WASHINGTON — Sen. Ben Cardin, D-Md., was a guest Friday on the “Politics Program” with Mark Plotkin.
Cardin came out in support for incumbent congresswoman Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., amid a challenge for her seat from Md. prosecutor Glenn Ivey.
The junior senator is critical of the bipartisan congressional supercommittee formed to cut from the $15 trillion national deficit. Cardin would rather have the problem addressed by “the regular process.”
“It looks like they’re not going to succeed,” he says. “I want them to think big.”
Social benefits like Medicare are not a cause of the nation’s current fiscal strife, Cardin says. They existed long before the current deficit, which he says is caused by two tax cuts and going to war in Iraq and Afghanistan without paying for it.
“That is why we have the large imbalance we have today,” he says. “Social Security has not caused our current fiscal problems. If anything, it’s given us additional cash.”
As for reforming those programs, Cardin urged caution.
“I think we have to think long and hard before we change the Medicare age.”
He is, however, for reforming congressional procedure: “A majority should be 51, it shouldn’t be 60,” Cardin says of what he sees as an overuse of filibusters.
But he pointed out that hope is not lost in the increasingly partisan Congress, where, unlike their public portrayal, members still socialize across party lines. This is easier in a smaller body like the Senate, Cardin says, versus the hundreds of members of the House.
Cardin also addressed voting right reform, both nationally and regarding D.C. representation.
Voter registration laws that “are now restricting early voting and requiring voter IDs” place a heavy burden on voters, he says.
The senator believes it’s “a violation of basic human rights” that D.C. residents do not have full representation in Congress. He says he would fully support legislation to change that.
He also believes the president will be reelected to a second term. “I have confidence that the American people want to continue down the path that Barack Obama has presented us,” he says.
Obama has been a good supporter of Israel, Cardin says, but hopes the president visits the country, which the he has not done during his first term.
“President Obama has a strong record of supporting Israel,” says Cardin. “He’s the first president to acknowledge Israel as a Jewish state.”
Check out the full audio at right.
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