Potential candidate Sasse tours the state before deciding on Senate bid

Ben Sasse worked to turn around companies in crisis for 20 years. Now he's considering putting that skill set to work in the U.S. Senate.

Sasse is currently traveling around Nebraska on a listening tour—including a stop in Sidney on Thursday—to help him decide whether or not he wants to run for Congress. After a series of discussions, he believes that three major concerns are at the forefront of most Nebraskans' minds.

To begin with, many agree that there's a crisis of work in the United States. Moms are worried that they haven't taught their kids the keys to becoming successful adults.

"Life isn't just about consumption," Sasse said. "It's about loving your neighbor and it's about work and it's about producing."

Secondly, those in this state want entitlement reform. They're scared that Medicare and Social Security will lose viability in the future.

"People believe that they're responsible to love their neighbor, but it's not Washington and it's not government that drives the meaning of American greatness," Sasse continued.

The amount of people on food stamps has gone up dramatically in the past 20 years and Sasse doesn't think this helping anyone long term.

"Government is a big part of creating and expanding a dependant culture," Sasse said.

The national debt is looming concern for Sasse as well. He believes the debt is actually higher than reported because of the unfunded portions of Medicare and Social Security. By far the biggest single entitlement concern is the Affordable Care Act. Sasse isn't exactly a Washington outsider, he was U.S. Assistant Secretary of Health for two years under George Bush, and he thinks recent healthcare reforms were a botched effort.

"The Affordable Care Act is abysmal legislation," Sasse said. "Anything that's 2300 pages long is abysmal legislation."

Sasse is any agreement with many fellow Republicans and some Democrats that the Affordable Care Act should be fully repealed. There's no excuse for any bill that long, from either side, Sasse added.

Although Sasse describes himself as a Reagan Republican, he doesn't necessarily believe that those in his party have all the answers.

"I'm a right wing conservative on every policy issue we can talk about, but a lot of our problems are bigger," Sasse said. "The world's not gonna be fixed if just Republicans won every election."

Those Sasse spoke with are frustrated by the continual stalemate in Congress.

"Nebraskans are so obviously sick of the screaming," Sasse said. "They want people who actually wanna get stuff done and fix problems, not just demonize the other side."

Sasse is disheartened by how little faith anyone has in Congress, but he's hopeful that it can change.

"I think it's interesting that we're as conservative of a state as we are and Nebraskans are almost as cynical about Republicans as they are about Democrats," Sasse said.

Sasse is a native Nebraksan who learned his work ethic on the farm. He was born in Plainview and raised in Fremont, where his grandfather was business manager of Midland University.

Sasse is now president of the school.

"I'm back in the town where I mostly grew up," he said.

Sasse attended college in Boston and worked in corporate strategy for a time after graduating. He has a background in helping failing businesses.

"I typically focused on crisis, so big companies or governments that were in trouble," Sasse explained. "I dealt with a lot of companies that went through the internet revolution."

He assisted companies in disaster when new IT replaced the status quo.

After some ten years consulting, Sasse decided he wanted to do something more. Continuing his education, he earned a Ph.D. in history and became a professor. Although Sasse has an intimidating resume—he's taught at Yale and the University of Texas—he and his wife preferred Nebraska to raise their children.

The couple have two girls, ages nine and eleven and a two year old boy.

Currently Sasse is putting his background in crisis management and academia to work at Midland University.

"In 2009, I was offered the presidency of Midland University, which is a 130 year old school that knew how to pay the bills for 124 years and then tried to figure out how to go bankrupt," Sasse said.

He loves his job at the moment, and wasn't really thinking about running for office until recently.

"The chance to be a part of a key cultural and job creating institution in my home town was pretty appealing," Sasse said.

Sasse is a supporter of Senator Mike Johanns, who announced in February that he wouldn't run for reelection. A draft movement on social media began in the wake of this news, asking Sasse to consider running for Johanns' seat. At that point Sasse was planning to support current Governor Dave Heineman.

"This draft movement wasn't my doing," Sasse said. "I didn't puppet master it, I knew it was gonna happen but I sort of thought it was silly."

He promised he'd consider running if the governor backed out. When Gov. Heineman made his announcement that he wouldn't run, Sasse was not prepared.

He had no plan, so he set out traveling the state to hear Nebraskan voices.

"I don't give a rip about being in the club," Sasse said. "I don't care about being in the Senate in the least. I love the job I have. My wife and I are raising our kids in Nebraska. We're not moving to D.C. under any circumstances."

He plans to commute if he runs and is elected.

"We'll live in Nebraska because this is where we want to be," Sasse said

Sasse has an insider's perception when it comes to education. He believes that the problem with student loan debt is much more complicated than most Americans realize. The entire U.S. education system is failing to measure up, Sasse said.

"The vast majority of kids have never had a job," Sasse said, referring to incoming students at Midland.

When he was a kid he de-tassled corn and worked in bean fields.

"That is not the experience of kids today," Sasse said.

The average 18-25 year old male plays five hours of video games a day, he claimed.

"I don't want those jokers to marry my daughters," Sasse said. "That's a crisis."

He believes there is a fundamental problem with the way that colleges and universities process students.

"Why are colleges and universities not being held accountable for the fact that they're graduating so few people?" Sasse asked.

Much of the student debt at this point is held by people who never finished their degrees. Pell grants and Stafford loans are being wasted on those who never graduate. Many Nebraskans aren't ready to do college level work after they graduate from high school, Sasse claimed.

He's worked to fix these problems at his own school, and hopes that others can follow its lead. Midland University takes attendance freshman year and gives out tests early in the semester just to see if students have completed the required reading.

"An investment in higher education is a positive thing for our society, Sasse said.

This belief, as well as his understanding of system flaws, informs his criticism of the nation's lawmakers.

Those in Congress disguise spending and investment far too often, Sasse said. He is concerned that Americans get something out of what they put into education. He thinks the nation needs to make sure that its students are really learning in school, that everyone is being held accountable. He adds that most government money is going to corporate welfare including not for profit welfare to big institutions and universities.

Despite his academic credentials, the would-be candidate speaks to how important farming is to this state and to the world at large.

"Agriculture in Nebraska is the foundation of the global food supply," Sasse said.

He's aware that agriculture is a high tech business and that farm legislation needs to reflect that. Bundling the Farm Bill with food stamp policy and making food stamps the main focus doesn't make sense to him. He believes the government should be more focused on defense than entitlements.

"Philosophically the government's first duty is to protect us from enemies foreign and domestic," Sasse said.

He also believes in social safety nets for our poorest people and he thinks that most Nebraskans agree with him on that point. Although Sasse isn't of fan of most Washington insiders, he's hopeful that there is a way to change the ways the government works.

Sasse would love to change the sense of despair that the majority of Americans seem to feel about the state our the country.

"There's a lot of cynicism," Sasse said. "There's a resigned view that nobody can make a difference."

Sasse won't give up his belief that the American dream can be salvaged. Through family values and personal responsibility the country can get back on what he considers to be the right track.

"I come at these problems with seriously conservative policy commitments," Sasse said. "But I come at them with a Nebraskan's sense that you treat people with dignity and respect. I think most of these jokers in the congress, their main goal is to get on TV at night and shout at people on the other side and Republicans are as guilty of it as Democrats.”

But his listening tour and his take on the functions and malfunctions of the legislative process have yet to tip him over the deciding line.

"I think I'm very likely gonna run," Sasse said. "But we haven't crossed that threshold yet."