Sasse talks government overreach, security in Kimball stop

Senator Ben Sasse made a stop in Kimball County during his first trip back to the panhandle after his election last fall.

Sasse, a first-term Republican, visited with locals last Wednesday at the historic Brookside farm just north of Kimball. Kendall and Beverley Atkins, owners of the farm, hosted Sasse in his visit.

Following a short introduction, Sasse addressed the diverse crowd, which included students from Jeri Ferguson's incoming civics class and community leaders.

Sasse said he wanted to spend the month of August listening to Nebraskans about their ideas and concerns. He answered local concerns regarding the general overreach of federal government, including the IRS, but specifically the EPA and its proposed Water of the United States (WOTUS) rule.

"That is the second most talked about issue at these things," he added. "Regulatory overreach is what I call the fourth branch of government."

Sasse said government was not originally created to move quickly because the most decisions should be made at the local, county, district and state levels.

Woodrow Wilson, who was president a century ago, had the idea to grow the power of the federal government, according to Sasse.

"The good news is everybody sort of ignored Wilson. They thought this was a crazy idea. Barack Obama has tried to institutionalize what Woodrow Wilson theorized about 100 years ago," Sasse said. "He has tried to grow the power of these executive agencies, and none more egregiously than the EPA."

The senator said the WOTUS rule is more than 300 pages that basically gives the federal government control over all the water in the country. He said federal laws area already in place to address those concerns and local concerns should be addressed locally.

"Most obviously in the 1970s you had smoke stacks in Illinois that were polluting and causing acid rain in Ohio and Pennsylvania," Sasse said. "The Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act had some really important federal responsibilities to make sure that Illinois didn't avoid the negative external degradation of the environment that happened in another state. That is what the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act exist to do, not to regulate every drop of water in Nebraska."

Following the questions regarding federal government overreach, Sasse addressed matters of national safety. He said WOTUS is second only to Iran as matters that are on the minds of Nebraskans. He said the majority of Republicans and Democrats were against Iran acquiring a nuclear weapon.

"The current Ayatollah Khomeini is only the second leader of that country in the last 36 years," Sasse said. "They have had no change of heart from their goal of, ultimately, global, expansionistic Islam. Where they would take over and institute Sharia law by force."

Sasse added that Iran cannot be trusted as a country as it is the world's largest sponsor of state terror.

"I think this should be a bipartisan issue," he said. "You know it is bad when the French say we are not negotiating a hard enough deal."

Border security is not just an immigration issue, but weak borders present an opportunity for nuclear materials to be trafficked into the country over a long period of time, according to Sasse. In addition to national security risks, one that Sasse specifically addressed is the likelihood that both China and Russia are currently spying on the United States, citing a statement released by Secretary of State John Kerry on Aug. 11.

"Secretary of State John Kerry took a break from his propaganda on the Iran deal to acknowledge to a reporter that he does think both the Chinese and the Russians, quote, 'very likely reading' all of his email,'" Sasse said. "It's a pretty stunning thing for the Secretary of State to say in a sort of passive, resigned, complacent way that he thinks two of our major geo-political challenges are involved in ongoing cyber-attacks. And we talk about it like it isn't a big deal."

Sasse said these kinds of attacks could disrupt avionics or even shut down the power grid.

"When you talk to intelligence officials in some of the alphabet soup of intelligence agencies and the military establishment, you find that their biggest middle-term threat, two to 10 years out, their biggest threat is debilitating cyber attacks."

Sasse said his priorities remain national security, entitlement issues and regulatory overreach as it applies to agricultural interest. He said the federal government should focus on those issues and let the states handle what they can.