Daniels: Deficit like Soviet threat

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) compared the federal debt to the threat
posed by the Soviet Union during the Cold War and encouraged
conservatives to forge compromise with their “opponents.”

In a speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference, Daniels
largely steered clear of criticizing Democrats or President Obama
directly. Instead, he focused on the national security risk posed by the
federal deficit, which he called the new “Red Threat.”

{mosads}”No enterprise, small or large, public or private, can remain
self-governing, let alone successful, so deeply in hock to others as we
are about to be,” he said. “We don’t have a prayer of defeating the Red
Threat of our generation without a long boom of almost unprecedented
duration.”

Daniels, who served as White House budget director under President George W. Bush, pointed to defense spending as one example.

“We
are currently borrowing the entire defense budget from foreign
investors,” he said. “Within a few years, we will be spending more on
interest payments than on national security. That is not, as our
military friends say, a ‘robust strategy.'”

Daniels said he favored restoring the impoundment power to the
presidency, which allows presidents to refuse to spend money
appropriated by Congress, as means to cut federal spending.

The
two-term governor, who is considered a potential 2012 presidential
candidate, earned the ire of some conservative activists for calling for
a “truce” on social issues during the economic crisis. He adopted a
similar practically minded tone during his speech Friday. 

“We have learned in Indiana, big change requires big majorities,” he
told attendees at the CPAC Friday night. “We will need people who never
tune in to Rush or Glenn or Laura or Sean. Who surf past C-SPAN to get
to SportsCenter. Who, if they’d ever heard of CPAC, would assume it was
a cruise ship accessory.”

He added, “I, for one, have no interest in standing in the wreckage of
our Republic saying ‘I told you so’ or ‘You should’ve done it my way.'”

Daniels
called for some government reforms that are popular with CPAC attendees
such as deregulation and an empowering of private enterprise. But his
willingness to suggest compromise with political opponents was notably
out of place at a gathering of activists energized by the GOP victories
in the last election.

Daniels also suggested programs such as Social Security and Medicare
should be adapted to the 21st century and warned conservatives that not
all government was worthy of contempt.

“We should distinguish
carefully skepticism about big government from contempt for all
government,” he said. “After all, it is a new government we hope to
form, a government we will ask our fellow citizens to trust to make huge
changes.”
 
He called for a “thoughtfulness” among conservatives in the
upcoming debate. “In this room are convened freedom’s best friends but,
to keep our Republic, freedom needs every friend it can get,” Daniels
said. “Let’s go find them, and befriend them, and welcome them to the
great thing that is wanted to be done in our day.”