Q and A with Congressman Kevin Cramer

ND’s lone Congressman on choosing new Speaker

As House Republicans prepare to elect a new Speaker of the House to replace the retiring John Boehner, HPR sat down with a man in the middle of it all, Congresssman Kevin Cramer (R- ND). Cramer has supported Boehner despite criticism from conservatives both nationally and statewide that he didn’t go far enough in opposing Obama. The Speaker will be chosen at press time and is widely expected to be Congressman Paul Ryan (R- WI) after the anointed candidate House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R- CA) dropped out of the race in what many saw a sign of dysfunction in the Republican party as conservatives battle those in power for control of it. We asked Congressman Cramer his thoughts about all of this.

HPR: After Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race for speaker, I noticed some conservatives in North Dakota chastising you for supporting the idea of John Boehner remaining in the Speaker chair. Why do you think it is conservatives hate John Boehner so much?

Congressman Kevin Cramer: I think part of why they dislike is that they are just so of tired of tradition in many respects. I also think that a lot of them have either forgotten or maybe didn’t know about Speaker Boehner’s incredible contributions to conservative ideals in the United States Congress and some of the successful reforms that we now enjoy as conservatives are largely because of his influence. Things like for example the elimination of earmarks in the Appropriations process, that’s a John Boehner thing, we didn’t have that before he came along. Term limits for committee chairmen was a John Boehner thing, he was one of the original Gang of 7, him and Rick Santorum, who came into Congress pushing for these types of reforms. I think some of it is just that they have forgotten some of that or maybe they don’t attribute it to him. I think some of it is in many respects, they take out their frustration with Barack Obama on John Boehner because they can’t take out on Barack Obama because he is a Democrat and they don’t support him. They support Republicans and they don’t want Barack Obama to be President and they are frustrated by that and they take it out on John Boehner because he happens to be the Republican leader in Congress.

HPR: You kind of mentioned some of it there but what do you think John Boehner’s legacy will be?

KC: I think one of his big legacies really will be the elimination of earmarks in the Appropriations process. Now that’s something that the Senate has not done. The House because of the elimination of earmarks, we’ve been able to reign in a lot of this spending. I think another major part of his legacy will be of course the Budget Control Act and sequestration which has allowed spending discipline in Congress that without John Boehner wouldn’t be there, it would be runaway spending. I think when you look at the fact that we’ve had real spending reductions for four years in a row for the first time since the Korean War, that’s John Boehner’s legacy. When you look at deficit from about a trillion and a half to now just over billion dollars, that’s a John Boehner legacy and I think that’s a lot of it. I also think that John will be remembered in many respects for his compassion and for his ability to work in a very, very difficult situation with a very power hand. Ever since he’s been Speaker,Barack Obama has been President and most of the time he’s been Speaker, Harry Reid’s been Majority Leader, so he really has been dealt a poor hand and has handled as well as anybody can. I know people expect more but again a lot of that is their frustration as much as anything with Barack Obama and they take it out on John Boehner and anybody else frankly who’s in Washington at the time. To some degree, that’s earned and to another degree, it’s also the result of a bad hand.

HPR: What do you want to see from the next Speaker?

KC: I think in many respects the next Speaker, what I want to see and what a lot of members want to see, is a return to regular order, a process that involves more members, more rank and file members in decision making process, earlier in the process. I think for longtime members, me included, we’ve been somewhat frustrated by a somewhat closed shop at the leadership level where rank and file members input isn’t quite as valued or welcome, I think that’s part of it. I think also a return to more of the authority towards policy making going back to the committees and the Committee Chairman and their members rather than more at the Leadership level realizing that at the end of the day you still have to have a leader, you can only have one Speaker who’s in the position to negotiate on behalf of our principles with the Senate and the White House but I think as much as anything it’s going to be about process not even so much about philosophy and I think we’re ready for that fresh start.

HPR: Do you think a lot of people are unrealistic about what they want the Speaker to do? I think a lot of conservatives were upset with Boehner when he didn’t shut the government down, wanted him to not fund the government, wanted him to sort of go nuclear in some respects, sort of fight any way you can whereas Republicans in power were worried about how that would hurt them politically if they were to do that. But some of the regular, everyday conservatives want you to do more, is that unrealistic?

KC: I think that’s where part of the paralysis from Washington comes from the people whose negotiating position is always all or nothing and when all or nothing is your negotiating position generally you end up with nothing and that’s been proven over time and time again. So I do think part of that frustration comes from that. But I think part of the House of Representatives, we are a creature of the people who elect us, we’re 435 diverse members for 435 diverse Congressional districts and I do think extremes in both parties have way too much of a grip on the party’s machinery and that has made governing difficult. That said Chris, I would also say some of that translates into very unrealistic expectations. We probably haven’t managed people’s expectations real well but we’ve also had some entities working against us. I think conservative entertainment does some of that, I think some of the conservative think tanks who have turned their tanks over to more of a fundraising machinery, they’ve used the ability to drive wedges between conservatives for fundraising tools and unfortunately set unrealistic expectations that just can’t be met. One of the best examples I could give is that we often hear how the House has the power of the purse, they should be able to inflict their will on Barack Obama no matter what. They kind of ignore the fact that the power of the purse starts in the House but it ends with the President’s signature or veto and there’s a Senate in between. But’s it’s been perpetuated a bit by people with false information who know better.

HPR: Have you made decision on whether you will support Paul Ryan?

