Republican Sen. Dan Coats addressed the Muncie Chamber of Commerce Friday about the nation’s economic problems.
Coats explained his “package of four,” which included four goals he thinks would lower the deficit.
His plan includes cutting spending and entitlements while also reforming the tax system and federal regulations.
Coats admitted his plan for cutting entitlements is not popular and is something “you’re never supposed to talk about if you’re a politician.”
“[Entitlements] are on an unsustainable course,” he said. “Our health care programs, Medicare and Medicaid, are going to collapse with 10,000 baby boomers retiring every day.”
Tim Kean, executive director of Second Harvest Food Bank, asked Coats what responsibility the federal government has when one in four children in Delaware County are food insecure.
While Coats said he believes the federal government needs to take responsibility for this problem, he did not think there was much more they could do.
“It’s time that politicians were straight up with people in telling them, ‘Folks, if we don’t address this, then you can forget about the rest,’” he said
Mayor Dennis Tyler disagreed with Coats.
“We do need to reign in some spending,” Tyler said. “I think people miss that many times those entitlements are for the people that need a safety net. ... We’ve got to make sure those safety nets are always there.”
Another step in Coats’ plan is to cut spending.
“We have to, over a period of time, get our budget balanced, so we can stop getting into debt, so that government is doing the essential things but not the like to do but can’t afford to do,” the senator said.
Coats said he also thinks the government should reform taxes, which it hasn’t done in 25 years.
“Our tax code is horrendously complicated,” he said. “It’s full of special interests and exemptions that favor a few but not the many.”
The last part of Coats’ plan is regulatory reform. Coats said he believes there are too many unnecessary regulations and many of them have hit Indiana especially hard.
“You’ve got a pent-up wish list of liberal ideas in terms of how government ought to be more intrusive in your business and in our personal lives ... and they’re severely hampering our ability to grow and our ability to address some of our financial issues,” Coats said.
He said he would like the federal government to follow the path Indiana took to turn its deficit into a surplus.
“The Indiana model certainly shows how you can take government functions, make them more cost effective, more efficient, more tax payer friendly, and still provide the essential services that government needs to provide,” Coats said.
Coats commended not only Indiana, but Muncie as well.
“I know Muncie’s been through a tough time, but there are things coming back,” he said. “It’s been the result of a lot of hard work by the Chamber.”
