Heath Garrett, Chief of Staff for Senator Johnny Isakson, gave Madison Forum members a Washington Update at the August breakfast meeting at the Marietta Conference Center Hamilton’s Restaurant.
Heath Garrett, Chief of Staff for Senator Johnny Isakson, gave Madison Forum members a Washington Update at the August breakfast meeting at the Marietta Conference Center Hamilton’s Restaurant.
Mr. Garrett complimented Richard Gruetter on his presentation on the Constitution and said that education is the only solution to changing the erosion of the understanding of our Constitution.
MR. Garrett quoted Frederick Hyatt, the classical liberal philosopher from the University of Chicago, who said that the great threat to the United States and to our liberty is not going to come from a totalitarian dictator from across the pond or from another continent, but it is going to come from the slow and steady erosion and move toward socialism in our own country as we continue to see responsibility and our rights moving back to a very powerful federal central government. At that point it becomes easy for a totalitarian dictator type to take over and control our lives, whether it takes the form of fascism, socialism, or some other tyrannical form.
Mr. Garrett says he is a little more optimistic about the future of our country in some respects because he spends a lot of time traveling around the state of Georgia and Washington. The good news is he meets a growing number of people who are starting to refocus on traditional education. There is a growing number of articles in major newspapers about the debate as to whether we ought to be teaching Western Civilization again in our most preeminent institutions of higher education,. It’s sad that we have to have that debate, but at least we are having it and having some success. The National Association of Scholars was successful just recently in implementing at Duke University a new class in Western Civilization curriculum within their Political Science, Economics, and Philosophy Departments, which shows some successes in higher education. He believes that if the American people would spend half as much money on school board elections and focus politically on those elections as they do on senate and congressional races, electors wouldn’t have to deal with 90% of the problems that come up in Washington or in Atlanta at the state level. If we think about the cure for most of the ills that we deal with in society, a strong vibrant education system is the thing that has separated the United States from the world for 200 years. Although we are eroding in certain areas in that regard, we need to improve that. These are the jobs that are the most important in dealing with the future. It takes 14 to 16 years for a child to go through the primary and secondary education process. That’s much more important on a daily basis, in his and Senator Isakson’s minds, than a lot of things that get done in Washington. There is tremendous opportunity, under the No Child Left Behind Act, to get some accountability back at the local level, get back to focusing on the individual student.
On pensions, Senator Isakson is credited with saving the pension reform legislation this summer by using personal diplomacy and talking to the four or five U.S. Senators, of both parties, who were putting the special interests of their states ahead of the national interest. He got a deal done in four hours to pass the bill on the Senate floor, and two weeks later the President signed the bill. Ideologically, the most important thing to happen in the pension reform bill is, in theory, a movement away from defined benefit plans such as legacy pensions and Social Security toward defined contribution plans for the younger generation that are portable and can be built up over a lifetime.
There was a small step forward toward energy independence by getting the rights to go a hundred miles off shore in the Gulf of Mexico to mine the world’s largest deposit of natural gas. The good news about $3.00 gas is that ethanol and other renewable resources for fuel become economically feasible. There is more focus in congress on providing investment tax credits for things like that.
There were disappointments on tax reform. A bill that was introduced covering the estate tax, the extension of all business tax credits due to sunset in 18 months, and giving away the minimum wage issue failed to pass. The tax extensions will pass in the fall, but the estate tax and the minimum wage will probably not come up until after the election.
Mr. Garrett said that even if the judge in Michigan had not taken the wiretapping issue off the table, we would not have been able to foil, in this country, the terrorism plot uncovered in Great Britain. Our current law, even with the NSA wiretapping, does not allow us to do the kind of investigation and to have the kind of deterrents that they have in Great Britain. He says if the NSA wiretapping goes off we are taking very important tool off the table in defending ourselves. He feels there is a conflict of interest on the part of that judge, and the ruling is being appealed.
He says that Senator Isakson has spent his entire August recess going around the state talking about two things, immigration as the most important domestic issue we have, and the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Senator says that Iraq is the right war at the right time and the right place for the right reasons, and even though mistakes have been made, the biggest mistake of all would be to pull out of Iraq right now. It would send a message that if you do enough damage and create enough casualties the American people will not fight you. This is the wrong message to send at this time. We must continue to correct mistakes as they occur and carry on against terrorists in Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan.
Mr. Garrett thinks that most of September will be spent on trying to correct the judicial decisions when it comes to Guantanamo and NSA wiretapping issues. The hope is to get a package bill out that gives the appropriate legislative and congressional authority to engage in those responsibilities. The parties are too divided on appropriations to come to any consensus. There will be campaigning the entire month of October. Then they will go back in November with, hopefully, still a Republican Majority.
On immigration, where Senator Isakson was in May, many other senators are now in agreement after going home and talking to their constituents. Senator Isakson has introduced, with some others, an emergency supplemental bill for $6.2 billion to secure the southern border. This would provide new roads for patrols, 24/7 unmanned aerial vehicles patrolling the border from coast to coast, enough beds and detention to stop catch and release, and to fly everybody back to their country of origin. If it doesn’t pass in September, there is optimism that when real business starts in November they might be able to get a deal done with the House and significantly with the Senate majority.
The meeting ended with general discussion on these topics.