Columns

Christmas is a time for counting our blessings. As we near the end of 2024, I am so grateful for the freedoms we enjoy in United States and my precious wife and children. There is no better time of year to consider the things we truly cherish. We should also speak about them with loved ones and share the way they uplift our hearts.

This week, world events have emphasized the importance of American readiness to keep our country safe and stand with our allies across the globe. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria is another reminder many regions of the world do not enjoy the freedom and stability we do in the United States. It also underscores the need for decisive U.S. leadership as Assad’s rogue allies, such as Russia and Iran, may grow increasingly desperate.

This week, despite prior assurances made repeatedly by the president himself and his spokespeople he would not do so, President Biden announced he had signed a sweeping pardon for his son Hunter Biden. While framed by the president as addressing Hunter’s gun and tax charges, the pardon stunningly covers all crimes Hunter “committed or may have committed” from 2014 to 2023, a period covering Hunter’s questionable business dealings in Ukraine, China, and other foreign nations.

Poised at the threshold of the holiday season, the Thanksgiving holiday has a powerful capacity to bring us together as Americans. Despite unrest in the world, economic adversity, and political polarization, we’re given the chance to unite, share in our blessings, and give thanks.

One-size-fits-all mandates from Washington are rarely the answer to the problems Americans face, and health care is no exception. As anyone who has traveled our state can see, there is endless diversity of needs across our communities. The health care challenges, and the solutions needed to best serve them, are just as varied.

Under the Biden-Harris administration, inflation triggered by anti-growth policies, lackluster engagement on trade, and bloated federal spending has hit Nebraska households hard—costing the average household in our state $32,110 more since January 2021. Rising input costs also continue to severely impact the agriculture and manufacturing industries. Data published this week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows the annual rate of inflation for wholesale products again increased in October.

This week, the American people chose to return Donald Trump to the White House while also electing a Republican majority to the Senate, and likely the House as well. Investors also received good news this week as the stock market had its best one-week rally in a year. Corn and soybean prices ended the week higher than they began, and multiple indexes surpassed record highs. This positive trend is not coincidental. The last Trump administration brought tax relief, regulatory relief, and an overall positive environment for job creation and investment.

The American economy is powered by innovation and the hard-working Americans who faithfully do their jobs every day. The role of the federal government should be to empower, not hinder, the productive workers and world-leading innovators who drive our country’s remarkable capacity for growth. From the builders constructing our homes and bridges to the tech engineers opening new digital frontiers, the strength of our industries relies on a tax code which sets up American businesses to excel in a competitive global market.