By Noah Crenshaw | Daily Journal
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After a tumultuous year, the U.S. congressman who represents Johnson County discussed topics ranging from workforce participation, to the situation that is unfolding in Afghanistan, to responses to the coronavirus pandemic during a chamber luncheon Thursday in Greenwood.
Rep. Trey Hollingsworth, R-Indiana, was the featured guest at Aspire Johnson County’s fourth Legislation Matters event. Hollingsworth was expected to discuss public policy and specific legislation related to local businesses during the Q-and-A portion of the lunch.
Workforce participation an ongoing struggle
The Ninth District congressman told business leaders everyone should be grateful for where the economy is compared to where they thought it would be 16-17 months ago when the pandemic began, referring to the country’s economic growth and low unemployment rate.
Still, the nation’s hiring crisis is the biggest policy decision in front of Hollingsworth and the rest of Congress. Ensuring more people enter the workforce is a top priority, Hollingsworth said.
“Over the last year and a half, we have seen 6 million Americans — 4 million of them being women — drop out of the workforce,” he said. “They are not even looking for jobs despite how many jobs are available in our community.”
Ensuring Americans feel comfortable enough to take control of their financial futures by getting a job is also a priority, Hollingsworth said.
Small business, not big business, has historically driven employment, and will continue to be the engines of economic growth in the future. But small businesses are struggling to attract employees. They are not able to compete with big businesses when it comes to benefit packages, which is why more people are joining companies such as Amazon. Lawmakers need to level the play field, he said.
Workforce participation remains a challenge, but it is not a new challenge. It has been declining since before the last recession, Hollingsworth said.
“This (trend) has to reverse. We need more Americans getting jobs, getting careers to build their futures because this is something that will drive economic growth going forward,” he said.
Taliban takeover is an ‘insult’ to Americans
During the Q-and-A, Hollingsworth was asked by guest moderator Eric Prime, an Aspire board member, about the situation in Afghanistan, and the country’s recent takeover by the Taliban.
“Words cannot describe my anger for the situation. I am absolutely livid. It is shameful and is an abomination,” he said.
Many sacrifices were made — 2,400 soldiers died and $2 trillion was sent there in the last 20 years — to have all that work washed away within a week, Hollingsworth said.
“How we do something matters,” he said.
The Taliban are stronger today than they were on Sept. 12, 2001. The effects of the withdrawal from Afghanistan will echo through the future and could create national security crises, Hollingsworth said.
“Despite what the (Biden) administration said, ‘(The Taliban) promised to be good guys this time.’ They have not lived up to that,” he said.
Hollingsworth alleged the Biden administration’s abandonment of a Trump-era deterrent program in Afghanistan led to the takeover by the Taliban, and compared the situation to former British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain’s actions in the 1930s, when Chamberlain presented the appeasement deal he reached with Adolf Hitler to the British Parliament.
“Winston Churchill stood up and famously said to (Chamberlain), ‘You were given a choice between dishonor and war, and you chose dishonor and you will get war,’” he said. “This will not end with Afghanistan. This will embolden (our) adversaries all around the world.”
More steps should be taken to show U.S. allies that America stands strong by its partners, he said.
Mandates should be decided by legislators
Prime also asked Hollingsworth about the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision to deny Indiana University students’ lawsuit against IU’s vaccine mandate.
There is a lot of outrage about single individuals deciding peoples’ freedoms, Hollingsworth said.
He is opposed to such actions, whether it be by the president, a governor or a university chancellor. He is a firm believer that laws are created by virtue of constitutions, both U.S. and state.
“The circumvention of (the constitutions) by single individuals, no matter how laudable the aims they will sell you on, are an encroachment on your freedoms, A, and B, an insult to that constitution,” Hollingsworth said.
There is too much power in the executive branch, and the American people have to take the power back, he said.
Any mask mandates should be decided by a legislature. Doing it by only the pen of the governor is an insult to the accountability citizens should have, he said.