KC: I have, I’ll support Paul.Paul’s the best prepared, he’s uniquely prepared for this challenge. Paul combines two things that rarely go together and that is experience and youthfulness. He’s only 45 years old yet he’s been in Congress for 15 years and he’s worked in Congress prior to that. He’s been a candidate for Vice President so he’s accustomed to both intellectual excellence especially in specific areas like tax policy but he’s also had to think big and understand a broad swath of issues which clearly he did when he was a Vice Presidential nominee. Paul is the right guy at the right time. The other thing is, this will be the most noticeable difference between John Boehner and Paul Ryan, John Boehner really chose not to be the spokesman of the party. In other words while he did his weekly news conferences and things, he didn’t do a lot else, he didn’t do a lot of local talk radio, he didn’t do the Sunday morning news shows on TV on a regular basis, he kind of left that up to his membership to be the spokesperson within each of our own circle of influence and that’s ok to a point. But Paul Ryan likes to articulate conservative solutions to the challenges in America, he’s good at it, he can be a little nerdy when he does it but he’s a smart guy and he’s an articulate guy and he talks fast as you will find out. That will be a major difference that I think a lot of conservatives that were frustrated with John Boehner, they are going to find that in terms of conservative ideas and ideals, Paul Ryan is not a lot different than John Boehner. The difference is he will articulate those conservative ideals a lot more regularly with a lot more success.

HPR: Can anyone bridge the gap between the conservatives and the people in power? A lot of people talk about it being sort of a civil war, a lot of people with the whole Kevin McCarthy thing were talking about how dysfunctional House Republicans are, we saw recently President Obama comparing you to Grumpy Cat, can anybody bring the two sides together?

KC: If anyone can, Paul Ryan can. Speaking of Barack Obama, he is part of the problem in this town. Speaking of guys who want it their way or the highway, he is an all or nothing negotiator and when you even find common ground with Barack Obama, he changes the rules or moves the goal post. He has almost no close relationships in Congress and that’s made it very difficult for Congress to function, not just Republicans but the entire Congress. Most honest Democrats would say the same thing about him. So I think that’s been somewhat problematic. But with regard to dysfunction, one of the things I would say is our founders were very wise when they created the bicameral Legislature and especially when they created the people’s House. I think we are a reflection of our constituents. Our constituents are narrowly divided, we are narrowly divided. Our constituents are passionate, we are passionate. Constituents are somewhat concerned if you will, we are somewhat concerned.You talk about Kevin McCarthy, even in the midst of that week of dysfunction, during that week of tumultuousness, the House of Representatives that Friday passed a bill with over 60% of members voting for it, to lift the oil export ban. Now that was a big bi-partisan piece of legislation that exceeded the standards that the Senate needs to move a bill forward and to pass a bill and we did it during a week when our Majority Leader withdrew his name from consideration for Speaker of the House and we were not sure what the future was going to provide. Even in that sort of dysfunction, the House performed in a way that we haven’t seen Congress perform in quite a while. So I just think a lot gets over dramatized this quote dysfunction. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve got a lot of work to do but it’s also not as dire as it probably seems when you are watching MSNBC or Fox News.

HPR:This budget deal, is that something you approve of? I’ve already seen some of the Presidential candidates call it John Boehner’s golden parachute and the New York Times now says that Obama win in budget deal as Boehner cleans out the barn.

KC: Everybody gave up something in it. Barack Obama gave up part of Obamacare for crying out loud. One of the things is it eliminates the employee mandate that requires employees to enroll in employer sponsored health care coverage if they don’t want it or don’t need it. That’s a pretty big concession on the President’s part. It increases spending above his request for defense. So I’d say he gave a fair bit there. There’s also some reforms on Medicare and Social Security disability thanks to John Boehner, he locked up Social Security. The White House wanted to go after some Social Security funds and he locked that up. I would disagree with that characterization of it. That said, I am a no vote right now because one thing the President did push for and go in the agreement that I absolutely cannot go along with, there’s a little piece in there that reforms the crop insurance program, it’s a violation of the farm bill that was closely negotiated in 2014 and is quite fragile. It lowers the rate of the return that the crop insurance agencies can earn and would end up forcing crop insurance into the USDA as the Obamacare of crop insurance by creating this government single payer system and we would lose all the efficiencies of this safety net program and with that all it saves is $3 billion dollars. So it’s a precedent that’s devastating to the crop insurance agency and a violation of our commitment to farmers, while at the same time only saving $3 billion dollars. So that piece of it, if that doesn’t get fixed, I am a no vote.

HPR: Final question for you, all this is kind of playing out as Republicans are looking to pick a Presidential nominee for 2016 and you’ve seen where whoever says the most outlandish thing tends to get a rise in the polls, what do you make of some of the candidates out there, who’s in the lead and sort of what the rank and file want and who’s best to win the Presidency?

KC: That’s a great point. With so many people in the race, it really does allow a consolidation of the angry people that are anti-establishment and believe me I understand their concerns, they are sort of consolidating around Donald Trump and Ben Carson. I don’t have a huge problem with either one of them, I’d much prefer Ben Carson to Donald Trump but I think the fact that there’s so many candidates obviously they are splitting up all that vote into single digit pieces, until some of that consolidates and those people get out of the race, it’s going to be hard to see where this goes. If it stays this way through New Hampshire and into South Carolina, then that creates momentum for Trump and maybe Carson. Again I am not maybe judging hem one way or the other, it does create an unusual circumstance and we’ll see how it plays out. One thing I think you will see with a Speaker Ryan is he is very cognizant of the House of Representatives role and the Republican brand and how this plays itself out in the big stage of a Presidential campaign.