Topeka Capital-Journal - Jenkins: No Appetite For Another Shutdown

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By Andy Marso

U.S. Rep. Lynn Jenkins, R-Kan., said Friday the lesson of the recent government shutdown was that bringing the nation to the brink of a possible default in pursuit of legislative objectives wasn't a viable plan and not one that should be repeated when the current funding deal expires in January.

"We tried that strategy," Jenkins said. "It did not work, so don't do it again."

Republican opposition to the federal health care reform commonly called "Obamacare," and the refusal of Senate Democrats and President Barack Obama to acquiesce to their demands to repeal the law passed in 2010, led to the 16-day government shutdown.

Jenkins was part of a fractured Republican majority Wednesday evening, one of 87 GOP House members who joined with Democrats in a 285-144 vote to lift the debt ceiling and end the shutdown without any health care concessions. She and Sen. Jerry Moran were the only members of the all-Republican Kansas delegation to vote in favor of it, but Jenkins said many of her House GOP colleagues were rooting for it to pass even as they voted "no" in fear of primary challengers.

"The majority of the majority in the House agreed it was time to end this, but to be perfectly candid many of our members did not want to vote for it because they were focused on re-election," Jenkins said. "They wanted the resolution to pass, but they just did not want to vote for it."

Jenkins, a certified public accountant by trade, said her focus was on consequences outside the political realm.

"It was just time to close that chapter and try a new approach," she said. "The American people did not deserve to pay a price for Washington's dysfunction."

Margie Wakefield, a lawyer in Lawrence, has filed to run against Jenkins as a Democrat in 2014. Mark Sump, a spokesman for the Wakefield campaign, was unimpressed with Jenkins' attempts to mend the dysfunction.

"After 42 votes to repeal Obamacare and 16 days of a government shutdown at a cost of $24 billion, it's about time she started voting responsibly," Sump said. "It shouldn't be this hard to make government more functional, and she's not been a part of the solution."

Jenkins said the temporary funding deal buys precious time for Congress to come together on a broader budget deal that addresses a national debt that has ballooned to $17 trillion.

Tax cuts enacted by President George W. Bush, followed by major military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and a recession, were major drivers of that debt. But Jenkins focused on its growth under Obama, who enacted an expensive economic stimulus plan once elected and temporarily ramped up U.S. involvement in Afghanistan while extending much of the tax cuts.

In local town hall meetings Jenkins has articulated specific plans to address some of the programs that, as the population ages, are projected to cause more debt, including Medicare.

"It's my hope that in the next few weeks there will be an opportunity to have a discussion about those issues and we just won't squander the next couple months," Jenkins said. "We can't allow our nation to find itself in this position again. Managing crisis-to-crisis is just unacceptable."

Jenkins said other issues of particular interest to the Kansas economy will be addressed as well, with a farm bill hopefully on its way out of conference committee soon and other committees vetting the possibility of a comprehensive immigration reform bill.

But the budget remains the key debate, and Jenkins said it will be difficult to move forward while Republicans have offered a plan that eventually balances the budget and Democrats haven't.

"I'm still committed to balancing the budget and getting Americans back to work," Jenkins said. "Certainly during this process, Democrats rejected that notion from the outset."

Jenkins said she is hopeful that the end of the shutdown will provide the opportunity to reset the debate and bring both sides back to the negotiating table -- without shutting down the government and flirting with default again.

"I don't think there's any appetite to do that," Jenkins said.

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