Sen. Young Discusses Opioids, Trade, National Security
August 29, 2019 at 11:13 p.m.
By David [email protected]
He stopped at the Warsaw school to present a U.S. Capitol Police patch to Drake Price, who has collected thousands of police badges from around the world. Price also is battling a brain tumor and was honored in 2018 as a Riley Champion.
After the presentation and pep rally for Price, 13, now a Lakeview Middle School student, Young took a few minutes to answer questions about some national and global issues before heading off to South Bend.
“I’m traveling around and we called a number of round tables on different topics, from eviction of people from their houses, which is a challenge in some of our cities; to the opioid crisis; I had individual meetings at businesses where I learned more about challenges and opportunities people are facing. So really I’m just traveling the highway and byways of Indiana and visiting Hoosiers where they work, play, live and sometimes even pray,” he said.
An issue that affects many in Indiana is the opioid abuse epidemic.
Young said the federal government, in a “very bipartisan fashion,” has authorized numerous programs and invested tens of billions of dollars to fight the opioid crisis in America.
“Much of the very important work is being done at the state and local level right now. In fact, we’re told, frequently, that the issue of addressing the opioid crisis isn’t primarily one of resources, it’s instead developing strategies that are tailored to local communities because all of them are different to help arrest this crisis and ultimately turn it around,” Young said.
He said the government will continue to be helpful wherever it can. That might mean more investment of resources, but he said one reason he’s traveling around is to learn more.
“There is one specific area that consistently I hear about that Indiana is struggling with, and that’s an insufficient number of in-patient facilities to house those who have an opioid addiction. Because you go into treatment, but within the first week of treatment, it’s very common to relapse. If you could be instead in an in-patient setting, I’ve been briefed by experts, that will significantly reduce relapse rates and frankly save money over the long term in addition to the human cost,” Young explained.
On the issue of national security, he said that for the first time in a number of years the U.S. was investing more in its military.
“We’ve cut annual spending ever since I came to Congress in 2011, but we had to reinvest in our military because the Gulf War and the War in Afghanistan, which had been primarily ground battles, ground wars, those resources have consumed money we would have otherwise spend on modernizing our military forces to deal with a near-peer adversary, which is what China someday is projected to become,” Young said.
He said some of the reinvestment into the military included giving the men and women in uniform “the largest pay increase they’ve gotten in the past 10 years.”
Young acknowledged there are a lot of threats out there “in the cyber realm, Iran and North Korea and their nuclear development, Russia continues to meddle in our internal affairs. So, we need to keep being vigilant with respect to all these things.”
Longer term, the more existential threat is China, he said.
“We need to pivot to China and be especially attentive to threats they pose in the future as well,” Young said.
He said the trade war with China is really adversely affecting Indiana farmers.
“Which is why I think, in order to end this trade tit-for-tat more quickly, we need to get together with other large economy countries and collectively apply pressure to the Chinese so that when they steal some of our technologies or when they prevent some of the free countries of the world from exporting into their markets, we all apply pressure on them. I think that will bring them into a position of better behavior very quickly,” Young said.
He said he’s heard comments from the Trump administration that it was moving in that direction.
“But I’d like to do so more quickly,” Young said.
Finally, on the 2020 presidential race, he said he has no idea how that’s going to look.
“But, I believe, based on my consultation with Hoosiers, that President Trump will get re-election because he’s earned re-election, sustaining the longest period of economic expansion in American history, putting faithful constitutionalists on the federal bench, rebuilding our military. I also think the Republicans will keep control of the United States Senate for the same reason,” Young stated.
He stopped at the Warsaw school to present a U.S. Capitol Police patch to Drake Price, who has collected thousands of police badges from around the world. Price also is battling a brain tumor and was honored in 2018 as a Riley Champion.
After the presentation and pep rally for Price, 13, now a Lakeview Middle School student, Young took a few minutes to answer questions about some national and global issues before heading off to South Bend.
“I’m traveling around and we called a number of round tables on different topics, from eviction of people from their houses, which is a challenge in some of our cities; to the opioid crisis; I had individual meetings at businesses where I learned more about challenges and opportunities people are facing. So really I’m just traveling the highway and byways of Indiana and visiting Hoosiers where they work, play, live and sometimes even pray,” he said.
An issue that affects many in Indiana is the opioid abuse epidemic.
Young said the federal government, in a “very bipartisan fashion,” has authorized numerous programs and invested tens of billions of dollars to fight the opioid crisis in America.
“Much of the very important work is being done at the state and local level right now. In fact, we’re told, frequently, that the issue of addressing the opioid crisis isn’t primarily one of resources, it’s instead developing strategies that are tailored to local communities because all of them are different to help arrest this crisis and ultimately turn it around,” Young said.
He said the government will continue to be helpful wherever it can. That might mean more investment of resources, but he said one reason he’s traveling around is to learn more.
“There is one specific area that consistently I hear about that Indiana is struggling with, and that’s an insufficient number of in-patient facilities to house those who have an opioid addiction. Because you go into treatment, but within the first week of treatment, it’s very common to relapse. If you could be instead in an in-patient setting, I’ve been briefed by experts, that will significantly reduce relapse rates and frankly save money over the long term in addition to the human cost,” Young explained.
On the issue of national security, he said that for the first time in a number of years the U.S. was investing more in its military.
“We’ve cut annual spending ever since I came to Congress in 2011, but we had to reinvest in our military because the Gulf War and the War in Afghanistan, which had been primarily ground battles, ground wars, those resources have consumed money we would have otherwise spend on modernizing our military forces to deal with a near-peer adversary, which is what China someday is projected to become,” Young said.
He said some of the reinvestment into the military included giving the men and women in uniform “the largest pay increase they’ve gotten in the past 10 years.”
Young acknowledged there are a lot of threats out there “in the cyber realm, Iran and North Korea and their nuclear development, Russia continues to meddle in our internal affairs. So, we need to keep being vigilant with respect to all these things.”
Longer term, the more existential threat is China, he said.
“We need to pivot to China and be especially attentive to threats they pose in the future as well,” Young said.
He said the trade war with China is really adversely affecting Indiana farmers.
“Which is why I think, in order to end this trade tit-for-tat more quickly, we need to get together with other large economy countries and collectively apply pressure to the Chinese so that when they steal some of our technologies or when they prevent some of the free countries of the world from exporting into their markets, we all apply pressure on them. I think that will bring them into a position of better behavior very quickly,” Young said.
He said he’s heard comments from the Trump administration that it was moving in that direction.
“But I’d like to do so more quickly,” Young said.
Finally, on the 2020 presidential race, he said he has no idea how that’s going to look.
“But, I believe, based on my consultation with Hoosiers, that President Trump will get re-election because he’s earned re-election, sustaining the longest period of economic expansion in American history, putting faithful constitutionalists on the federal bench, rebuilding our military. I also think the Republicans will keep control of the United States Senate for the same reason,” Young stated.
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