U.S. Senator Marsha Blackburn made a stop in Waynesboro last Wednesday to speak with local and county officials as part of her annual commitment to visit each of Tennessee’s 95 counties.
A topic that Sen. Blackburn says she ends up hearing about and discussing more than any other is the economy. We asked the senator if there is any relief in sight for the economy in general, more specifically things such as the tremendous increase in housing prices and the ever-fluctuating yet still increasing gas prices at the pump. “Until the federal government stops this out of control spending, the cost of living prices are not going to improve,” said Blackburn.
Senator Blackburn went on to discuss the issue of federal debt. “From George Washington to George W. Bush, we can say that $10.6 trillion in debt was put on the books. When Barack Obama was president, he doubled that amount in eight years, going from a federal debt amount of $10.6 trillion to upwards of $22 trillion,” said Senator Blackburn. “Debt went up another $1 trillion under the Trump administration, another $1 trillion due to COVID, and another $6 trillion so far under the Biden administration. The spending just has to stop somewhere.”
Another topic brought up to Senator Blackburn was the future of Wayne Medical Center. The senator explained the initiative called the Rural Health Agenda, a bipartisan plan on which she and other members of the Senate and House are trying to work together to create solutions for rural hospitals such as ours. She went on to explain how healthcare has become much more technology-driven over the past few decades, and her belief that insurance reimbursement rates for services performed at rural hospitals should be the same as reimbursement rates for the same services performed at metropolitan-area hospitals. Sen. Blackburn also discussed a pilot project recently launched in Fentress County that enabled the establishment of a freestanding emergency room affiliated with the much larger hospital in Knoxville, UT Medical Center.
Senator Blackburn then discussed with The News another project that she is passionate about, the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA). This legislation is co-sponsored by Senator Blackburn and 43 other senators from both sides of the aisle. She said that there is an increasingly large mental health crisis among young people in the United States, with one study suggesting that one out of three girls contemplated suicide within the past year. With the use of social media being so prevalent among young people, and the fact that it gives “bad actors” the opportunity to exploit young people in horrible ways, KOSA will give parents an online toolbox to research the algorithms used on social media and to report suspicious activity that threatens the safety and security of our children.
Senator Blackburn invites anyone who has questions for her to visit her website at www.blackburn.senate.gov, or to call her office at 901-527-9199.
