Moran to give battle against gridlock ‘one more try’

Questioned Tuesday at a Baldwin City town hall meeting about how he could accomplish anything positive in the “rigged” Washington, D.C., environment, Sen. Jerry Moran said he would give the system one more chance. The question came after Moran told about 15 area residents that the U.S. Senate was not functional. He laid the blame on Sen. Harry Reid and the Senate majority leader’s use of the body’s rules to derail progress on bills that could improve the economic well-being of the citizenry.

When Moran first joined the Senate in 2011, Reid told him nothing would be accomplished until after the 2012 presidential election, Moran said. Reid’s attitude hadn’t change after the election, he said.

It was to end the gridlock that he agreed to spearhead the GOP’s attempt to win the Senate as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee and not because he loved politics, Moran said.

“I’ll give it one more try,” he said. “I have one more battle in me. I refuse to concede to Harry Reid that the Senate can’t function. If the Republicans get the majority and we can’t function, then I don’t know what the next step is. But at this point in time, I’m an optimist. I have a reason to get up, a reason to live and a reason to do my job. We’ll see what happens.”

The exchange was part of a lively discussion Moran encouraged by having those attending the meeting sit in a book-club like circle. What followed was far from the ideological echo-chamber, with some in attendance questioning the country’s for-profit healthcare system.

For his part, Moran said he hoped that if Republicans did take control of the Senate, President Barack Obama could be persuaded to make changes to the Affordable Care Act. One change he suggested might be possible was the mandate employers must provide health insurance to employees working 30 hours or more a week. That should be increased to 40 hours a week, he said.

Although Moran said he continued to oppose Obamacare because of its complexity, he was aware of the need for change. But that should have been addressed in an incremental and measured way and not with one massive piece of legislation, he said.

Before taking his seat in the Senate, he put together a 10-point list of what he considered were essential changes, Moran said. Among those was the Obamacare measure that insurance companies end the practice of refusing care for pre-existing conditions.

Moran also advocated reduction of regulations and tort reform, noting rural Kansas doctors have been forced to quit delivering babies because they didn’t have the caseload to pay premiums.

The senator maintained states, not Washington, should regulate the level of supervision and oversight medical professionals like nurse practitioners, physician assistants, physical therapists and chiropractors provide.

In response to a comment, Moran said he did favor term limits, but could make a case pro and con. The absence of term limits did allow smaller states like Kansas to have a greater voice when long-serving senators or representatives were appointed to important chairmanships, he said.

“Many in Kansas see our glory days in the Senate as those of Bob Dole and Nancy Kassebaum, and both were in the Senate a long time,” he said.

He has tried to “inoculate” himself from becoming a Washington, D.C., problem. Meetings like the one in Baldwin City helped with that by keeping him in touch with his constituents, Moran said. The real danger, no matter how long someone served, was that elected officials would not consider the best interest of those who elected them but the lobbying interests who would provide them with their next job, he said.