Profile in Courage: Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming)

The national debt is soaring to scary new heights, and all the $2 trillion F-35s in the world can’t shoot it down. There’s now more than $36 trillion on the national credit card. Annual interest payments on the debt are approaching $1 trillion — nearing the size of giant entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare — and are set to skyrocket over the next ten years. Unfortunately, the current crop of politicians doesn’t seem up to the task of dealing with this colossal issue.

They would be wise to heed the advice of former lawmakers such as Sen. Alan Simpson (R-Wyoming), who sadly recently passed away. The late great Senator devoted his career to bringing fiscal accountability back to Washington, D.C. and sounding the alarm on a reckless spending culture. Simpson’s goal was never to seek the media spotlight; he just wanted an efficient and responsible government. For being a flicker of light in a dark and derelict culture of deficit spending, Sen. Simpson is absolutely a Profile in Courage.

Simpson was born into a family primed for public service. His father, Milward Simpson, served as both the governor of Wyoming and a U.S. Senator, and was a stalwart advocate for abolishing racial segregation in Wyoming. Alan followed his father’s footsteps into state politics, serving as majority whip, majority floor leader, and speaker pro tempore during his 13 years in the Wyoming House of Representatives. In 1978, he successfully took a shot at a U.S. Senate seat, decisively defeating former Natrona County Prosecuting Attorney Raymond B. Whitaker.

Simpson’s career in the Senate spanned the Reagan Revolution and the 1990s “Contract with America.” Simpson was not only a key supporter of President Reagan’s tax reform initiatives, but also pushed the envelope on reforms to make the sprawling bureaucracy small and honest. For example, Simpson introduced legislation (S. 1769) in the 100^th Congress to establish an office of Inspector General (IG) in the opaque Nuclear Regulatory Commission and pushed the IG of the General Services Administration to audit real estate deals. These pushes for accountability and transparency weren’t exactly photo-op material, but they showed Sen. Simpson’s constituents that their elected leadership cared about them. Sen. Simpson wasn’t afraid to put his country and constituents before the letter next to his name. When then-President Bill Clinton announced his intention to trim the size of the federal workforce, Sen. Simpson obliged by offering legislation empowering agencies to offer buyouts to employees.

Despite these accomplishments, Sen. Simpson’s legacy was cemented after the end of his lawmaking days. In 2010, then-President Barack Obama appointed Simpson as co-chair of the National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, alongside former Clinton White House Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles. The bipartisan commission, often referred to as the Simpson-Bowles Commission, was tasked with tackling the nation’s soaring debt. Simpson and Bowles put their heads together and came up with a comprehensive plan to reduce the deficit by an astounding $4 trillion over the next ten years. Political resistance was predictably fierce, and politicos were not pleased that Simpson called Social Security “a milk cow with 310 million [udders].” Slowing down Social Security benefit growth and raising the program’s retirement age was a brave proposal from Simpson and Bowles, even if rejected by the left’s policy apparatus. The bipartisan duo also suggested reducing Medicare and Medicaid provider payments, limiting farm subsidies, scaling back higher education subsidies, and even cutting Pentagon waste.

Lawmakers rejected the commission’s proposals, and trillion-dollar deficits ultimately won the day. But, Simpson and Bowles showed that compromise is possible on the biggest problem of the day. If the Department of Government Efficiency, Republicans, and Democrats have the heart to come together and (finally) tackle the deficit, they could start by dusting off the old Simpson-Bowles recommendations.

Sen. Simpson was far from perfect. He had a misguided focus on “campaign finance reform” that would make it difficult for true outsiders to have a shot in politics and outlaw anonymous advocacy. He was also far too quick to dismiss earmark reform. But, the late lawmaker deserves plenty of praise for fighting for spending reform and accountability when it wasn’t “cool” to do it. For trying his very best to keep Washington honest and look out for taxpayers, Alan Simpson was a Profile in Courage.