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The Spectacle Blog
Freshman senator Ron Johnson stressed the need for more “citizen legislators” like himself at a press breakfast hosted by The American Spectator and Americans for Tax Reform this morning. Johnson explained that the lack of decisionmakers with experience outside of politics has been the aspect of business on the Hill that has surprised him the most since he rode the Tea Party wave into office.
Explaining that most Congressional staffers are “fine young people” just a few years out of school, Johnson wished that they could understand the “wonder and power of the free market system.”
“You don’t really understand how powerful the free market system is until you lose an order by just a fraction of a percentage,” Johnson said. “Until you lose a customer because you missed a delivery by a day, or six hours. That teaches you something. Living a life teaches you something; having a family teaches you something.”
Johnson is as close to a pure citizen-statesman as can be found in the U.S. Congress. He ran a plastics company in Oshkosh and never thought of doing anything else until he attended a Tea Party event in Madison in late 2009. Johnson recounted that he didn’t even discuss the possibility of running for office against the incumbent Democrat Russ Feingold until January of 2010. Even then, he wasn’t sold on the idea until the legislative battle over Obamacare, during which he heard Barack Obama “demonize” doctors by suggesting that they perform unnecessary procedures for their own profit.
Johnson has a special respect for doctors and their work. His daughter was born with a heart condition that would have proved fatal had she not undergone two cutting-edge — and expensive — procedures. Today his daughter is herself a nurse, studying to become a nurse practitioner. On hearing Obama criticize the high payments doctors command, Johnson made the decision to run. With the help of the Tea Party and the advantage of taking Feingold “by surprise,” he found himself elected to the U.S. Senate a few months later.
Since then, Johnson has approached his role with a businessman’s attitude. He’s prioritized regulatory reform by opposing many of the Obama administration’s new rules and supporting measures like the REINS Act, intended to permanently slow down the pace of regulation. He wants to keep taxes low to free up “job creators” in the private sector. And his vision for real health care reform centers around the need to “reconnect the consumer of the product and the payment of the product” to keep spending down and quality up — just as happened when he introduced consumer-driven health care plans for his own employees (the plans included health savings accounts and high deductibles).
Coming straight from the private sector allows Johnson to admit he doesn’t have all the answers. “You face the expectation that you’ll be an expert on everything, and you simply can’t be,” he shrugged when asked if he’d had a hard time learning about policy issues as a new senator. “A billion-dollar business is huge. There are things going on within a billion-dollar business that, trust me, the CEO has no idea about. So you get here without ever being involved in politics and deal with a $3.6 trillion entity, and there’s an awful lot of things you don’t understand in great detail.”
To reform regulations and rein in spending, Johnson wants to see more private citizens follow his path and become active in politics. Not that he thinks it will be easy — he praised the enthusiasm of Tea Partiers who sacrifice the time and effort to get involved with government at all levels, and warned that others would have to make similar sacrifices in order to change the direction of U.S. politics. He couldn’t help but note that he “had a good life in Oshkosh” that he had to leave behind to come to D.C.
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More Blog Posts by Joseph Lawler
http://spectator.org/blog/2011/11/16/sen-johnson-citizen-statesmen
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PattyMor| 11.16.11 @ 12:49PM
Yes, but anyone running on Republican ticket, has to defeat not only the Democrat, but also the Marxist Media Hounds. Too many just don't want to put through the wringer.
Jack in Wi| 11.16.11 @ 8:18PM
Ron Johnson is my Senator and I voted for him. It was great to see the backside of Feingold. But Ron has been there a year and I don't see alot of action. I wish he was more of a fire eater, instead of the cautious business man. I hope Ron isn't being drawn into the webb by people like McConnell and Hatch. The best thing for the Republican party would be for old hacks like Hatch, Allen of Virginia, Thommy Thompson here and the old cocker from Indiana got there lunch handed to them in the primary. They have long out lived any usefulness they had.
rn| 11.17.11 @ 1:18AM
Jack in Wisconsin. Hey! Great. I like what you just wrote earlier today.
Thanks.
Maybe somebody steals your "Jack in Wi" and posts as you sometimes?
