“Ideas that matter,
since 1965.”

Ripon Forum
Vol. 45, No. 2

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In This Edition

One year before the last presidential election, THE RIPON FORUM ran an essay entitled,“Entitlement Reform: The 800 Pound Gorilla of the 2008 Campaign.” 

By Ripon Society

Growing our Economy

“There is an ongoing debate in Washington over how to reduce the exploding national debt and strengthen America’s economic outlook. While spending cuts must occur, these reductions alone will not solve the nation’s problems.”

By Ripon Society

Improving Public Safety Through Prisoner Reentry Programs

“Preparing prisoners for successful re-entry into communities is not soft on crime; it is sound public safety policy. It creates an opportunity to reduce recidivism, and reflects the idea that America is a nation which believes in second chances.”

By Ripon Society

“More Work to Be Done”

“For decades, Americans with serious mental illnesses — like bipolar disorder, depression, and schizophrenia — and those who love them, have battled an overwhelming stigma that kept discussions about these diseases at the level of hushed whispers, and kept many of us ignorant of the potential for treatment and recovery.”

By Ripon Society

Beyond the Arab Spring

“When change did come this past spring with uprisings throughout the Arab world, Washington policymakers were left scrambling… Unfortunately, such linear thinking — with virtually no consideration of sudden change — continues among analysts of individual countries in other regions of the world.”

By Ripon Society

Between Salvation and Solvency

Tom Corbett describes Pennsylvania’s Medicaid reform efforts as, “A difficult and intricate program, assembled like a watch but set to a time zone we long ago departed.”

By Ripon Society

How to Fix our Entitlement Crisis: A Workable Four Step Plan

“Each of the three main entitlement programs – Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid – are very different in both goal and design, and need to be examined and reformed individually, even if all of the reforms come as part of a larger deal or package. “

By Ripon Society

Reforming Social Security Disability Insurance

Richard V. Burkhauser talks about reforming social security disability insurance.

By Ripon Society

Saving Social Security

The Ripon Society hosted a Bully Pulpit Policy Conference on Social Security Reform in Washington, DC, on May 26, 2011, a conference that focused not only on the need to address the fiscal challenges facing the Social Security system, but a plan that has been introduced in Congress to do just that.

By Ripon Society

Sunshine is for Voting, not Bargaining

Bill Frenzel makes the point, “If we are going to rely on commissions to help us meet our most pressing fiscal challenges, we need to make sure they have the space and breathing room that will help them get the job done.”

By Ripon Society

CODEL to America

“In listening to the rhetoric and what passes as intellectual discourse in our nation’s capital, one could conclude that our representatives don’t understand much of our people beyond … Washington D.C.”

By Ripon Society

Ripon Profile of Senator Ron Johnson

“We’ve got to learn how to make government more efficient and effective. We’ve got to learn how to live within our means.”

By Ripon Society

Ripon Profile of Senator Ron Johnson

Name: Ron Johnson

Occupation: U.S. Senator (WI)

What was your first job, and what lesson did you learn from it that sticks with you today? My first tax-paying job was at Walgreens. I started at 15, as a dishwasher – then soda jerk, fry cook, and finally night manager before I turned 16.

This is your first elective office. Did your decision to run for the Senate come to you gradually, or did you have an “aha” moment that convinced you to launch your campaign? The decision came when people came up to me after my Tea Party speech. I would say the passage of Obamacare from the Senate – the initial passage – is the one that put me over the edge. It’s a huge assault on our freedom. Non-politicians had to step up to the plate.

You’ve been in office now for nearly five months. What has surprised you most about the job? What’s most surprising to me is that there are actually people here in D.C. who still don’t understand how urgent the debt problem is. Way too many are only now understanding how urgent it is. We have a $1.65 trillion deficit this year. We have amassed $14.3 trillion in debt that will crush the hopes and dreams of future generations unless we take action now.

What’s been the toughest vote you have cast so far, and how did you explain it to your constituents back home? The toughest vote so far was probably the FAA vote. Part of it modernized the Air Traffic Control system. I support both that and other elements of the bill. I felt I had to vote against it because it rejected the proposal to bring spending back to 2008 levels. We’ve got to learn how to make government more efficient and effective. We’ve got to learn how to live within our means.

When you leave office – whether it be at the end of your current term or at the end of another term somewhere down the road – what do you hope your greatest accomplishment will be? I hope I can say I contributed to actually saving this nation from bankruptcy – to bringing us back from the tipping point. I hope to help start us down a path that reverses a culture of entitlement and dependency.

Between you in the Senate, Paul Ryan in the House, Scott Walker in Madison and Reince Priebus at the RNC, Wisconsinites are rattling political cages at every level of government and political office. How do you explain this? Is there something in the water, or is there something else about the politics – and politicians — of the Badger State? In many respects Wisconsin is a microcosm of America. America is divided along a very deep ideological divide – right down the middle – and that’s being played out in Wisconsin. I also believe the folks here are down-to-earth, honest, hard-working people.

Finally, every Wisconsinite has a favorite Vince Lombardi quote. What’s yours? “People who work together will win.” We could use that attitude here in Washington. It’s certainly the attitude I bring to this town.

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