Small towns, Afghanistan top topics for senator
Staff writer
The importance of sustaining rural economies and current events in Afghanistan were top subjects when Senator Jerry Moran talked Sept. 8 to Marion Kiwanis.
Moran told the 20 people who came to hear him that his focus was on rural America and the small businesses that line main streets.
Kansas’ economy relies on agriculture, so making sure farmers and small businesses can sustain themselves is important, he said.
“None of this will work or last if we don’t have farming,” Moran said.
Keeping clinics, hospitals, and hospice services in rural areas also is a key to sustaining small towns, he said.
“Not having a pharmacy in town can be a real hardship,” he said.
Moran noted that keeping health care facilities open depended on keeping families and seniors in rural communities.
Technical education also is important to recruiting and maintaining businesses for rural communities, he said. Communities need to offer work forces with skills to do needed jobs.
It’s his priority is to make sure veterans are treated as they should be, he said. He grew up during the Vietnam War and remembers how veterans were treated when they came home. His father served in World War II.
His office has been getting calls from Afghanistan veterans seeking help getting people out of the country after it was taken over by Taliban.
Roger Hannaford said he wanted answers why the evacuation of Afghanistan went the way it did.
Moran said he wanted administration officials to answer for what happened.
A withdrawal date never should have been announced publicly, he said, but he noted that withdrawal dates were announced by previous administrations.
“We have too easily over decades allowed presidents to make decisions that should be made by Congress,” Moran said.
In response to another question from Hannaford, Moran said the way to reduce inflation was for the government to reduce its spending.
Moran has been a senator since 2010. He served seven terms as a congressman before being elected to the Senate.