First District Congressman Roger Marshall stopped by the KINA studio this morning for a chat with the guys from Coffee Talk. Following are some of Marshall’s comments during the broadcast.
Cheyenne Bottoms flooding issues
“Cheyenne Bottoms is a great love of mine. I spend a lot of time out there hunting. It’s one of my favorite places in the world to be. I know that we just did a fundraiser there recently. And I’m going to bring DU in. I’m a big lifetime Ducks Unlimited member. We’re going to bring them in in October, all the bigwigs from across the county and try to raise money for that project as well. It’s a state-owned project so typically federal dollars don’t crisscross with it, but Cheyenne Bottoms is a project that I’ve been working with for 25 years and there needs to be some major overhauls there. The flood that just about wiped out some of the things we’ve done.”
Agriculture issues and trade agreements
“First of all, it’s tough times in agriculture. This is about the fifth year in a row it’s been tough times, but despite that the farmers are hanging in there. They’ve had a really good wheat harvest. We’ve had some improvements in cattle lately as well. We’ve just expanded exports to Japan and the European Union for beef exports that’s going to amount to probably, oh, I would say another $500 million of exports.
“Top on my list is the USMCA — NAFTA 2.0 agreement. President Trump promised he would redo that agreement. He’s done it. He gave it to Nancy Pelosi in February. We have the votes to pass it but it is sitting on Nancy Pelosi’s desk. It’s so frustrating. She will not bring that to the House floor for a vote.
“I think we all realize how dangerous China is. They steal $500 billion of intellectual property from us every year. Ninety percent of the counterfeits that come into this country were made in China. Ninety percent of the synthetic opioids that come into this country were made in China as well, and that is why this president is standing up to them. It is 10 times worse than I thought it would be when I actually dove into the details of the challenge.”
Pharmaceuticals and China
“This is another great example of how China manipulates the market. They have government-subsidized products like you’re talking about, whether it’s IV saline or other types of things that are in that supply chain, and then they undercut everybody for several years and then take over the entire market. So what I see happening right now before our eyes where all these supply chains are leaving China and going to other countries. We’re standing up to this bully absolutely. This has been going on for four or five years. As a physician, as a person helping around the hospital, we saw shortages happening four to five years ago and China was a big part of that.”
Country of origin designations and beef
“Well, I think that issue has already sailed a long time ago. I don’t see it coming back. I just don’t hear anybody in Washington talking about it. I don’t think that at the end of the day it was good for the beef industry and we have a great trade program going now with Mexico and Canada, and I think that would slow down the trade.”
National debt
“Well, unfortunately, this is the issue that I stay up late at night worried about. Whether you think school education, roads and bridges, the military is the most important thing the federal government does, this national debt is the greatest threat to any of those. And I’m the person that likes to talk about solutions. I certainly understand the problems. No.1, this country has a see-food diet. They see food and they eat it. This country just keeps spending money. We don’t have a taxing problem. We have record numbers of revenues coming into the federal government thanks to this great, strong economy we have across the country. But at the same sign, we’re spending more than we have and our biggest spend, believe it or not, is in health care. So 28 percent of the discretionary budget in Washington is on health care. We have to figure out ways to drive the price of health care down. I’m working with President Trump to do just that, working with the Republican Party leading on that issue. Actually rewriting the legislation that will replace Obamacare, and this will have a great deal to do with driving down the cost of health care but maintaining quality.”
Planned Parenthood
“It’s just sick is what it is. Planned Parenthood is making so much money from abortions that they can leave the federal government money on the table. So we’ve worked ways to tie their hands. Basically, they’re an abortion clinic. We’ve known that for years. I fought with them as a physician and I’m going to keep fighting with them now as a congressman.”
Tech company regulations
“I think that is something that we’ve had hearings on in Congress, and agree with you that they are censoring conservative thoughts, and it is very upsetting to me that we are being censored in that direction. So they’re having hearings. It is very hard. The European Union has done some really aggressive suppressing of what’s going on, so it is hard to find that sweet spot right now.”
Democratic Party
“So they have a socialist agenda like I’ve never seen before, whether they want to completely take over health care or take over the energy policy of this country. They do have a very radical, socialist agenda. America needs to wake up. Just listened to the Democrat presidential debates if you can stand it and just see how far left-leaning they really are. They’re dragging that entire Democrat Party far, far, far to the left.”
Democratic presidential candidates and free health care for people not legally in the country
“We can’t put people from other countries ahead of our veterans, ahead of our seniors, ahead of American taxpayers. Congress needs to stand up and do its job. We need to secure our border and we need to fix the immigration problem as well.”
Tax cuts
“I think the president throws a lot of things out there and just to change the ballgame. He is a game-changer. I sat down with Newt Gingrich the day after I was sworn in and Newt said ‘You know, the president just loves chaos, so get ready for it.’ So he throws a lot of things out there. Our economy is strong. Record low unemployment. Wage growth is over three percent again for this past month as well, so the economy is solid right now across the country. Let’s don’t overreact. We did a great tax cuts bill about a year and a half ago. It’s just now taking its full speed, so I think the economy is solid. Let’s take a deep breath and don’t overreact.”
Marshall’s plans for the 2020 election
“I promised my wife that we would take all of August and thoughtfully communicate about this. I’ve enjoyed going across the state. We’ve been in, I think, 89 counties already. Our goal is to get to all 105 before I make that final decision. it would be a great honor to serve this entire state. This district has a great heritage. Since 1948, every senator from Kansas has come from this Big First District.”
Guns
“It’s a balancing act. Certainly Kansans think that our security’s important and I think that our security is important as well. At the same time, the people from Kansas sent me to D.C. to defend the constitution and all the amendments and all our rights. We’ve done some really major gun background check legislation last year, spending more money on it, and I think we need to let that take effect as well. My big concern is people’s mental health. You have to have some type of a mental health problem to do what these people have done and we need to address that. Congress is throwing tens of billions of dollars at it and you know, speaking to people across the state already, how do we implement it and do a better job with mental health.
“The red-flag laws, we gotta be very careful about those because it takes away your due process. Some neighbor down the street from you could be mad at you and file a complaint and take away your rights, so we need to be very, very careful when it comes to red-flag laws.”