This interview was conducted via phone in the fall of 2015, but the questions and responses remain relevant, and will be so for the foreseeable future.
The Representative: Dave Brat shocked Washington, D.C. in 2014 when he became the first primary challenger to defeat a sitting House Majority Leader. A Republican, Brat has served Virginia's seventh congressional district since 2014. He sits on the Budget Committee, the Committee on Education and the Workforce, and the Committee on Small Business.
The interviewer: Diego Orbegoso is a Political Science and Philosophy major at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Odyssey: Might we first get started with a background of you for readers who don’t know you?
Rep. Dave Brat: I grew up in Michigan, went to a small town college and had a great mentor who was also a professor. I wanted to be like them, I wanted to be a professor. I worked at Arthur Anderson for a year and a half in business. Then I went off and pursued more academics so I took Princeton Theological seminary for three years. I hoped to become a theology professor and a philosophy professor, but while I was there I became interested in economic justice. So I headed to Washington, D.C and got a Ph.D in Economics at American University. Then after that I was lucky enough to get a job at Randolph-Macon College in Ashland, VA and I taught there for 18 years. I ran the economics and business department. I was an advisor to students, of course. I helped them get good jobs, I helped them get security for their futures.
Odyssey: What actions have you taken in congress or what causes have you championed to improve the lives of college students and recent graduate students in your district?
Rep. Brat: The answer goes way back. I first worked in education issues about eight years ago. I began working with state senator Walter Stosch in Virginia. I worked for several years on bills for kids with disabilities for three years and spent mostly every day working on that issue trying to push the legislation through in Virginia. Stosch has a granddaughter with Asperger’s, so he had a particular interest there. We worked together on that issue for several years.
Then I transitioned to try to help high school kids aim towards making plans to get the jobs they have a passion for. I worked with Virginia Community Colleges. Senator Stosch created a program called “2 + 2” which allows a student with a 3.0 GPA to go to a community college then get automatic entrance into the University of Virginia, William & Mary, and a bunch more. We established a program at Virginia Commonwealth University five years ago to ensure all the community college credits were transferred to VCU’s business program to make a seamless transition.
Now that I’m in the U.S Congress, I’m on the education committee. It’s a very slow-moving process up there, but we’re trying to push reform. On a bill put in by I think Raul Labrador, we were trying to open up the program so that money could be used by students to use it not just for community college but to also get a business certificate. That’s a huge deal because the truckers in our area are looking for people. It’s a starting entry-level job that pays $50,000 a year. Kids from low-income backgrounds would love to get a job like that, but it costs upwards of $1,000 to achieve that business certificate. So if we could use the program money as training money and give some of these business certificate programs the money there for giving low-income people an opportunity for a high-paying job. I am very enthusiastic about that program.
I will weigh one more program that senator Stosch put together, for which I’m on the board, is called Grass 4 Virginia.
Odyssey: What specifically can Congress do to rein in these costs, if anything?
Rep. Brat: Well, it’s very hard when we live in a free country to “rein in” costs because a lot of it is man-driven. In economics, the word "driven" just means that people want a lot of the things that makes college very expensive. Students and their parents are demanding, you know, better food, great sports programs, nice dorm room settings, expensive libraries and high-quality faculty.
Faculty is where the cost comes into play the most. Schools compete against each other in their faculties’ abilities, there for the salaries increase. This creates a spiral going up and up and up. I don’t know if you want Congress telling our parents they can’t demand that. That’s a tricky issue. Parents don’t want their kids to go to a lower-cost option. Even though college is a very good education source, especially the way we’re structuring it now. So that’s what we’re working on.
We’re trying to show what a great avenue it is to go to a community college or pursue other education where you can build to a high paying job without coming out with high-paying debt.
Odyssey: Beyond college costs, what political issues affecting 18 to 30-year-olds aren’t being talked about enough?
Rep. Brat: One is that we need to get the economy moving. Your generation is going to have a hard time finding jobs. A lot of faculty members think business isn’t a good thing, but they still train you in business. You’ll spend your whole life in business. The problem there is if you don’t think business is morally good, why would spend your entire life in business? So you need to change that dialogue of the faculty. Get a more positive image of business. To motivate students to say, “Hey, you can do a lot of good in business by meeting people’s needs.”
You don’t have to go off to be corrupt capitalists making millions off the backs of corruption. You can go into business being morally good. First we need to display a positive message that you’re going to spend eight to 10 hours every waking day in business. So telling the young it’s bad isn’t a good way to begin the rest of your life. The second issue is we are $19 trillion in debt and who is going to pay that off?
