Next Tuesday night, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Cabinet will gather on the floor of the House of Representatives for the President’s address on the State of the Union. Speaking from a stained wood lectern to a crowd of roughly one thousand – and tens of millions more on TV – President Trump will reaffirm the many accomplishments from his three years in office and outline a vision for the coming year. It will be a historic speech. President Trump will be the first president to address the nation as a Commander-in-Chief impeached in the United States House of Representatives by just a single party. This fact is a testament to his resilient leadership as well as the absurdity of the Left’s constant opposition to his tenure.
President Trump has accomplished much in the past three years. Right off the bat, he put brilliant legal mind Neal Gorsuch on the Supreme Court and has since appointed and confirmed Brett Kavanaugh and over 150 other judges who interpret laws based on what they actually say instead of how they feel about a particular issue. I’m also looking forward to hearing him discuss the booming U.S. economy and our record low unemployment rate of just 3.5%. When an economy sustains a low unemployment rate, businesses raise wages to attract workers to their firms. We can see that happening now as wages rose 2.9% in 2019. Thanks to pro-growth policies over the past three years such as tax and regulatory relief, Missourians take home more money every paycheck. Additionally, the signing of the United States Mexico Canada Agreement (USMCA) this past week will add $68 billion to the US economy over the next six years.
The economy has been helped along by historic regulatory reform that removes governments from the lives of private citizens. Currently, the quagmire of federal environmental review is a major impediment to overhauling our nation’s infrastructure. President Trump’s changes mean that, for Southern Missourians, highway projects like the scheduled renovations to US-67 south of Poplar Bluff will start earlier, finish quicker, and require fewer taxpayer dollars than before.
The President will also talk about his commitment and decisive action to protect all American lives at home and abroad. Earlier this month, after Iranian-backed militias killed an American defense contractor, President Trump put the world on notice that he will not tolerate attacks on American citizens and authorized the extinction of the Iranian terror leader responsible for the attacks.
Just as President Trump protects Americans abroad, he has also taken steps to protect Americans-to-be, the unborn, at home. He took action to end federal research that used fetal tissue taken from abortion procedures and changed US policy to stop taxpayer funds from supporting the abortion industry. Recently, he became the first US president to speak to hundreds of thousands of pro-life demonstrators on the National Mall.
If Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats had to give a similar rundown of their accomplishments over the past year, they couldn’t. Since President Trump took office, the Left has been obsessed with just one thing – impeaching the duly-elected President of the United States. Now, as the Senate trial comes to a close, the damage they have done to the country is clear. Catering to their far-left, neo-Socialist base, House Democrats have warped the most serious constitutional remedy available to the American people into nothing more than a flippant political gesture that can be weaponized against any president that the Left dislikes.
My guest this year is Poplar Bluff Chief of Police Danny Whiteley, and he will join me in the audience and in our nation’s capital next week. I invited Chief Whiteley because of the great work he has done to fight the scourge of opioids in Southern Missouri. Having been in law enforcement for over 40 years, he has seen for himself the horrific effects that opioid addiction has on victims, families, and communities. My experience visiting the US-Mexico border showed me exactly how many drugs and human traffickers can flow through an unsecured border. While 110 miles of new barriers have been built, and 466 miles are either under construction or in the planning phase, there are still hundreds of miles left unsecured and unfunded. I hope that Chief Whiteley’s visit to the capital reinforces the importance of finally approving funding for a full border wall in Congress.
On Tuesday night, I pray the Left will listen to the President’s State of the Union Address with an open mind and recognize the extent of the progress they have opposed. President Trump’s steadfast leadership is a testament to his love of our country and his belief in the American people. Hopefully our nation will be able to move forward as we always have: as one nation, under God with liberty and justice for all.
