Obamacare repeal, term limits on Gallagher agenda

EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been changed to accurately reflect Mike Gallagher's status as a former U.S. Marine. An earlier version incorrectly referred to Gallager as a retired U.S. Marine.

GREEN BAY - Republicans have a "historic" opportunity to advance their conservative agenda unimpeded, but they must act swiftly while not ignoring opportunities to work with Democrats, newly elected U.S. Rep. Mike Gallagher said.

Voters from northeastern Wisconsin overwhelmingly favored Gallagher, 33, to represent them in the House of Representatives. He received 63 percent of the vote in the 8th Congressional District.

The  former U.S. Marine and intelligence officer said he's wasting no time in prepping for his first days in office, when he promises to "fight tooth and nail" to cut incentives for career politicians, modernize the military, repair failing services for military veterans and undo the Affordable Care Act.

RELATED: Gallagher wins 8th Congressional District

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Gallagher sat down Thursday with USA TODAY NETWORK-Wisconsin to talk about his agenda and his priorities for when he takes office in January.

What are your priorities for the first 100 days in office?

We need to restore our economic and military strength. On the economic side, that means we need to responsibly replace Obamacare, we need regulatory reform so we responsibly reduce the burden we place on manufacturers and also tax reform.

On the military and diplomatic side, we need to start the process of rebuilding and modernizing the American military. As we’ve seen over the last eight years, we’ve undermined the credibility of our military deterrent, and as a result, threats have increased, not only in Middle East but also in eastern Europe, in South and East China seas, in our own homeland, where the role of our own federal government is to maintain a common defense.

The third broad bucket of reforms I’m interested in working on is congressional reform. We’re draining the swamp, as the president-elect talked about. We plan to introduce a bill in the first 100 days to end congressional pensions, to impose term limits, to do “no budget, no pay” and things like that. I think that’s an era of process reform that people from both sides of the aisle can unite behind, and I think the message people across the U.S. sent Tuesday night was they want things to get done. They want people to fix problems, so they want people to go with a sense of urgency and get things done.

Are there specific pieces of legislation you want to bring forward on economic or military reforms?

The House right now has a broad blueprint for what a replacement to Obamacare would look like. I suspect we’re going to dig into that in the next few weeks and turn that into an actual piece of legislation.

On the military side, not only do we need a comprehensive look at our defenses, but we also need to look at the Middle East and understand we’re never going to win the fight against ISIS if we allow Iran to run roughshod over the rest of the region. So I think getting rid of the Iran nuclear deal and replacing it by imposing pressure on Iran, reinforcing allies to put more skin in the game against ISIS is something we can embark upon in the next 100 days. Otherwise, we’re allowing this threat to fester and our own homeland becomes less safe.

Another thing we need to do is fix the VA. That’s something I think both sides of the aisle can agree on. We can’t allow 300,000 veterans to die while waiting for care. We need to tackle the urgent problem of veteran suicide. I am hoping to be a leader on those issues and to dive into that issue with a sense of urgency.

What would you like to see in place of the Affordable Care Act?

I think we need to allow people to shop across state lines, and that will increase choice and drive down costs. At the same time, increase transparency in pricing so you know what you’re buying. I’d also like to see small businesses, churches and civil society organizations with the ability to band together to create more creative coverage options. I’d like to see an expanded role for health savings accounts.

Most importantly, we need a cultural shift in the medical community. I come from a family of doctors who talk about this a lot. You need to go from what I call defensive to offensive health care. We have great providers like ThedaCare really tackling this issue and really getting to population health care, but in the fee-for-services system we have in health care, we incentivize doctors to just order a battery of tests and be overly cautious just to avoid a lawsuit. We need to shift the incentives to a structure where they’re incentivized to keep their patients healthy over the long term, keep them out of the hospital.

I think we can go in that direction because we’ve seen over the last eight years the direction we’re going isn’t working. Obamacare, and I don’t mean this as an ideological statement, is collapsing under its own weight. The solution to Obamacare can’t be more Obamacare. We need to put patients and their doctors back in control of their health care, not D.C. bureaucrats.

If it is repealed, how should the federal government deal with the 20 million people who would lose their health insurance?

I think we need to be sensitive that people don’t lose their health insurance. I’ve been a big supporter of maintaining the pre-existing conditions portion of Obamacare. We just need to manage that transition responsibly, because our goal should be to expand coverage and allow people to get more access. As we drive down cost and increase options, I’m confident we can do just that.

