Jason Smith: Our nation is heading in the wrong direction

(From Eighth District Congressman Jason Smith)

Like millions of Americans, I’m incredibly concerned with the direction our nation is heading. We have faced crisis after crisis ever since President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris took office. 

Families are struggling to make ends meet in this painful economy. We have a border that’s in pure chaos. Families are rightly concerned with violent crime plaguing their communities. No matter how you look at it, the Biden-Harris administration has been an absolute disaster.

Thanks to Biden and Harris’s $10 trillion spending spree, families are having to make difficult financial decisions just so they can afford to put food on the table, clothes on their backs, and gasoline in their cars. Prices have risen by more than 20% and more than one in three workers are living paycheck to paycheck. The American dream of owning a home is out of reach for millions because interest rates are at the highest level in decades. Working-class families can’t go a day without feeling the pain of the Biden-Harris economy.

Our nation is experiencing the worst border crisis in history thanks to Biden and Harris’s reckless decision to get rid of former President Donald Trump’s effective policies. The Biden-Harris administration halted construction on the border wall, reinstated catch-and-release, got rid of Remain in Mexico, and so much more. The contrast between this administration and Trump’s handling of the border couldn’t be clearer: for 41 consecutive months, illegal immigrant crossings were higher under border czar Harris than the highest month under Trump. In addition, more people were caught illegally crossing the border in the first year of the Biden-Harris administration than the entire Trump presidency.

The border crisis is a major public safety and national security issue. Back in September, St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department Officer David Lee lost his life after getting struck by the car of an illegal immigrant who was intoxicated and driving way over the speed limit. Venezuelan gangs took control over apartment complexes in Colorado, terrorizing innocent people. In June, NBC News reported that over 50 illegal immigrants with ties to ISIS were on the loose in our nation after having been released by the Biden-Harris administration. Just a few months earlier, FBI Director Chris Wray told Congress that “[w]e are seeing a wide array of very dangerous threats that emanate from the border.” Despite knowing full well that the border crisis is a serious public safety and national security issue, the Biden-Harris administration refuses to do what’s necessary to keep Americans safe.

Washington Democrats and the liberal media claim that our communities are safer thanks to Biden and Harris. They’re wrong. In October, we learned that the FBI discreetly updated crime data to show a big increase in violent crime under the Biden-Harris administration. That inaccurate data was a central piece of Biden and Harris’s argument that violent crime has decreased under their leadership. In addition, the last several years have been very dangerous for our men and women in blue. According to the Fraternal Order of Police (FOP), 378 law enforcement officers were shot in the line of Duty in 2023 – the highest number the FOP has ever recorded. Americans are sick and tired of paying the price for the Left’s soft-on-crime policies and dangerous anti-police rhetoric.

There is no question that our nation is heading in the wrong direction. The economy is a complete disaster, our border is in absolute chaos, and crime is out of control. As your voice in Congress, I will continue doing everything I can to advance the policies we need to rebuild our economy, secure the border, and restore the rule of law.