Walorski Hits On 3 Security Themes At Syracuse Chamber: National, Economic, Family
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
By David [email protected]
For under an hour, she talked about issues ranging from the presidential election and national security to Guantanamo Bay and Obamacare.
“I am really just making a chamber sweep to be able to just get in front of all of our small business folks in this entire district, and really kind of hear from you on questions that you might have, but more than anything else, I kind of just want to frame what we’re going into with this political season, but also what I’ve been up to and what the House (of Representatives) has been up to,” Walorski explained.
She said the number one question she gets is in regards to people’s frustration with the presidential election.
“I just want to tell you that I don’t have an inside scoop. I wish I did. I wish I could come in here and say, ‘This is what’s really going on.’ I think we know what’s really going on and it’s unprecedented, and we’re definitely in uncharted waters,” she said.
But what she said she could tell the crowd of about 20 was what will happen after the election.
“Somebody’s going to be elected to be the president of this country. We know that,” she said. “But the morning after, the sun’s going to come up and we’re going back to work in the House, and we’re fighting for Hoosiers and doing things that I’ve been doing for 3-1/2 years. It will not matter who’s in the White House whether or not we go back to work and Congress is in session. It will be.”
In the time she’s served in Congress, Walorski said there are three themes that she’s worked on in representing and fighting for the 2nd District. One of those is national security, she said, and to do that she’s been on the Armed Services Committee for the last 3-1/2 years.
“I can tell you that, as we’ve had an absent commander-in-chief, we have not had a commander-in-chief that’s engaged at the military level in this nation like our former presidents have in both parties,” Walorski said. “I can tell you that while our commander-in-chief has decided not to engage in foreign affairs and the military, the (Armed Services Committee) has.”
She said the Armed Services Committee is the largest in the House with 63 members, and is “extremely bipartisan in how we react and how we move legislation.”
When it comes to national security, with a president that doesn’t engage, Walorski said the Committee engages.
As an example, she talked about Guantanamo Bay, a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
“When I first got to the Armed Services Committee, I could not believe that our president wanted to start cleaning out Guantanamo Bay, cleaning out Gitmo, and sending terrorists, with blood on their hands, (to America) – not low-lying, small offense folks from around the globe; terrorists that are sitting in Gitmo are the highest-powered terrorists the world has ever seen; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the mastermind of 9/11) is there ... and folks at his level are there as well,” she said.
“The rest of the folks that are there have blood on their hands for killing our fellow Americans, and I for 3-1/2 years have carried an amendment, sometimes by myself, but many times by bipartisan support, that forbids the president from closing Guantanamo and bringing those terrorists to this soil. And I will continue to do that.”
Walorski said she carried the amendment last year inside the National Defense Authorization Budget, which is the military budget. President Obama vetoed the budget bill last year, but passed it a couple weeks later when it was brought back to him, Walorski recalled.
“He was trying to make the point that it’s worth it to him to literally not fund the entire military over the ability to be able to close Guantanamo,” Walorski said. “And I’ll make the commitment to you that I made to the rest of our district: He may try, and he is trying, but we’re standing solid and standing firm. I’ve got the same amendment this year that’s going to go in that military budget and we’re going to have another confrontation with the president but I’ll not renege on allowing terrorists with blood on their hands to come to this country and get the same kind of rights that we have as American citizens.”
She also listed other places in the world where she said Obama wasn’t going to get involved – Russia, North Korea, China and ISIL – that the bipartisan Armed Services Committee will.
Walorski then transitioned into talking about her second theme, economic security, and how this country’s economy has just eked along the last one or two years.
“Even with this president, the House has been able to move legislation that actually helped Hoosiers, that helped small business in our community. Back in December, we were able to start moving permanent tax reform, even with this president. We were able to secure the Section 179 deductions permanently now, not having to pass them every year. We were able to do the R&D tax credit, permanently now, not pass them every year. And sales tax permanently, and not having to pass it every year,” she said. “So with this president, we were able to move small business reform.”
Walorski then moved on to Obamacare. “The other thing that I would bring to your attention is, even under President Obama, there’s been seven major pieces of legislation inside the Affordable Care Act that he’s repealed himself because the Republican House plays defense. We’ve played defense ever since I’ve been there. So we’ve put so much pressure on him – I think we’ve probably voted to repeal Obamacare maybe 30 times, maybe 35 times, and every single time he’d get on national news and try to excoriate us for trying to repeal something that our constituents want repealed.
“But interestingly enough, two of the pieces, that would have been very damaging to Hoosiers and the rest of the country, is the Employer Mandate. We were able to put so much pressure on him at the national level, with the Democratic Senate ... and the president in power, just by coming to the American people and talking to you, and letting you respond directly to us and directly to him, he backed off the Employer Mandate for a two-year period of time because his polling numbers were falling by five points a night,” she said.
The Employer Mandate period has not rolled in yet, she said, and the Medical Device Tax has been repealed for two years while the Hoosier delegation tries to make that tax repeal permanent.
The third issue for her is family security. For that, she touched on her pro-life stance; she’s on the Veterans Administration Committee and helping protecting the lives of American veterans; and she serves on the Agriculture Committee and is opposed to the Waters Of The U.S., which defines which waterways fall under the jurisdiction of the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers.[[In-content Ad]]
For under an hour, she talked about issues ranging from the presidential election and national security to Guantanamo Bay and Obamacare.
