Newly-seated U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney says he wants to keep the current Senate filibuster rule, as it provides a “cooling” period where hasty political decisions can be tempered.
Romney, a Republican, spoke to an open Utah House GOP caucus Thursday afternoon, and sounded, a bit, like the new kid who is just getting to understand his place in a complicated political system.
Romney – who said his Capitol Hill office is the same one vacated by retiring Sen. Orrin Hatch – promised to come back to the Utah Legislature next general session and hopefully provide a better report on what he’s accomplished.
He easily won the Hatch seat in November and was sworn in early last month – so he’s been a U.S. senator less than 60 days.
Hatch said he agrees with veteran Senate members – both the Republican majority, and the Democratic minority – that the 60-vote filibuster rule is actually a good idea, for it slows down legislation, and requires at least some minority party votes to get anything done.
The Senate must act in a bipartisan manner, providing a “win-win” for both parties in this very partisan atmosphere of Congress today, he said.
And that is a good thing, said Romney – who didn’t offer much hope of great strides being made in the polarized Washington, D.C.
However, one thing that did surprise Romney is how, on a personal level, GOP and Democratic senators get along.
He and his wife have been welcomed with open arms, by Republicans and Democrats alike, although he is troubled by the fact there are no official meetings between the two parties’ senators.
“We (Republicans) have three luncheons a week, but nothing with the Democrats,” he said.
Unless western congresspeople can somehow find a “win-win” political solution to western federal land transfers, he doesn’t see Congress giving federal lands – which make up 70 percent of Utah – back to our state, Romney said.
He does support the so-called Article V “convention of the states,” or a constitutional convention, the call of which Utah may join this session.
Senate Majority Leader Evan Vickers, R-Cedar City, has such a convention of the states resolution pending.
Romney says neither GOP nor Democratic senators have any will at all in seriously fighting the huge federal budget deficit, which now sits higher than $22 trillion.
He said he’s trying to find a Democratic colleague in the Senate to try to find some “common sense,” bipartisan solution to the ever-growing entitlement issue.
Entitlements, like Social Security and Medicare, make up one-third of the federal budget. Defense makes up one-sixth.
So if federal lawmakers won’t deal with entitlements, and won’t try to stop the growth in the Defense Department, then there really isn’t any meaningful actions that can be taken on the national debt – growing by $1 trillion a year.
Romney is still clearly a political star – TV news reporters who rarely attend Utah GOP House caucuses showed up and the small public area of the caucus room was packed.