Right now one of the reasons Obamacare is failing is that — if I was one of those 20 million signing up, I’d look into the plans they have with deductibles so high, (and question) are those plans meaningful? And our whole generation, with the premise of Obamacare, isn’t actually buying into the system at the level they need to. They’re only participating at 26 percent. The whole thing doesn’t work if that’s the case. But I don’t believe that any American should be forced to buy health care against their own will, particularly when they only have an option for a plan that doesn’t meet their medical needs.

In your election victory speech, you mentioned working across the aisle to get things done. How will you go about doing that?

One thing the military teaches everyone that joins is how to work together to tackle a very difficult mission. That’s kind of how I’d like to see Congress operate. Again, as I said before, I think the American people just want problems to be solved. I think it starts with the humility to engage in discussion with the other side. I think you can do that without compromising your principles, and I think we can find areas were we might actually find we can work together to get things done. Like I said earlier, fixing the VA can be a bipartisan issue. Modernizing the military can be a bipartisan issue.

But most of all we need the humility to reverse the trend we’ve seen over the last eight years where we’ve expanded the size of the federal government and its role in our daily lives, and instead we need to find a way to devolve the control back down to the local level. And, we as citizens of northeast Wisconsin need to demand the dignity of making decisions for ourselves and the responsibility that comes with that.

There’s division within the Republican Party over support for Donald Trump. How does the party reunite after this election?

I think Donald Trump sent the right message with his victory speech. I thought it was the right tone. I thought it was magnanimous and a message of unity. I think that needs to continue. I think the Speaker (U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan) reciprocated yesterday with a similar message of unity, and my hope is that we don’t spend the next few months bickering and arguing over who supported who and instead seize this historic opportunity we have to get things done and fix problems, because as I said before, the American people are demanding it. You don’t get many opportunities like this in your lifetime. It’s not going to be easy. We may not get everything right, but I do think we have an opportunity to advance a common sense conservative vision, and maybe we can convince some Democrats to work with us on some issues as well.

How can you and other Republicans who won election bring members of the public together when there’s so much anxiety about a Donald Trump presidency?

That’s why it’s important to have people in the House and the Senate that are willing to do their constitutional duty. The framers of our Constitution, God bless them, designed a system of government deliberately where we have checks and balances, where the different branches act as checks on each other and the influence of any one person can be mitigated.

As I’ve said from the start of the race, the oath I’m going to take as the next congressman is to the Constitution. That’s where my loyalty lies, as well as to the people of the 8th District. Maybe that brings me into conflict with party leaders in my own party, but I won’t hesitate to do what’s right.

People are concerned about Trump’s more controversial policy proposals, such as cracking down on illegal immigration. How does Congress serve as a check on Trump?

We’ll see what he comes up with in his 100-day agenda.

I think he has a real opportunity to unite the party behind a common sense conservative vision and to reach out to the other side of the aisle, and I hope that’s the direction he goes. As we talked about before though, matters of national security and foreign policy — both parties in the last decade or so have been guilty of surrendering their constitutional authority, from Congress to the presidency — to the executive branch. Regardless of what’s happening, it’s incumbent on every member of Congress to fulfill their independent responsibility to stay true to the Constitution. So we’ll see how it unfolds over the next few months, but I do genuinely believe that he and a lot of people (elected on Tuesday) that have been sent to serve the people have a historic opportunity to get things done, to fix the economy, to get people safe again, to build our defenses, to rebuild our alliances and to embark on congressional reform.

I think (Donald Trump's) "drain the swamp" agenda is a very sensible one. I think reducing the influence of power, special influence and lobbyists, imposing restraints on lawmakers, doing term limits — I think those are common sense solutions people are crying out for right now. I hope that’s the direction he wants to go. It’s the direction I want to go, and I will fight tooth and nail every single day as one person to take our country in that direction.

Many people calling for reform in Washington are also unhappy with Paul Ryan. Do you think Ryan should remain Speaker of the House?

I do, because I think he’s the only one who can unite House Republicans, and I think he’s done the right thing of advancing a positive agenda. But I think it’s also incumbent on President-elect Trump to reach out to him, and they need to sit down together and figure out the best way forward.

I think Paul Ryan similarly feels the frustration of a Congress not having gotten a lot done. A lot of that is on the Senate, too. The House has passed any number of bills to repeal Obamacare. Now is the time to deliver results. Now that we have a Republican in the White House, now is the time to move forward with bold ideas. The Speaker has a big, bold conservative vision for this country, and I’m confident he and Donald Trump will work together on that, becuae that is what the American people are demanding.

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