Massie Speaks to the Optimist Club of Covington
It was a pleasure to speak with members of the Optimist Club of Covington this month. Among those in attendance were Optimist Club of Covington President Jeannine Bell Smith, Past-President Dan Humpert, Kenton County Sheriff Charles Korzenborn, and Kenton County Circuit Court Clerk John Middleton. The Optimist Club meets every Wednesday at noon in Crescent Springs at Pee Wee's Place. These meetings are open to the public and everyone is invited to attend.
I began my remarks to the Optimists by discussing the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill under consideration in Congress. I am on the Transportation committee, and I support infrastructure spending because it has a legitimate constitutional role and a federal nexus. Unfortunately, this $1.2 trillion bill includes too much ridiculous, non-infrastructure spending on items like providing high-speed internet to prison inmates and public funding of electric car charging stations.
We also discussed Afghanistan. As much as any Congressman or Senator, I have been an advocate for getting out of Afghanistan. Ten years ago, we killed Osama Bin Laden, and our mission to disrupt terrorist organizations in Afghanistan should have ended then. For the past decade, however, we have been engaged in nation-building. The arrogant belief that we could turn Afghanistan into a Western Civilization kept our troops there for too long and created a blind spot in the Biden administration. Should Republicans regain the House majority, I am confident that there will be hearings examining Biden's horribly managed withdrawal.
The topic of mask and vaccine mandates was also of interest to the Optimists. I thought our Commonwealth was cleared of the Beshear virus when Matt Bevin took over as Governor after Steve Beshear. It appears, however, Kentucky has come down with the Andy variant of the virus. Symptoms of the Andy variant include:
-Loss of balance (in your bank account).
-Shortness of breath (from masks).
-Impaired learning (closed schools).
-Confusion (masks off, masks on, masks off).
The Constitution is for tough times, not for easy times. Mask mandates are unconstitutional, illegal, unscientific, illogical, and unsafe. Further, mask mandates lead to vaccine mandates. If you accept one, get ready, because the next one is coming.
Finally, I had the pleasure of taking questions from those in attendance. The Optimists' questions covered a range of national and local issues, and I was pleased to have an opportunity to answer them.
In Liberty,