Not sure. Maybe I just need to read what you write more carefully. (And I will in the future)
This comment above was right on. Guys like Hatch, McConnell, and candidates like George Allen (running in Virginia) need to just stay in their local donut shops (back in the home districts) ordering coffee and more donuts -- where they cannot inflict any more damage.
They define CAREER Polititican.
Thanks, Jack. I appreciate your post.
Jack in Wi| 11.17.11 @ 2:13AM
rn thanks: Hang around the site. It is a lot of fun fighting the zombies around here. You know it took me till just now to remember the name of the old codger from indiana. His name is Dick Lugar. He is about 80 years old and hasn't been effective as long as I can remember. He is always the Democrats best friend. The age of these guys isn't the problem. It's the fact that they have been sellouts their whole career
Bumr50| 11.16.11 @ 12:56PM
The Herman Cain treatment is meant to be a lesson to anyone thinking of becoming a "citizen statesman."
X. Actley| 11.16.11 @ 1:06PM
Yes but not the lesson you think.
rn| 11.17.11 @ 1:12AM
I agree with you Bumr5.0. You are right on target with that. He, Mrs. Palin, a teacher out in California in 2010....all of them crossed the line when they tried to enter the fray as principled, strong-willed neophytes -- neophytes that don't have all the NECESSARY ticket punches on their resumes.
The establishment will not be caught off guard again. Sure, here and there a very charismatic person will somehow get through the gauntlet.
But a true unashamedly Bible believing Christian conservative who wants to shut down much of the national government, halve the annual budget, axe taxation and regulations, and limit the powers of the judiciary, Congress, and the presidency?
No. The Country Club/Wall Street/Windsor Tie Republicans won't stand for it.
Sen. Johnson snuck in on a bootleg. Everybody's seen that play now. Nobody in the (old) league will be fooled again.
Anyone even thinkin' of crossin' that line will get a smack down fiercer that what they've just started on Cain.
Bumr50| 11.16.11 @ 2:55PM
It's exactly the lesson I think.
"Wonks" need not apply.
It sort of defeats the whole purpose of "citizen statesman."
Contrary to belief on many websites, most Americans either don't care or don't have time to study up on every single issue and philosophy.
A "citizen statesman" would be one who brings a fresh perspective, not the tired, old, cynicism of politicians and political junkies.
X. Actley| 11.16.11 @ 4:10PM
Wonks need not apply????
A wonk is someone who "takes an excessive interest in minor details of political policy". Cain is the exact opposite of a wonk. He not only doesn't know or care about the details of much of anything he prides himself on not knowing and thinks it doesn't matter because he'll just surround himself with wonks and listen to their advice.
A president doesn't need to be a wonk but they need to have at least a basic familiarity with the issues of the day. Being President isn't like an after school job at a pizza shop where you can learn as you go and there's someone there with more experience to help you out if you get in over your head.
rendite| 11.17.11 @ 1:01AM
Near the close of the article above we read, "To reform regulations and rein in spending, (Sen.)Johnson wants to see more private citizens follow his path and become active in politics. Not that he thinks it will be easy...."
Focus on the "not easy." And multiply times 500.
The Tea Party is now no longer new. It shot its first round in November 2009, then spring 2010 and might have had its high water mark in November 2010. Just a week ago, Tea Pary/Conservative issues, candidates, initiatives, priorities faded mightily. Fizzled.
The old Guard GOP is forewarned now. They will not be blindsided anymore by Tea Partiers.
I guarantee you there are two dozen Republican men in Wisconsin who hate Senator Johnson. Every day they grind their teeth and mutter, "How'd that Johnny Come Lately do it? That's not his seat in Washington. That's mine! MINE! Where was he busting his tail for the governor's race back in ______ or sweating it out in the state house in Madison like me 10 years ago...."
Sen. Johnson can rightly claim to wish for more citizen reluctant legislators. In my neck of the woods, the RINOs of the GOP are clamping down.
Just ask Jim DeMint what he thinks are the chances of expanding the Tea Party foursome in the US Senate.
Rich Rostrom| 11.18.11 @ 12:42AM
Citizen legislators:
Term limits would help. More important would be session limits. Legislatures should be restricted to meeting no more than six months in a year.
That would mean the legislators could and would have day jobs - would remain involved in the real world.