(La Porte, IN) - U.S. Representative Rudy Yakym was in La Porte Friday as part of a district-wide tour. His “Riding With Rudy Tour” has been traveling through all eleven counties in the Second District.
Yakym said he met with Mayor Tom Dermody and some City Council members. Yakum told HTNN that their discussions focused on three areas of partnership between federal and local governments.
“We took a ride on the La Porte TransPorte system,” Yakym said, “and really got to see how those federal dollars are used in La Porte to transport people around who may not have transportation themselves.”
Yakym said another area of local interest is making improvements to the La Porte Municipal Airport.
Train traffic was also discussed. Yakym said his office is already hard at work trying to pull some strings to reduce train traffic through downtown La Porte. “We want to be a resource for the local level, because the railroads tend to take our calls at the federal level when we pick up the phone and call, so our congressional staff here in the district has been really plugged in with La Porte County.”
In general, Yakym He said the high costs of inflation are evident everywhere he goes, and he’s trying hard in Washington to bring some stability back to the economy. “That is simply caused by the federal government spending much more money than we’re taking in on an annual basis," he said. "It’s a real problem."
Yakym is on the House Budget Committee, where he says debt ceiling negotiations are currently ongoing. According to Yakym, “The Congressional Budget Office estimates that if we do nothing for next year other than continue federal spending, we will have a $1.5 trillion deficit. If we do what President Biden wants us to do, we will not only increase federal taxes, but also spend so much more money that we’ll have a $1.8 trillion deficit.”
Yakym said House Republicans hope to reduce the budget “in a way that is responsible and leads to a lower deficit so we can start to restore fiscal responsibility to Washington, D.C.”
