By Tim Carpenter, Kansas Reflector
TOPEKA — U.S. Rep. Derek Schmidt of Kansas said the military campaign against Iran should continue until U.S. forces resolved the threat of Iran’s deployment of nuclear weapons and eroded that country’s ability to destabilize neighbors in the Middle East.
“I hope we’re near the end of this operation — with a successful outcome,” said Schmidt, who serves the 2nd District of eastern Kansas. “At the end of the day, the real risk was a nuclear-armed Iran that had the ability to deliver payload outside of its borders.”
Schmidt, speaking Wednesday at a Greater Topeka Chamber of Commerce forum, said President Donald Trump’s large-scale strikes on Iran starting Feb. 28 was a response to Iran’s sponsorship of terrorism and funding of proxy militant organizations. On Tuesday, Trump said a cease-fire had been brokered with Iran, but there was confusion about what that meant.
“Iran has been an adversary of the United States for nearly half a century,” Schmidt said. “When they say, ‘Death to America,’ they mean it. America didn’t start this fight, we joined it.”
During the forum, the Republican congressman was asked about Trump’s protectionist strategy to influence trade through imposition of high import taxes.
“I’ve been a free-trade person by philosophy,” Schmidt said. “I don’t like the direction they moved on tariffs, but I recognize that the president didn’t hide the ball. It wasn’t like he got elected and then said, ‘I think I’ll focus on tariffs.’ I mean, he campaigned on it. He made the case. Voters responded.”
Schmidt said he worked to convince the Trump administration to exempt cocoa from new tariffs given the number of companies in the 2nd District involved in the chocolate industry. In November, Trump signed an order excluding cocoa beans, powder, butter and liquor from certain tariffs.
Meanwhile, Schmidt said Congress approved 11 of the 12 appropriations bills required to fund the federal government. The response by Democrats to Trump’s immigration crackdown in Minnesota stalled work on a budget for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which included the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE.
Schmidt said the goal of Congress was to follow “regular order” by annually working the 12 spending bills and to end reliance on massive continuing resolutions to finance the government, Schmidt said.
“Gargantuan continuing resolutions that, you know, are crafted at the last minute by six or eight people in a room. If you’re one of the six or eight people, it’s a great process because you have tremendous leverage over all priorities of the U.S. government. But if you’re one of the rest of us, it’s terrible process, because it’s hard to have a voice,” Schmidt said.
Overall, he said Congress must come to grips with $39 trillion in debt tied to borrowing and approximately $80 trillion in unfunded liabilities for entitlement programs such as Medicare. The only way to address those obligations would be to raise tax revenue through economic expansion, he said.
“We are not going to tax our way out of that and we are not going to cut our way out of that,” he said. “The public will not support either of those. You can’t get there by simply taxing or simply cutting.”
