Tommy Thompson on Government Reform Former Secretary of H.H.S.; former Republican Governor (WI)

I've never been a lobbyist

"People are asking the question, 'Who's fighting for us?' versus 'Who's fighting for the big and powerful,'" Baldwin said in an Oct. 2 interview in Milwaukee. "Whose side are you on is a classic question in some elections, and I think it's coming to bear very particularly in this."

[One analyst] said Baldwin is trying to "to recapture the notion that the Democratic candidate is the populist candidate," he said. "She's trying hard to portray Thompson as the tool of the elite."

The Baldwin campaign has labeled Thompson a lobbyist for companies his Health & Human Services agency used to oversee, a charge that Thompson angrily denies. "I've never been a lobbyist," he said in an interview. "That's absolutely a lie." Thompson is working to define Baldwin as a big-spender, calling her "out of the mainstream."

I'm a reformer: on welfare, healthcare, & taxes

"I'm a reformer," Thompson emphasized, "and 742,000 jobs were created while I was governor." He also pointed to the Women's Health Foundation he founded along with his wife and their daughter.

Allow voter ID by repealing Help America Vote Act

Mark Neumann: Yes

Tommy Thompson: Yes

Cheney is honorable individual; doesn’t have too much power

A: I believe that Vice President Cheney is criticized for a lot of things that he doesn’t do. I believe that Dick Cheney is an honorable individual. And I think President Bush depends a great deal upon him.

Eliminate CDC stockpiles; they’re wasteful & inefficient

THOMPSON: There are several programs that need to be cut in Washington, several of those in my former department. I would first make every agency come in with a budget at 95% of last year’s budget and one at 100%. And you will be able to use that exercise in order to reduce budgets all across the line.

Q: I didn’t hear three programs. Can you tell me one?

THOMPSON: The first one I would eliminate is a program in the Department of Health and Human Services in CDC that deals with the stockpile. The stockpile does a great job, but there are some inefficiencies there.

Q: [To Paul] Can you do better than that?

PAUL: I’d start with the departments--the Department of Education, the Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security. There’s a lot of things that we can cut, but we can’t cut anything until we change our philosophy about what government should do.

FactCheck: Only improve CDC stockpiles; don’t eliminate them

More regional cooperation; more e-government

[I see five] catalysts for modernizing our government for a new century.
1. Create incentives to collaborate. By engaging in regional collaboration for the delivery of services, governments can reap significant savings without sacrificing quality. Do neighboring communities really need separate mass transit systems? Or separate waste collection services?
2. Demand performance and accountability. Improve harmony and performance by more clearly defining the roles of state and local government.
3. Performance-based education. Get money directly into the classroom by giving greater operating flexibility to every local school building.
4. A Top-To-Bottom Scrub of Government. We need to search and destroy regulations and programs that have outlived their usefulness; and establish performance-based management for state government.
5. Expand e-government. Web portals for all levels of government will make it easier for citizens to access services and reduce the cost of goods the government buys.

Limit individual, corporate, & PAC political contributions

A: Yes.

Q: PAC contributions?

A: Yes.

Q: Corporate?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support requiring full and timely disclosure of campaign finance information?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support imposing spending limits on state level political campaigns?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support partial funding from state taxes for state level political campaigns?

A: Yes.

Q: Would you support an amendment to the US Constitution requiring an annual balanced federal budget?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support requiring organizations that sponsor issue advocacy commercials to fully disclose their receipts and expenditures?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support requiring all out-of-state organizations that give money to Wisconsin candidates to obey WI campaign finance laws?

A: Yes.

Q: Do you support limiting transfers of money between political action committees or campaign committees to $100?

A: Yes.

1991 Central City Initiative: all agencies under one roof

Welfare recipients trying to get back on their feet, entrepreneurs willing and able to start businesses in their own neighborhoods, and low-income families trying to buy their first homes had to trek across town or out to the suburbs to different agencies to take advantage of the new services and assistance we were providing. So we moved staff from six different state agencies into the central city neighborhoods we were trying to help. We put them all under one roof, and consolidated the various reforms into a comprehensive Central City Initiative. It was a simple, commonsense solution that no one had thought of before we began implementing the policy changes in the field.

Common sense over “government sense”

The welfare system is a perfect example of what I refer to as government sense. When you pay people not to work and to have children out of wedlock, guess what happens? People do not work and they have more children out of wedlock.

Supports banning funding of offensive art.

Christian Coalition publishes a number of special voter educational materials including the Christian Coalition Voter Guides, which provide voters with critical information about where candidates stand on important faith and family issues. The Christian Coalition Voters Guide summarizes candidate stances on the following topic: "Prohibiting public funding for art that is pornographic or anti-religious"