So, in economics, what’s going on is the current generation is having a pizza party and we’re giving your generation the bill. It’s not only the debt; the deficit is going to be $500 billion. If you add that together for every year it is about $19 trillion. Your generation is the only group that doesn’t have a lobbyist fighting for you in D.C. Every other group is there yelling, “Give me this, give me that, I want this, I want that,” — running up the debt like it’s okay.
Your generation needs to find people to put up in D.C to lobby on behalf of your people. You could make a good salary doing that. If every student in the U.S gave you $10 you’re doing well and fighting the good fight for your generation. On top of the $19 trillion, our country has $100 trillion in what is called unfunded liabilities. That’s the amount we promised to pay people in various programs. And if we won’t respond to those programs all federal revenue will go to those, just those programs, and the interest on the debt in 11 years will leave $1 left for education, transportation, or national defense.
In 11 years. It’s well known that your generation is going to pay the price. Not only with the debt but in reduced benefits later on. Unless we reform it.
Odyssey: Congress has a notoriously low approval rate among Americans, regardless of the party in control. Why does the branch that is supposed to represent the people thought of so poorly by them?
Rep Brat: Right. The average person doesn’t think they’re fighting for them, they think we’re fighting for the big business interests and they’re correct to think that. The people in charge of the federal budget have promised people more than they should. That’s what the American people know that is going. Small-business people are very upset at Congress because we’ve increased their regulations on everything, we’ve increased financial regulations, put small banks out of business, increased regulations on farmers and ranchers. A small business can’t stay in business because we’re crushing them.
Obamacare is also very expensive for businesses to provide those benefits. People aren’t hiring as a result. More businesses are closing this year than starting. That’s not normal. That’s why I said that we need to change the dialogue and get positive about businesses and young people starting them. Turning this country around; it’s going to take real energy. And congress would have to begin looking out for the average person instead of the lobbyist currently in D.C. many special interest groups are fighting against me because they know I’m winning in the backing of the majority of the people. I ran and stick up for those exact issues: average people, young people, and the debt. If you do it up in D.C, you get punished, there’s no doubt about that.
Odyssey: What’s one specific policy issue on which you’ve bucked your party’s consensus?
Rep. Brat: Yeah, the budget is the main thing. Many leaders in our party are taking control of the budget process and so I’m on a committee that wants to balance that budget in 10 years. Our work is being ignored and now our leaders of our party are in charge of the budget and they're going to break the budget caps, increase government spending even more and increase the deficit of this year and put your generation in further debt. I’ve fought against that every step of the way.
Odyssey: In your current position what vote do you most regret making and why?
Dave Brat: None so far. I don’t think I have any bad votes I can think of. I vote by conscious and by my constituents who are always happy with my votes. I haven’t had any pushback on any votes I’ve taken yet. On DaveBrat.com I explain every vote I make in great detail.
Odyssey: Since 1965 who is the best president, who is not Ronald Reagan, and why? [The question was asked this way to remove the most likely choice for the Republican congressman. Democrats Odyssey interviewed were asked the same question, excepting Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.]
Rep. Brat: I’m going to go with Ronald Reagan on that one. He is the best guy. He did the best for free markets with an optimistic attitude and that’s what I’m for.
Odyssey: The gap between the rich and the poor continues to get bigger, what statistical indicators do you use to analyze this? What is your solution?
Rep. Brat: That’s a great question and it’s true. We need to face the music and we’re competing against the rest of the world. What we need to do is get our strong workforce to compete with China and India. We’re not currently doing that. Especially in K-12 education. We’re apparently not equipping our kids with security in a business. We have to do that. They can go to college to get business certificates, community college, or whatever they need to do to have a successful future. It’s such an important issue. The one thing I want to say that the Democrats on that issue are correct to point out that issue of inequality, but they don’t have a solution. Which, as the government, the monarch, or king throughout all of human history — how would things go for you? It goes very bad. The Democrats mean well, they want to do well, but they’re going to put the out-of-control-federal-government-is-run-by-special-interest in the place to make the right choice for average people.
What we need to do is allow us to be free. I think that’s what the younger generation wants. The freedom to be successful, start a business, run your own business and be successful and that’s what we want for everybody.
Odyssey: What does the word equality mean to you and how do we achieve it as a country?
Rep. Brat: The most important thing — being the richest country — is it has made by our average person need to have freedom and equality under the law. You cannot have the federal government trampling on your rights, among these rights being the rights of liberty. When the government takes 30 to 50 percent of your money out of your wallet, I don’t think that’s the way to move forward.
