Arrington says Republicans can achieve goals

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  • U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington (right), R-Lubbock, talked with (l-r) Project Frankenstein sponsor Sarah Jamison and project members Nicolas Benavides and Jerry Lambert during the congressman’s visit to Snyder Monday.
    U.S. Rep. Jodey Arrington (right), R-Lubbock, talked with (l-r) Project Frankenstein sponsor Sarah Jamison and project members Nicolas Benavides and Jerry Lambert during the congressman’s visit to Snyder Monday.
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Despite a bumpy start, U.S. Representative Jodey Arrington, R-Lubbock, believes the Republican-led Congress can still achieve many of its objectives, starting with the Republicans’ top priority — repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act.

During a visit to Snyder Monday, Arrington discussed a variety of issues facing Congress as it tries to push through a conservative agenda he believes the country needs in order to achieve fiscal responsibility.

The cornerstone of that effort, he said, is repealing the Affordable Care Act (ACA), popularly known as “Obamacare,” as well as eliminating many regulations he considers unnecessary at best and harmful at worst.

“In the last eight years, we’ve taken the greatest economy in the world and created a regulatory state,” Arrington said. “It’s a miracle the economy was able to grow at 2 percent GDP annually. We’ve started to roll back the burdensome, and sometimes overreaching, regulations, using the Congressional Review Act.”

On issues like abortion, Second Amendment rights and public education, Arrington said Congress has taken steps to ease or eliminate federal oversight and leave more of the decision-making to state or local officials.

“We’ve passed structural regulatory reform,” he said. “In the Obama administration, you had, on average, 80 new regulations per year, that cost the economy over $100 million dollars, on average, for eight years. We’ve got to restore Article 1 in the Constitution, where the people speak through their elected representatives, not through unaccountable regulators, and get the economy going and put Americans back to work.”

The major roadblock remaining in Congress’ efforts, he said, is the ACA, which survived after Republicans splintered on a repeal effort earlier this year.

“We were building up to a vote, and (House Speaker Paul Ryan) called it back,” he said. “It was at the top of everybody’s list. The Republicans asked for people to send us a Republican president and a majority in the House and Senate, and we would repeal it. I am confident we will (repeal AFA) eventually, but there’s certainly been frustrations along the way.”

In ACA’s place, Arrington supports the American Healthcare Act (AHA), which he said will repeal more than $1 trillion in taxes, institute entitlement reform to the tune of more than $150 billion in deficit spending reduction, increase flexibility through block grants to states and includes work requirement for able-bodied Americans.

“It’s a good step in the right direction,” Arrington said. “It’s not perfect, but I’ve never seen a perfect piece of legislation. If we let perfect be the enemy of something good, we will miss this window of opportunity for truly meaningful reform.”

Arrington said reducing the federal budget deficit is vital to the country’s future, so he reluctantly supports cuts to federal programs such as support for the arts and Meals on Wheels.

“Nobody wants their program to be cut. Everybody has one they feel an emotional attachment to,” he said. “As someone who grew up watching Sesame Street, I can tell you that’s a great program. I probably learned how to count watching it. It’s not that I’m against the arts. It’s just at some point, you’re forced to ask, ‘Just what should the federal government be involved in?’ The future outlook calls for us to be $20 trillion (in debt) with $1 trillion in deficit spending, annually. I don’t know of anything more important than getting our fiscal affairs in order.”

Another issue Arrington has been asked about as he tours his district is the Trump administration’s support of “school choice,” or using a voucher system to allow parents to send their children to charter or private schools.

“I don’t want the federal government involved in education. I think that should be a state and local matter. The more local you can push education decisions down to, the better. I would just say that public education is a public good. I’m for competition and choice, but we need to make sure that the choices we do make provide real choices for every student, and that those private or charter schools comply with the same regulations and requirements as public schools.”