LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) — Congressman Clay Higgins dropped by KLFY this afternoon to share the biggest issues he sees facing Capitol Hill in 2022. The Acadiana and Southwest Louisiana representative has been speaking to constituent leaders this week to learn their priorities and how best to apply them as the federal government continues to navigate through the pandemic.
“To me, 2022 represents a year of either opportunity or failure,” Higgins told News 10.
The congressman hopes the legislation lawmakers push in 2022 is America first, which he explains means economically responsible and honoring the sovereignty of states. He noted voting bills that passed without his vote in the House of Representatives and now await a decision from the Senate.
“We cannot allow our federal government to grow ever more powerful and burdensome and intrusive and controlling of our lives as individual American citizens,” Higgins argued. “That would be devastating to America. You have to have state-driven repairs to where you have injuries and election integrity.”
Apart from “federalized elections” legislation, Higgins also touched the Build Back Better Act. “It’s a four-billion-dollar bill, man. That’s insane”, were his first words.
Though he acknowledges the bill has some good things in it, the contents of the bill are less concerning to him than the price. America’s debt has gone from one trillion dollars in 1980 to seven trillion dollars in 2000 and now 31 trillion dollars in 2021. Democrats argue Republican tax cuts did not help the situation and are pushing for President Biden’s restructuring to taxes to spur the economy.
“Instead of giving a giant tax break to the large corporations to the wealthy,” Chuck Schumer, Majority Leader of the United States Senate argued. “we so fervently believe that we must make average American lives a whole lot better. We want middle people to stay in the middle class and breathe easy in the middle class. We want poor people to be able to climb that ladder to get to the middle class.”
Higgins argues reversing the spending pattern is the way to go. “We’ve got to stop this insane spending out of D.C., some of us are, and we get beaten bloody man in D.C. by standing against some of these bills,” the congressman said. “We just have to have fiscal responsibility then you can argue about the contents of the bill and that’s a legitimate debate.”
If you’d like to hear the uncut interview with Congressman Clay Higgins where we talk about COVID, the border, and more, subscribe to the 10 Talks Acadiana podcast.