. Hogwash that will kill the majority of humans on this planet and decimated the American middle class. People like this don't even deserve a serious listen, let alone a post in our government.
Americans are starting to wake up although it may be too late to save most of us from the ravages of the neofascists who don't want to eliminate government, they want to eliminate democracy and institute a fully corporatized state which sends our taxes to multi-national corporations and then declares the government bankrupt after stealing all our money.
I am more than disgusted with this neofascists who try to present a photogenic face to the American people while they steal everything in site and try to convince us this is just the way of the world and human nature.
Their boundless greed and contempt for other humans beings disqualifies them from having the least forum in which to spread their poison.
They are mainly legalized criminals, often legalized murderers as we witnessed last week with the murder of Troy Davis in Georgia.
I am over being 'reasonable' with people who could care less if others die.
I will speak up in every corner possible against these neofascists who want to do nothing but destroy our nation, our people and the planet.
This is not rocket science, yet programs like this present a veneer of civility, masking that they are fostering death and destruction.
Mitch Daniels handled every question flawlessly, in effect he made every contrary and negative opinion on this forum and on the phone look ridiculous.
We are poorer as a country with the fact that Mitch did not choose to run for president.
Governor Mitch Daniels is reckless and destructive. Sorry I am not able to call in. I would have loved to talk to this person directly.
The family unit is the foundation of this nation. How can he and the GOP continue to celebrate family values and importance while, at the same time, promote and champion laws and measures that will pull the rug out from under the family? Do you think a house, a car, a collection of work tools and life it self — was all acquired with a “mouse click.” That letting this unit to fail, sell off all of its possessions (home, car, tools), and then imagine when work is available again, it will just spring to life again, and show up bright eyed and ready to work?
The GOP cares nothing of the family. We have enabled them to continued to wear a shroud of a God fearing evangelical neighbor, not for Good, but to mislead the nation and to destroy the block that builds this nation — the American Family!
I do agree, the American life style needed to change. We are exporting money and technological know-how at an alarming rate. We are conduction business with nations that do not share our same standers of humanity or environmental stewardship. And nations that we engage in trading with do not desire the products that we produce and instead choose to hoard American currency abroad — moneys meant for circulation!
I don't know how Diane can assert - vehemently - that social security isn't a Ponzi Scheme, unless she has a very different definition than I do. Here is the most common definition I found on the web: "a[n] investment operation that pays returns to its investors from...the money paid by subsequent investors, rather than from any actual profit earned by the...organization running the operation. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going." But, social security is worse - MUCH WORSE - than a Ponzi scheme, because the government uses coercion to get its "investors" (through taxation), whereas people like Bernie Madoff didn't & couldn't force anyone to invest in a Ponzi scheme.
So, the question is: do the benefits paid by social security depend entirely on the money paid into it by new workers? You better believe it; it's the height of naivety to think that the government isn't broke out of its mind & that social security is solvent.
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, & swims like a duck, it must be a duck.
Daniels's point, I think, is (& if not, it should be), "Why should anyone be forced to pay for their neighbor's retirement?" If I've saved & sacrificed over the course of my life to make sure I don't have to rely on anyone else in my retirement, why should I be forced to pay for someone who did not do any of those things? Why should the hard-working ant be forced to share his bounty with the lazy grasshopper? Notice I emphasize _force_. There are plenty of charitable ants out there who are willing to help grasshoppers - both the lazy kind & hard working but perhaps unlucky kind. Government coercion isn't the way to make that happen.
M. Heckler,
I love my parents & grandparents too, which is why I have set up separate accounts for them to ensure that i can support them in their old age, and we have purchased a home which can accomodate them.I imagine what I could do if I could keep that money & put it in a fund for them that could actually accrue interest . . . . pipe dream I guess with so many like you around. I'm glad you are so noble & caring & that you don't need the money- I guess we are the lucky few, but what about the people who won't see that money who actually do need it??
On the surface, I appreciate Gov. Daniels' emphasis on large issues, and he voices a conservative mantra of "providing a safety net" while "getting government off the back of free enterprise", a philosphy that I find appealing. However, his actions diametrically oppose that philosphy in how he handled the First Step program, which provides therapy services to families with disabled children aged birth to 3 years old. When I joined the program as a Physical Therapist under the prior democratic administration, I agreed with their efforts to use outcome measures to determine if children were benefiting from therapy, and eliminating ineffective therapy. Under Gov. Daniels, poor children and families that desperately need the services no longer receive them. He "achieved" this by using an outcome measure that by any scientific review was inappropriate (hence eliminating children due to an inappropriate test, not due to their need), raised eligibility requirements, and added a layer of bureaucracy by requiring therapists to join management companies rather than contract directly with the state (paid for by docking therapists income drastically). The result is inadequate numbers of therapists serving the program, inappropriate outcome and eligibility measures removing the "safety net" from predominately poor children, and eliminating a whole group of entrepreneurs from the Indiana economy. Sadly, I am once again disillusioned by the disconnect between conservative rhetoric and actual practice.