Advance-Monticellonian - U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton Visits Monticello on Campaign's "Arkansas First" Bus Tour

News Article

By Chance Wright

Traveling the state in an RV and campaigning in his bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, U.S. Rep. Tom Cotton stopped in Monticello Saturday afternoon as part of his "Arkansas First" bus tour.

Cotton is a lifelong resident of Yell County (Dardanelle). He grew up on a small cattle farm and graduated from Dardanelle High School. After graduation he continued both his undergraduate and law education at Harvard University.

"During my final year of law school at Harvard the 9/11 attacks occurred," he said. "This attack changed the course of my life."

After a brief clerkship with the U.S. Court of Appeals and a short time in private law practice, Cotton left the confines of his law practice and joined the U.S. Army.

"Because of my legal background I was initially offered a commission as a JAG attorney," he said. "I declined the commission and opted to join the infantry instead."

During his approximately five years of active duty, Cotton completed two combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. For his service he was awarded the Bronze Star, the Combat Infantry Badge and the Ranger Tab.

Upon his completion of service, Cotton worked as a Management Consultant for McKinsey and Co. Once again public service came calling and in 2012, Cotton was elected to his first term in Congress. During that election he won 59 percent of the voters in the state's Fourth Congressional District.

Cotton said that during his time as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives many issues have come before legislature, but none need to be addressed more than Obamacare.

"The most urgent need is to address Obamacare, which has not only caused serious problems for our health care system, but it has also been a disaster for our economy," he explained. "It has been a disaster by slowing job creation and causing workers to see their hours cut."

Cotton went on to say that he believes that Obamacare has failed to deliver on the promises.

"I think that we need to start over on health care reform," he continued. "We need to create reforms that will be patient-centered, rather than dictated by government."
Based on the unlikelihood of Obama signing a full-repeal of Obamacare, Cotton said that until another president can be elected Congress can "at least stop some of the most damaging aspects."

"For instance, I strongly support repealing the insurer bailout provision of Obamacare because I don't believe that Arkansas taxpayers should have to bailout big insurance companies who support raising Obamacare's definition of full-time work," he said.
While Obamacare is a national topic, Cotton said that he also has a vision of what Congress can do to specifically enhance the SEARK area.

"SEARK has an interest in many issues addressed by Congress," he added. "We need to address college affordability, which is important to so many of our students who attend either UAM or UAPB. I recently helped pass the Student and Family Tax Simplification Act, which simplifies current education tax benefits to ease the cost burden of a college education."

Cotton said as an elected Senator he would also focus attention on the timber industry.
"Our forest and timber industries also face serious threats from over regulation by Washington, which is why we need to make critical reforms to the Endangered Species Act and stop some of the EPA's most burdensome regulations such as their navigable waters proposal that is a major threat to private property rights."

In addition to healthcare and the timber industry, Cotton described other areas of the federal government that demand immediate attention.

"I strongly believe that we must take action to rein in Washington's out-of-control spending and address our debt crisis," he adamantly explained. "This is holding back job creation and economic growth.

"I support balancing our federal budget, which is exactly the same thing that families in Drew County and across Arkansas do on a monthly basis," he continued. "Our country is almost $17 trillion in debt, which means that every man, woman and child in America currently owes about $55,000 toward our national debt. That is an irresponsible and immoral burden to pass onto our children and grandchildren."

Cotton said that the current border crisis is another area demanding immediate attention.
"Our current border crisis shows that we drastically need to address immigration. Democrats in the Senate favor amnesty for millions of illegal immigrants with promises of border enforcement later. That's the same failed approach we took in 1986 that I don't think we should repeat. We need to secure our borders and build a border fence. America is a nation of immigrants, but we are also a nation of laws and we must respect both traditions. We shouldn't allow people who came to America illegally to skip to the front of the line ahead of those who have respected our laws and want to come here legally," he concluded.

Source