Indiana Sen. Coats counts on Obama-GOP compromise

Sen. Dan Coats envisioned a cooperative Democratic president humbled by midterm election defeats and Republican lawmakers eager to seek agreement across the aisle.

But Coats, who came out of retirement four years ago for a second stint in the Senate, knows it could go the other way – with angry finger-pointers on both sides who can “blow it all up.”

“It’s easy to say right after every election, ‘We’re going to work together,’ but then ideology and politics gets in the way,” said Coats, 71. “I think the public is sick and tired of it.”

A conservative Republican, Coats already sees an alliance with Indiana’s junior senator, Democrat Joe Donnelly, on a couple of key issues. 

One is an effort to revise the Affordable Care Act to repeal the tax on medical devices, which should please an industry with a strong presence in Indiana. The other is a bill to permit construction of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry oil from Canada to the Gulf Coast.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, soon to become majority leader, has named both as priorities.

And Donnelly, an early supporter of both measures, has expressed hope for compromise. “What I see moving forward is a chance for those in the middle to help drive policy," he said.

But, Coats warns, the work could get harder after that.

He worries, for example, that President Barack Obama has already inflamed Republican passions by vowing an executive order allowing millions of undocumented immigrants to stay in the United States.

He also predicts Tea Party Republicans will be furious if they can’t flat-out repeal the Affordable Care Act – despite Republican majorities in both houses of Congress – since such a measure would most certainly face a presidential veto.

Coats is already discouraging colleagues from overreacting – including shutting down the government – if they don’t get their way.

“Our responsibility is to really move forward on reasonable things that are not ‘dead on arrival’ and not so ideologically driven,” said Coats, who previously served in Congress when Ronald Reagan, then Bill Clinton, were in the White House. “We’ve proven that only results in stalemate.”

Coats’ strategy favors Republicans moving forward where they can – and accepting when they can’t.

“Reagan said, ‘If you give me 80 percent of what I want, I’ll take it,’ because the reality is, we have a divided government,” he said. “And a lot can get done in a divided government if there’s cooperation on both sides.”

One area for movement, he predicts, is tax reform. Coats has co-authored a plan with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, that would set a flat corporate rate of 24 percent, as well as a three-tiered structure for individuals, ranging from 15 percent to 35 percent.

Coats is in line to chair the Joint Economic Committee and may end up with a seat on the Senate Finance Committee – both positions with clout. But it’s likely that he’ll be working with some colleagues who don’t share his views on compromise.

The run-up to the 2016 presidential election could spur some ambitious Republicans to be more committed to promoting themselves than governing, he said.

“They see it to their benefit to draw a hard, sharp line, and they’re not willing to compromise at all,” he said. “In a divided government, that means gridlock.”