“I am really just making a chamber sweep to be able to just get in front of all of our small business folks in this entire district, and really kind of hear from you on questions that you might have, but more than anything else, I kind of just want to frame what we’re going into with this political season, but also what I’ve been up to and what the House (of Representatives) has been up to,” Walorski explained.
She said the number one question she gets is in regards to people’s frustration with the presidential election.
“I just want to tell you that I don’t have an inside scoop. I wish I did. I wish I could come in here and say, ‘This is what’s really going on.’ I think we know what’s really going on and it’s unprecedented, and we’re definitely in uncharted waters,” she said.
But what she said she could tell the crowd of about 20 was what will happen after the election.
“Somebody’s going to be elected to be the president of this country. We know that,” she said. “But the morning after, the sun’s going to come up and we’re going back to work in the House, and we’re fighting for Hoosiers and doing things that I’ve been doing for 3-1/2 years. It will not matter who’s in the White House whether or not we go back to work and Congress is in session. It will be.”
In the time she’s served in Congress, Walorski said there are three themes that she’s worked on in representing and fighting for the 2nd District. One of those is national security, she said, and to do that she’s been on the Armed Services Committee for the last 3-1/2 years.
“I can tell you that, as we’ve had an absent commander-in-chief, we have not had a commander-in-chief that’s engaged at the military level in this nation like our former presidents have in both parties,” Walorski said. “I can tell you that while our commander-in-chief has decided not to engage in foreign affairs and the military, the (Armed Services Committee) has.”
She said the Armed Services Committee is the largest in the House with 63 members, and is “extremely bipartisan in how we react and how we move legislation.”
When it comes to national security, with a president that doesn’t engage, Walorski said the Committee engages.
As an example, she talked about Guantanamo Bay, a United States military prison located within Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
“When I first got to the Armed Services Committee, I could not believe that our president wanted to start cleaning out Guantanamo Bay, cleaning out Gitmo, and sending terrorists, with blood on their hands, (to America) – not low-lying, small offense folks from around the globe; terrorists that are sitting in Gitmo are the highest-powered terrorists the world has ever seen; Khalid Sheikh Mohammed (the mastermind of 9/11) is there ... and folks at his level are there as well,” she said.
“The rest of the folks that are there have blood on their hands for killing our fellow Americans, and I for 3-1/2 years have carried an amendment, sometimes by myself, but many times by bipartisan support, that forbids the president from closing Guantanamo and bringing those terrorists to this soil. And I will continue to do that.”
Walorski said she carried the amendment last year inside the National Defense Authorization Budget, which is the military budget. President Obama vetoed the budget bill last year, but passed it a couple weeks later when it was brought back to him, Walorski recalled.
“He was trying to make the point that it’s worth it to him to literally not fund the entire military over the ability to be able to close Guantanamo,” Walorski said. “And I’ll make the commitment to you that I made to the rest of our district: He may try, and he is trying, but we’re standing solid and standing firm. I’ve got the same amendment this year that’s going to go in that military budget and we’re going to have another confrontation with the president but I’ll not renege on allowing terrorists with blood on their hands to come to this country and get the same kind of rights that we have as American citizens.”
She also listed other places in the world where she said Obama wasn’t going to get involved – Russia, North Korea, China and ISIL – that the bipartisan Armed Services Committee will.
Walorski then transitioned into talking about her second theme, economic security, and how this country’s economy has just eked along the last one or two years.
“Even with this president, the House has been able to move legislation that actually helped Hoosiers, that helped small business in our community. Back in December, we were able to start moving permanent tax reform, even with this president. We were able to secure the Section 179 deductions permanently now, not having to pass them every year. We were able to do the R&D tax credit, permanently now, not pass them every year. And sales tax permanently, and not having to pass it every year,” she said. “So with this president, we were able to move small business reform.”
Walorski then moved on to Obamacare. “The other thing that I would bring to your attention is, even under President Obama, there’s been seven major pieces of legislation inside the Affordable Care Act that he’s repealed himself because the Republican House plays defense. We’ve played defense ever since I’ve been there. So we’ve put so much pressure on him – I think we’ve probably voted to repeal Obamacare maybe 30 times, maybe 35 times, and every single time he’d get on national news and try to excoriate us for trying to repeal something that our constituents want repealed.
“But interestingly enough, two of the pieces, that would have been very damaging to Hoosiers and the rest of the country, is the Employer Mandate. We were able to put so much pressure on him at the national level, with the Democratic Senate ... and the president in power, just by coming to the American people and talking to you, and letting you respond directly to us and directly to him, he backed off the Employer Mandate for a two-year period of time because his polling numbers were falling by five points a night,” she said.
The Employer Mandate period has not rolled in yet, she said, and the Medical Device Tax has been repealed for two years while the Hoosier delegation tries to make that tax repeal permanent.
The third issue for her is family security. For that, she touched on her pro-life stance; she’s on the Veterans Administration Committee and helping protecting the lives of American veterans; and she serves on the Agriculture Committee and is opposed to the Waters Of The U.S., which defines which waterways fall under the jurisdiction of the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers.[[In-content Ad]]
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092