By Leah Sander
InkFreeNews

WARSAW — U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym said the economy is still a concern for his constituents.

Yakym’s comment came during a brief interview with InkFreeNews on Tuesday, Feb. 21. He was in Warsaw as part of the Indiana Main Street tour he’s doing throughout his 2nd Congressional District.

U.S. Rep. Rudy Yakym

He spent lunchtime with the area’s Community Action Council, a group of nonprofit and other leaders who meet regularly to share concerns and updates.

Yakym said in a response to an InkFreeNews question regarding inflation that it came up during the council’s gathering Tuesday, which wasn’t open to media.

“Inflation is the single biggest issue that we’re hearing from around the district, including whether it’s at the roundtable (today). We spent a lot of time talking about inflation over lunch. I was in Rochester this morning; that was a big concern that people were sharing,” he said.

“(Inflation) is caused quite simply by federal overspending,” said Yakym. “We have a one and a half on average trillion dollar federal deficit. We are spending a trillion and a half dollars more than we’re taking in and you cannot go forward with spending a trillion and a half dollars per year than you’re taking in at the federal level and not expect to get inflation.”

“So we simply need to balance our federal budget or a least over the next few years reduce the overall federal deficit,” he said.

Yakym also referenced energy independence, citing that gas prices “are lower than they were before but in part because of how much oil we’ve released from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve.”

“We’ve been doing a couple of things in Congress in terms of a few bills that we’ve recently passed to make sure that No. 1 that if we do release any additional oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, it stays domestic and is not sold to even more specifically China, and No. 2, we want to make sure that if we have a release of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve that we require a plan from the administration for domestic oil production,” he said.

Yakym noted that the Chinese Communist Party was also a concern of his and other congressional leaders.

“We’ve established a select committee on China to investigate everything from the theft of our intellectual property, their currency manipulation as well as the spy balloon that they’ve recently sent over our country,” he said.

In response to a question regarding his support of various pro-life legislation, Yakym cited in particular the Born-Alive Abortion Survivors Protection Act he’s a co-sponsor of.

“(It) basically says if a child survives an abortion, you can’t kill the child on the table, you have to actually give … a breathing child that’s alive … medical care,” he said.

On a very local level, Yakym mentioned working to help the Warsaw Municipal Airport with a runway lengthening project.

“I was announced as vice chair of the Aviation Subcommittee on Transportation and Infrastructure, which is important because we have the FAA Reauthorization Bill coming through the House later this year,” stating he would work related to that to “remove the red tape” for projects like the Warsaw airport’s.

Yakym also talked about carrying on the legacy of his predecessor Jackie Walorski, who passed away in car crash in August while in office.

“Jackie was a dear friend of mine. I worked for her a little over 10 years ago and maintained a very good friendship and relationship with her up until the day that she died,” said Yakym. “So I certainly wish the circumstances within which I had taken this office were different, but at the same time I think part of my job is … we will honor her legacy and do things that will make her proud and at the same time. I’ll be the best version of Rudy that I can possibly be.”