Mike Braun traded a blue-collar life at his hometown distribution business in southern Indiana to “shake up the system a little bit” in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. Senate that Braun became a part of in 2019 was more dysfunctional, he said, and too far removed from the values of working Americans.
“It’s easy to rename a post office or a bridge or stuff like that, but it’s Hatfields and McCoys when it comes to major issues,” Braun said Tuesday at Fusion 54.
The freshman senator and 1976 Wabash College graduate, who was a vocal ally of President Donald Trump on television during the impeachment trial, spoke on a range of issues during a meet-and-greet sponsored by the Crawfordsville/Montgomery County Chamber of Commerce.
On impeachment, Braun said the process was “doomed from the get go” from a lack of bipartisan support, adding that Democrats had a weak case against Trump for allegedly seeking foreign interference in the 2020 presidential campaign.
“And I think that’s going to be instructive for down the road, hopefully,” Braun told local media before his remarks. “I think you’ll probably make sure that you’ve got at least a few votes coming from the other side if you ever engage in an impeachment inquiry or let alone vote on articles of impeachment.”
Braun’s frequent appearances on news programs drew praise from a woman who criticized the Democrats for what she said was uncivil behavior during the hearings.
“Did we watch the same thing here? Are you serious?” said resident Brock Ervin, who later urged Braun, chair of the Senate’s bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus, to further examine studies on climate change.
“Civility in politics, I think, cuts both ways,” Braun said, “and I think the reason we have a lack of civility is because of the frustration and the polarization that’s reflected in the two candidates. You wouldn’t have a Donald Trump on one side or a Bernie (Sanders) on the other if were doing things in a way that wouldn’t shove you into that polarization.”
Abilities Services Inc. executive director Michelle Smith encouraged Braun to oppose the Trump administration’s Medicaid block grant program.
The new funding model, announced in January, would give states the option to receive a set payment each year and design their own benefit plans, though experts say few states are likely to apply. Medicaid is currently funded through a federal-state partnership.
For ASI, which receives all of its funding from Medicaid, the block grants would hinder the organization from serving additional clients, Smith said.
Braun pledged that he would work to make the program sustainable, but said rising debt should be taken into account when funding entitlement programs before the money is projected to run out in three to five years.
“I have a client that’s four years old. It’s kind of hard to tell the parents that you’ve got three years,” Smith said.
