Senator McConnell Visits Region

By Allyson Dix, Managing Editor/Barren County Progress

 

Senator Mitch McConnell paid a visit to Glasgow on April 17 to deliver remarks at a Glasgow-Barren County Rotary Club meeting where he spoke on various topics including his most important career decision as well as current issues such as tariffs and America’s biggest threat.

McConnell, who has become the longest-serving Senate party leader in American history, opened his remarks to a crowd of around 100 people by sharing that he is a polio survivor. He went on to commend the Rotary Club and its efforts in helping eradicate the disease. “It’s an amazing story,” McConnell said about polio’s eradication, noting that two countries, Afghanistan and Pakistan, are the only countries that continue having polio disease.

Switching to politics and current issues, McConnell said, “It’s good to be in the middle of so many Republicans for a change.”

He briefly touched on the impact of recent tornadoes and floods in the state, highlighting how those challenges have brought people together. “And that’s one of the many reasons I’m so proud of being a Kentuckian,” the senator said.

Sustaining Farmland

Turning to the decline of Kentucky’s farmland, which encompasses over 70,000 farms, and noting Barren County has more farms than any other county in the Commonwealth, McConnell said his proposal of the Protecting American Farmlands Act would help sustain Kentucky’s farmlands.

“We’re losing farmland,” McConnell said, and this bill, which was introduced on March 11 after the Kentucky Farm Bureau came up with a proposal, will provide farmers with capital gains relief to attempt to keep agricultural land in the hands of active farmers. The goal is to ultimately slow down Kentucky’s rapid decline of farmland through a combination of other efforts. (Senate Bill 930 can be tracked and followed on www.congress.gov.)

Tariffs

McConnell said after 40 years in the Senate, his views on tariffs haven’t changed, adding that he is not a fan of them, but he hopes the current administration’s efforts are successful.

“I’m not being critical of the administration for trying this, but here’s how I see it,” McConnell said. He went on to reference the Smoot-Hawley bill, which was a tariff bill signed by President Herbert Hoover in 1930. McConnell said that while that tariff bill wasn’t the sole reason for the Great Depression, it was a factor.

Stumbling through the 1930s, and even with President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s efforts, “What I think really ended the depression was World War II,” McConnell said. “Put me down as not yet convinced that this is the best way to go but we’ll see. Maybe it’ll turn out the way [President Donald Trump] would like for it to turn out, but that’s unfolding as we speak.”

McConnell said Congress has no impact on the decision for tariffs, a tax placed on foreign goods, and that under current law, the president has the right to implement such tariffs.

“He’s not doing anything illegal with it, and I’m hoping that I’m wrong and he’s right,” the senator added.

Biggest Threat

McConnell said, “I think the most important thing now is our relationship with the rest of the world.”

The world has authoritarian regimes–North Korea, China, Russia, Iran, and Iran’s proxies–with most remaining countries in the world being democratic, McConnell explained.

“[It’s] more dangerous because they’re all talking to each other, they’re coordinating, and the leader of that group [is] pretty clearly China,” McConnell said. “What they’re wanting to do is to replace us as the most important country in the world.”

He touted the decisions made to formulate the North American Treaty Organization (NATO) in 1949, stating it as being the most successful alliance in the history of the world before highlighting President Harry Truman’s historical actions with wrecked economies after World War II.

He said, after briefly mentioning the monetary costs of war, that he hopes when the current president reveals the next budget, there is a “dramatic increase” in defense, adding, “Not to have a war, [but] to prevent it.”

“It’s important to support our friends–don’t lecture them,” McConnell said. “We’re on the same team, we need to be operating together–the democratic world–because believe me, the authoritarians want to replace us all.”

Most Important Decision

The most important decision McConnell said he’s ever made in his career was to not fill the empty seat in Supreme Court during Obama’s last year as president.

“That led to three new Supreme Court Justices when I was Majority Leader and 53 new Circuit Judges,” McConnell humbly touted.

While brief, McConnell’s remarks–which lasted around 20 minutes–ultimately touched on all three governments–local, state, and federal.

“It has been the honor of my life to have the chance to look out for the finest state in America and for much of my time as the longest-serving Senate Leader,” McConnell would tell those in attendance.

McConnell doesn’t plan to seek re-election, as announced earlier this year. At Thursday’s meeting, however, the senator said he plans on “running through the tape” to finish out the rest of his term.

Held in the T.J. Samson Community Room, the President of the local Rotary Club, Randy Burns, introduced McConnell before he spoke and shared a synopsis of the senator’s life, which is summarized below:

On January 3, 2023, McConnell, the longest-serving Senate party leader in American history, was elected to lead the Republican Conference nine times since 2006. He served as Majority Leader from 2015-2021, being the only second Kentuckian to ever serve in this role.

Time Magazine has named McConnell one of the 100 most influential people in the world on three separate occasions. He is a graduate of both the University of Louisville College of Arts and Sciences and the University Kentucky College of Law. He served as Judge/Executive of Jefferson County before elected to the Senate. McConnell currently serves as a senior member of the Appropriations, Agriculture and Rules Committees.

* More information on the Rotary Club’s role in polio, visit https://www.rotary.org/en/history-rotary-polio-eradication-efforts.