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  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Not done serving: U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, 80, the longest serving senator in Indiana�s history, was in Vermillion County Friday for the dedication of a school-based mobile health clinic.

    MET 070612 LUGAR RIBBON.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Not done serving: U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, 80, the longest serving senator in Indiana�s history, was in Vermillion County Friday for the dedication of a school-based mobile health clinic.

    MET 070612 LUGAR FLAG.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Joseph C. Garza Not done serving: U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, 80, the longest serving senator in Indiana�s history, was in Vermillion County Friday for the dedication of a school-based mobile health clinic.

    MET 070612 LUGAR.jpg

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July 8, 2012

Lugar talks life after Congress

Sue Loughlin The Tribune-Star

CLINTON — U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar may have lost his re-election bid in the Republican primary, ending his 36-year career in the Senate, but he is not done serving the people of Indiana, he said in an interview Friday.

Lugar, 80, the longest serving senator in Indiana’s history, was in Vermillion County for the dedication of a school-based mobile health clinic.

In comments after the dedication, he said he’s made no plans as to what he will do after his tenure on the Senate ends. “I’m going to do the very best job I can representing Indiana … until my term comes to an end,” he said.

He believes it’s “a matter of ethics” and “unwise to be hinting at various other options.”

The Senate’s most senior Republican, Lugar said he remains “very busy” and recently devoted much effort to the Farm Bill, which passed out of the Senate with strong bipartisan support. Bipartisanship “is possible,” he said.

He remains heavily involved with the Foreign Relations Committee, although he acknowledges that “by and large, this is not a subject that has been of great interest to most Americans.”

People are concerned about jobs and federal spending. “I understand that,” he said, but he also notes, “There is a big world out there.”

He plans to go to Russia and Ukraine in August to get a firsthand look at continuing efforts to dismantle nuclear weapons.

In 1992, he and Sen. Sam Nunn sponsored the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, dedicated to securing and dismantling weapons of mass destruction in former Soviet Union states.

In 2010 he led a mission to Africa to expand efforts to secure deadly biological threats so they would not fall into the hands of terrorists.

Lugar said his efforts to make the world a safer place will continue. “We have some influence and ability to bring about greater safety with regard to weapons of mass destruction in the biological and chemical areas,” he said.

Regardless of his defeat in the May primary, “There are issues around the world in which we can help to be effective,” he said.

Commenting on more recent issues, he said that the cost of implementing President Obama’s Affordable Care Act will be “very considerable.”

According to his Senate website, he favors “full repeal of the massively expensive ObamaCare law.” It will cause tax increases, he believes, and fails to control rapid increases in health care costs. He also believes it will present additional burdens to small businesses.

But there are aspects of the health care act that even Lugar supports.

The school-based mobile health clinic that will serve Vermillion and Parke counties was funded through a $350,552 federal grant, part of the Affordable Care Act.

The mobile health clinic is a cost-efficient use of taxpayer dollars that will save money with its focus on preventative services and timely treatment of illness, he said. Parents won’t have to miss as much work, because children will receive the health care services at school.

The future of the Affordable Care Act will be decided by Congress and the next president. “I’m certain that debate is going to occur,” Lugar said, and many of its regulations must still be written.

“Americans will have to determine whether a much larger part of our gross national product goes to health care,” he said.

Lugar also took aim at Super PACS and their role in his election loss. He referred to the Citizens United case and the Supreme Court ruling that removed funding restrictions on corporations and labor unions for political advertising campaigns.

Critics say it allows corporations and unions to spend unlimited sums of money to influence elections.

Lugar said “there has been a conscious attempt through usually outside money, outside groups, to enforce their will,” which is not necessarily the will of the people of a state or district.

The so-called Super PACS, “as I have witnessed in my own re-election campaign, come into the states, broadcast their own messages, have their own agendas,” which might not reflect the views of the state’s Democratic or Republican parties, he said.

The Supreme Court decision “allows virtually unlimited political spending from wherever in the world you can get it,” Lugar said.

Some suggest the Citizens United decision is fueling partisanship and making consensus more difficult.

Congress these days “is a great deal more partisan,” and it has hampered the Senate this year in getting things done, he said.

“Many people feel very satisfied they got their way,” but Congress is receiving very low approval ratings from the public, Lugar said.

The word “compromise” has taken on a negative connotation and is something people “almost campaign against,” he said.

 Maybe another word should be used, such as “conversation” in which people listen to others’ point of view, at least “on occasion,” he said.

“Pragmatically, many economic, health issues, even issues with regard to nuances of foreign policy, are going to require many views and they better all be heard so we come to the very best conclusion,” he said.



Sue Loughlin can be reached at (812) 231-4235 or sue.loughlin@tribstar.com.

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