My Weekly Column
Over the last three years, I’ve made 226 trips to farms, schools, businesses, police departments, workforce training centers, cooperatives, ethanol plants, and food pantries on my biannual 36 County Tour. At each stop, I have had meaningful conversations with Iowans about their policy priorities at the federal level and real discussions about how we can work together to deliver real results for our families, farmers, small businesses, and rural communities.
Roughly three months after our country exceeded $32 trillion in debt, we have surpassed another grim milestone and broken another unfortunate record. Our national debt has officially eclipsed $33 trillion, which is now the highest debt burden in American history. To put this figure into perspective, every single American – all 340 million of us – shoulders nearly $100,000 of this debt.
Since the beginning of his administration, President Biden has weaponized the heavy hand of government to tilt the scale in favor of policies that he supports – absent any congressional action or approval whatsoever. From his burdensome WOTUS rule on our farmers to his ridiculous plan to hike mortgage payments on responsible taxpayers to subsidize home loans for folks with low credit scores, the President has demonstrated that he will take any action necessary to advance his liberal agenda.
When I was elected to represent Iowa’s 4th Congressional District, I made a solemn promise to Iowa farmers and producers that I would be the strongest voice for agriculture and our farm families in Congress. From the Farm Bill to energy policy, I believe that the hardworking men and women who feed and fuel our country deserve a loud voice and a seat at the table when lawmakers craft legislation that impacts their livelihoods and pocketbooks.
President Biden’s economic agenda – which he has coined “Bidenomics” – has failed our families, farmers, small businesses, and rural communities by every measure possible. 61% of Americans reported living paycheck to paycheck, 71% of Americans have a negative view of the state of the economy, and gas prices continue their upward trajectory. Even more concerning, credit-car and car-loan delinquency rates are rising with American families now carrying a record one trillion dollars in credit-card debt.
In rural America, our farmland is our most valuable, yet finite, asset. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the United States is home to over two million farms spanning nearly 894 million acres. This expansive acreage has cemented our position as the third largest agriculture-producing country in the world.
Economic hardship caused, in large part, by President Biden’s wasteful spending policies and misguided attacks on American energy production recently broke another record. For the first time in over two decades, mortgage rates rose to 7.12% as the Federal Reserve continues its rate hikes to combat the inflation crisis spurred by reckless government spending. Even worse, there is no indication that this upward trajectory will reverse course in the coming months – spelling disaster for American families who want to purchase a home and plant their roots.
On metric after metric, President Biden’s economic agenda – which he has coined “Bidenomics” – has failed our families, farmers, small businesses, and rural communities. His tax-and-spend policies have pushed the American Dream out of reach for too many families by eroding their paychecks and crushing their budgets under the insurmountable weight of record inflation, higher taxes, and crippling debt. The economic indicators speak for themselves, too.
President Biden has overseen the worst border crisis in recent memory. Since the beginning of his administration, more than 5.5 million illegal immigrants have crossed our border, and in July alone, illegal border crossings increased by 30%. This has not happened by accident. The Biden Administration’s policies have intentionally exacerbated this crisis by failing to enforce our laws, hold drug traffickers accountable for their crimes, and protect our families from the fentanyl crisis.
In 2022, nearly 110,000 Americans died from a drug overdose, including 75,000 people who lost their lives at the hands of synthetic opioids like fentanyl.