Afghanistan

As our flag is flown at half-staff, my heart is heavy.

Over the past week, the world has watched in disbelief and horror as Afghanistan has fallen to the Taliban. Images of destruction, completely overwhelmed facilities, terrorists taking U.S. equipment, desperate citizens and Afghans wading through checkpoints, and people falling to their deaths as they cling to planes in the hopes of escaping. There are no words for the chaos and unequivocal lack of leadership seen.

Regardless of how you feel about the overall decision to withdraw, there is no denying the way it was executed has led to a complete human tragedy and security threat.

Our greatest fears have been realized. Right now, our nation is faced with the tragedy of lost lives, with thousands of more still in harm’s way.

American citizens are yet to be completely evacuated.

Our troops have been killed in terrorist bombings on the ground. Thirteen U.S. service members were taken from us and their families. We are a nation indebted to them for their service and sacrifice.

Afghan partners—who risked their lives to help our nation—are stuck and being actively targeted.

I attended a classified briefing on Afghanistan this week. While I can’t share many aspects of what was said, I can safely say gross negligence caused this unmitigated disaster.

And make no mistake—both our global partners and enemies are watching. The state-run Chinese Communist Party newspaper already has used the situation for their propaganda against the U.S. The paper wrote: “From what happened in Afghanistan, those in Taiwan should perceive that once a war breaks out in the Straits, the island’s defense will collapse in hours and the U.S. military won’t come to help.” Our credibility is faltering. America is projecting weakness and incompetence to our adversaries and our allies.

The lack of strategy we have seen—and the fundamental misunderstanding of the situation on the ground—has cost the lives of our heroes and innocent civilians. As a veteran and proud American, this is simply unacceptable. Accountability is needed. 

During this time of crisis, the focus must be finishing the mission. We must secure the perimeter. We must use every asset and tool to get every American and ally out. And, we must swiftly and forcefully hold the terrorists responsible. Every resource has to be directed to these objectives, and we must stay until we complete the mission—not be beholden to an arbitrary timeline.

I am committed to using every oversight and constitutional power to gather answers, create a full accounting of the choices made—including whether intelligence was shared with the Taliban—and hold every person in leadership responsible for the consequence of their decisions.

The "Bernie Budget"

As all of this was going on, Speaker Pelosi called the House back into session from the in-district period—NOT to address the disaster in Afghanistan, record-high border crisis, soaring inflation, surging crime, or debt. Instead, she brought back members to vote on a socialist "tax and spend" spree and another attempt to federalize elections.

First, Speaker Pelosi struggled to get the votes needed to advance her boondoggle, and she was prepared to pass it in the dead-of-night to avoid scrutiny. When her negotiations didn’t go as planned, she then resorted to tacking it on to a procedural vote. What that means is there was no standalone vote on the “Bernie Budget,” Democrats’ $3.5 trillion budget resolution filled with far-left, progressive priorities. The plan, named after and written by Senator Bernie Sanders—a self-described socialist—was combined into a larger rule bill as a tactic to force moderate Democrat members to pass it. If this was sound policy, it would have been cleanly brought to the floor.

Let me be clear, we did not vote on a legitimate budget. I know this because I have written one—I know the procedures. This document is no blueprint to bring sanity to our nation’s fiscal trajectory. It’s a maneuver for Democrats—led by Senator Bernie Sanders and President Biden—to write themselves a check for trillions of taxpayer dollars for their far-left vision. The out-of-control expansion of government and spending guarantees more inflation, taxes, and an incomprehensible debt burden left to future generations.

The Democrats’ budget:  

• Calls for the highest sustained federal spending levels in American history.
• Proposes $68 TRILLION in total spending over ten years.
• Adds $17 trillion in new debt.
• Institutes a debt increase that will be greater than the GDP of every other country on earth.
• Guarantees raised taxes and costs on American families and small businesses
• Will push American jobs overseas by taxing U.S. employers at one of the highest rates in the world.
• Drops military funding to the lowest levels, as a percentage of the economy, in over 80 years. This is as threats from our adversaries continue to grow.
• Provides a ZERO% increase for Homeland Security when the border crisis continues to worsen, reaching record-breaking numbers.
• Includes provisions to provide amnesty to illegal immigrants, eliminate "right to work" protections, expand government-controlled health care, subsidize blue state taxes for the wealthy, and more.

We are already seeing the realities of the liberal economic policies and uncontrollable spending implemented over the last several months. Small businesses continue to face dire labor shortages, and inflation has increased every month since President Biden took office.

In fact, inflation stands at a 13-year high, up 5.4 percent over last year. Increased spending will encourage more inflation—that’s basic economics. Worse yet, our nation reached our debt limit less than a month ago. Instead of addressing this issue, Democrats are ignoring the cap and abusing the budget process procedures to implement their harmful agenda.

Federalizing Elections

You might recall me speaking about H.R. 1 earlier this year. The legislation was the Democrats’ initial attempt to federalize elections and funnel public funds to bankroll political campaigns. Since that effort didn’t pass muster in the Senate, they are trying again. This time with H.R. 4, another bill to try to exert control and nationalize America’s electoral system, under the false pretense of “voting rights.”

Besides the fact that they rushed it to the floor without a committee markup—the focus of the proposal centers around ripping power away from the states and putting it into the hands of unaccountable bureaucrats in D.C. It would even give the Biden Administration authority to veto states’ voter ID laws and other critical election reforms passed by state legislatures, including in Arkansas.

The ability to vote is one of the most sacred rights we have as citizens of our great republic. It’s a privilege to be protected. Attempts to centralize election control in the hands of the federal government and unelected bureaucrats will do everything but that. The Constitution is clear—these rights are reserved to the states.

I voted against this bad policy and misguided attempt to federalize elections.

As we enter this weekend, please continue to pray for our troops and fallen. God bless all those who wear the uniform.

• Veterans Crisis Line: Call 1-800-273-8255 or text 838-255, and the website is: VeteransCrisisLine.net
• Vet Centers: Call 1-877-921-8387
• VA Caregiver Support: Call 1-855-260-3274

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