John Breaux's role as a pragmatic dealmaker in Congress

¶ … political positions, committees he's on, his feelings on Medicare and Social Security. There are five references used.

Senator John Breaux is a conservative Southern Democrat from Louisiana. He is highly respected and considered perfect for aiding in bipartisan since he is friendly with both Democrats and Republicans.

Political Positions

Senator Breaux's political positions are similar to Dick Cheney's. He is pro-life, pro-gun and pro-big oil. He is known for being "the voice of the pragmatic, rational center on a variety of high-profile policy disputes -- Medicare, Social Security, tobacco, tax cuts (Cottle, 2001)."

He feels political compromise is extremely important. He is known for reaching beyond party lines, being able to cut political deals and knowing how to "split the difference (Cottle, 2001)."

An Offer

While the presidential race was still being decided in Florida, Senator Breaux kept reminding everyone to exhibit proper political behavior. When it looked like George W. Bush would win, Senator Breaux talked to him on the phone and then journeyed to his ranch. Bush offered Breaux the position of Energy Secretary. This was a big boost for the senator's stature. However, Breaux magnanimously decided to stay in the Senate.

He has been called "the second most powerful man in Bush's Washington (Cotter, 2001)." Breaux feels the middle is more important in the Senate and that's where he is.

Challenges and Misses

Breaux is known for going his own way and this may make his fellow Democrats angry. When Clinton was in office he would push plans that weren't very popular with his party, but felt safe because he knew there was a good chance they would be vetoed. Some unpopular plans were capital gains tax cuts, abortion restrictions and increased oil exploration. However, with Bush in office, he no longer has that security net.

Breaux is known as a "deal-maker whose grand deals never quite work out (Cotter, 2001)." Some of his misses are his work on the failed congressional tobacco settlement and being unable to bring about bipartisan Medicare reform. An odd thing about Breaux is he may like being known as having compromises that went nowhere.

On Capital Hill

Senator Breaux has served on Capital Hill for over 28 years. He was in the House for 14 years and has been in the Senate for over 14 years. During all of his time in office, he has avoided making any serious enemies. Those around him attribute this to his ability of get along with everyone. He was just as close to Bill Clinton as he was to Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott. He was also known to play tennis with the first President Bush.

Winning Elections

Senator Breaux has been unbeatable at home due to being able to be all things to all people. In the 1998 elections he beat his Republican opponent by 32 percentage points and carried all but one parish. Louisiana is a state that is 30% Republican and 30% Democrat. Neither of the parties has ever brought up any negative issues about him because they really don't associate him with any certain political position. He makes all those around him feel like he cares about them and the general consensus is that he's a really nice guy (Cottle, 2001).

Medicare

Breaux has made two different suggestions about restructuring Medicare. "One would require insurers to offer a standard benefits package where all plans provide the same benefits, so that insurers would compete on the basis of cost and quality and not on the basis of benefits (Carlson, 1999)." The other idea would allow insurers to offer a package where the level of benefits could vary in the plans.

He stated that whatever decision was made, the insurers had to provide benefits that were as good as what Medicare was offering then. He also allowed for the insurers to add to benefits such as covering prescriptions.

He felt that the current benefits of seniors under Medicare were inadequate.

Aging

The main age group that worries Breaux is the baby boomers. In the next 20 years there will be over 77 million senior citizens ready for Social Security.

He's concerned with scam programs that are preying on the elderly. He's worried about the medical care that will be available for those over 65 since less than 3% of doctors have any training in geriatrics.

He recommends individual retirement accounts with 2% of the payroll tax invested as a way of reforming Social Security (Waller, 2001).

Committees

Senator Breaux is active on several committees. These include the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation who's jurisdiction includes all ocean-related matters, deep seabed mining and motor vehicle safety.

He's also on the Committee on Finance which oversees international monetary matters, the Internal Revenue Service, Treasury Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.

Since one of his biggest concerns is the elderly he also serves on the Committee on Aging.

Conclusion

Senator John Breaux is a politician who is a rarity in Washington. He is able to side with both the Democrats and Republicans and still have almost everyone like and respect him. He is concerned with the elderly and how are taxes are being spent.

He is a popular Senator who, it seems, is content to stay in Washington and stay in the middle.