By NICK BUDD
Hays Post
WAKEENEY — It’s one thing longtime Sen. Robert Dole always tried do while he served in the United States Congress — simply come home, meet supporters and hold meetings with the residents of Kansas.
“I came to WaKeeney a lot because it was fairly close to home,” Dole said last week. “One thing I tried to do while I was in Congress was to not forget where I came from. Some people who came to Congress, once they get there, think it’s an entitlement and they can have it as long as they want it. In my view, the voters in Kansas, voters wanted to see your face other than just in election years. I always tried to come home and visit with friends and hold town meeting.”
Over the past two months, the longtime senator has been traveling throughout the state to visit with longtime supporters and friends. On Thursday, his team traveled through WaKeeney.
“I figured at age 90, I better get out here and thank all of you supporters for giving me the opportunity to serve in Congress by voting for me eight or nine times,” he said. “I did my best to represent what I thought were the values that I learned growing up in Russell.”
He joked about the Russell-WaKeeney basketball rivalry.
“(WaKeeney) used to beat us a lot in basketball, but I think that’s changed,” Dole said.
He said that his biggest achievement during his service was the rescue of Social Security in 1983. Dole served on a bipartisan commission focused on that issue. The chairman was Alan Greenspan, who later went on to become the chairman of the Federal Reserve. Dole said the commission had trouble “finding the right combination” when trying to solve the problem.
“It wasn’t a partisan thing. We just couldn’t figure out how to do it,” Dole said.
Dole mentioned that a turning point came on Jan. 3, 1983, during a discussion with Sen. Alan Moynihan, D-N.Y.
“We walked up to each other on the Senate floor, and we said almost at the same time ‘We’ve gotta fix this, we can’t let this happen,’ Dole said. “There are 30 million seniors who want to get their checks, and they want the full amount.”
The commission then proceeded to “change everything” it had been working on. The revised plan eventually passed through the commission and, according to Dole, Social Security has been stable since. Dole said that after another 10 or 15 years, though, more revisions will need to be made to keep the program alive.
Dole also talked about the passage of the American Disabilities Act, which requires most public buildings to be handicapped-accessible.
“I remember working with Sen. Ted Kennedy, and we figured we had to do something so that disabled Americans could have some of the same opportunities that the rest of us had,” Dole said.
Dole also reflected on one of his closest races, the 1974 race against Dr. William Roy of Topeka. Roy died earlier this month. In that election, Dole only won by a few thousand votes.
“That was a race where abortion was a big issue. It got sort of nasty because some of our campaigners were going over the top,” Dole said. “I called Bill about four years ago, and I said ‘Bill we haven’t talked since a long time ago, but if I said anything during the campaign that was offensive to you, I apologize.’ He said, ‘No you didn’t, but some of the people who were campaigning for you did.’ I apologized and told him that sometimes you can’t control what people do for you.”
One attendee asked Dole about his thoughts about a female president.
“I think it’d be all right — if I could pick the female,” Dole joked.”But if Hilary Clinton wants to run, she’ll be the Democratic nominee in 2016, and she’s so far ahead of everybody else.”
Dole continued to talk about the partisan split in both primary parties.
“In the Republican party, we have the traditional Republican conservatives, like most people are in Kansas. And then we have people who are a part of this right wing ‘fringe’ — people who are extremely conservative, who don’t contribute much and just vote against everything,” Dole said. “And then on the Democratic side, we have the traditional liberal Democrats and then we have those on the far left who want the government to take over everything.”
The discussion led Dole into the topic of a government-run health care system.
“If you want to see a system like this, take a look at the VA system and then take a look at Obamacare. You can figure out that in 10 to 15 years is what they want is what is called a ‘single payer plan’ where the government just controls all of the health care.” Dole said.
Dole ended the meeting by taking pictures with some of the attendees. Other tour stops included Hill City, Norton, Oberlin, Atwood and St. Francis.
