Georgia campaign trail veterans could recite pieces of Sen. David Perdue’s speech from memory.
There was the joke about the McDonough woman who told the Republican “you’ve got my vote” for the simple fact that he’s never held office.
The word “outsider” was used twice, and term limits and the “Fair Tax” got shout-outs. There was the stat about $100 trillion in unfunded liabilities from America’s entitlement programs.
The difference Friday was the setting: A hotel ballroom half-filled with activists from around the country for the Faith and Freedom Coalition, Georgia political strategist Ralph Reed’s brainchild.
Perdue got a standing ovation and plenty of cheers, but the attendance and enthusiasm was not the same as for the 13 Republican presidential candidates slated to address the group over its three-day Road to Majority conference.
The only freshman senator to speak at the conference, Perdue is not running for president, but he believes those who are should be talking more about the national debt.
The event “gave us an opportunity with a broader audience to talk about this,” Perdue said shortly after his 14-minute speech ended.
“I’ve done this a few times already, and we’ll have others. But this is a message that underpins this presidential debate, this discourse that we’re going to have in the next 18 months, and I hope to be able to at least interject this debt crisis as a primary discussion point.”
There was far less debt talk from the other presidential hopefuls on stage Friday, who talked up religious liberty and their own faith journeys to the social conservative crowd.
On policy, they were most interested in national security, contending that the Obama administration has projected weakness abroad to Russia, China, the Islamic State and everyone else. It’s a critique that can easily be applied to Hillary Clinton, assuming she’s the Democratic nominee, and Perdue talked about it, too.
Perdue was animated and punchy. “We cannot allow Hillary Rodham Clinton one more night in our White House,” he said.
Perdue even took a shot at his home state’s only president.
“I’m from Georgia, and the best thing Jimmy Carter ever gave us was Ronald Reagan,” he said to laughter and applause.
But he always steered the conversation back to the bottom line.
“Adm. (Michael) Mullen, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, said that our own debt, our federal debt is the greatest threat to our own national security,” Perdue said. “We’ve got to fix that.”
The debt has been Perdue’s constant crusade, even if it has not always been forefront in the minds of voters.
“Remember in my campaign I had a hard time getting traction talking about the debt and Dodd-Frank,” Perdue said, referring to the 2010 financial reform law.
Perdue has made no secret of his frustration with the pace of the Senate so far, particularly on the gimmick-filled budget. As he starts to get his feet under him as a legislator, Perdue is trying to take on the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the new creation of Dodd-Frank.
Though Perdue’s time on the Foreign Relations Committee has beefed up his foreign policy talk, he sounds much the same as he did last year cruising through Georgia in an RV with his face on it. If there’s one Washington habit Perdue has adopted, it’s the notion of a permanent campaign.
As he said after the speech: “My message hasn’t changed.”
A subsidy debate
Within days, the U.S. Supreme Court could strip Obamacare subsidies from millions of Americans with a ruling on whether the law allows for subsidies in states that do not set up their own health insurance exchanges.
House Republicans – taking a thwacking in the media for not having a plan – met behind closed doors Wednesday to discuss an outline on how to respond if the Court rules against the Obama administration. The proposal would continue the subsidy payments for two years, but as block grants to the states, while repealing the law’s mandates.
“It’s a great plan,” Rep. Rick Allen, a freshman Republican from Evans, said as he emerged from the meeting.
“The president’s the one who put us in this position, and the American people know it now,” Allen added. “They know it’s a flawed law, and we have to provide a bridge to get out of this thing.”
But any plan that keeps aspects of Obamacare – this applies as well to Senate Republicans' version, backed by Georgia's David Perdue and Johnny Isakson – will draw heat on the right.
Influential conservative WSB-Radio host Erick Erickson wrote on the RedState blog that Republicans who go for anything less than full immediate repeal are "political and moral cowards."
Vote of the week:
The U.S. House voted, 218-208, Thursday to pass "fast track" Trade Promotion Authority for President Barack Obama.
Yes: Reps. Rick Allen, R-Evans; Buddy Carter, R-Pooler; Tom Graves, R-Ranger; Jody Hice, R-Monroe; Barry Loudermilk, R-Cassville; Tom Price, R-Roswell; Austin Scott, R-Tifton; Rob Woodall, R-Lawrenceville.
No: Reps. Sanford Bishop, D-Albany; Doug Collins, R-Gainesville; Hank Johnson, D-Lithonia; John Lewis, D-Atlanta; David Scott, D-Atlanta; Lynn Westmoreland, R-Coweta County.
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