U.S. Rep. Yakym visits Goshen

Apr. 24—GOSHEN — U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym R-2nd District met with Goshen residents at Maplecrest Country Club Wednesday for the Goshen Chamber of Commerce's first Eggs and Issues series event.

"It is truly the honor of a lifetime to do this job, to have this role," Yakym said. "When I look around the House, the 435 members of the House, you can find anything on the House floor," he said. "Take ideology for example, there are people who are so far to the right that they look to the right and they see no one. There are people who are so far to the left that they don't believe that communism goes far enough in controlling the hearts and minds of people. There's everything in between.

"Take religion; you can find about every religion on the House floor. You can find every race on the House floor, every system of thought, someone who is an expert in everything, in every topic on the House floor... you find everything and that is as our Founding Fathers intended for it to be."

Yakym also claimed that the national news was not an adequate representation of the ongoings on the House floor and that much more collaboration occurred than many believe.

"When I'm talking about the work I'm doing for the RV industry or for veterans, I could go online or on national news and do an interview on my role as the Vice Chair of the Aviation Subcommittee running the FFAA Reauthorization hearings and guess what?" he asked. "Everyone's going to change the channel because someone's yelling on a different channel."

Yakym added that the people in Congress who are taken seriously are the ones who have done the research and are offering constructive criticism, though, not the loudest ones.

"If I thought that yelling would make demonstrable progress in Congress I'd be yelling, but it does not work," he said.

Goshen Chamber of Commerce President Nick Kieffer moderated a series of questions directed at Yakym related to everything from immigration and national security to inflation and artificial intelligence.

"Inflation has impacted everyone across the board no matter who you are," Yakym said. "You could be a business trying to hire someone and you're seeing your cost of labor go up... you're having supply chain issues, but you're also seeing if you're just a normal worker showing up for work every day, and you're trying to make ends meet, you're seeing your costs at the grocery store go up, you're seeing interest rates go up to levels that we haven't seen in quite some time, and when you look at all of that you've got to really, I think, get down to the root causes of these things."

Yakym says a major factor in the inflation was the stimulus packages, decreasing the value of the dollar. Americans aren't alone. The government too is increasing debt.

"We are approaching a debt-to-GDP ratio that we have not seen since World War II and we're not in a time of a global world war," he said.

Yakym said it's why he requested to be a part of the House Budget Committee and the House Ways and Means Committee.

Yakym also talked about the late Jackie Walorski and her contribution to Congress, spreading the word about the importance of the RV industry to the region.

"Jackie was simply known as — and I quote — 'The RV Lady,' because of how much of a fierce advocate she was for the RV industry," he said. "I give Jackie a lot of credit for putting the RV industry on the map inside the United States Capitol Building, and that's a big part of her legacy that I have attempted to carry forward."

Yakym also commented on his stances regarding several ongoing wars or conflicts across the world.

"The threats out there are absolutely real and one of the things that I've said on the record many times is that weakness on the part of the United States internationally arouses evil," Yakym said. "We've seen that historically over the centuries and we're seeing that today. We can never show weakness on the international stage and this is why."

Yakym said it's why he voted to support Ukraine, Israel, and the United States Indo-Pacific Command (USINDOPACOM) region.

"We can never all dictators to bulldoze other nations and take over their countries because when you really chart paths to a world war, there's only two or three ways to get there, and allowing dictators to come in and take over other countries is one of really only about three ways that you can get to a world war," he said.

Dani Messick is the education and entertainment reporter for The Goshen News. She can be reached at dani.messick@goshennews.com or at 574-538-2065.