May 11, 2018
"to elevate the condition of men--to lift artificial weights from all shoulders, to clear the paths of laudable pursuit for all, to afford all an unfettered start and a fair chance, in the race of life." --Abraham Lincoln
Chairman's Note: Together We Can Beat the Opioid Epidemic
Our nation is struggling through one of the worst public health crises in its history. Approximately 64,000 people died from drug overdoses in 2016 and opioids accounted for nearly two-thirds of those deaths.
This plague has not spared Utah. In fact, Utah is one of the states hardest hit by the opioid crisis. On average, nearly six Utahns die every week from opioid overdoses and opioid deaths now outnumber deaths from motor vehicles and firearms.
This epidemic has affected every community in our great state; urban and rural, rich and poor, churchgoing and not. Practically every family, no matter where we come from, has a story to share about how this tragedy has touched our lives.
There is a power in that togetherness. Through our shared pain and experience, we can work together to identify solutions. In fact, we have already started.
Last May, District Agent in Charge of the State of Utah Brian Besser and Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes brought together leaders in law enforcement, medicine, and the law to form the Utah Opioid Task Force. And just this last week, I joined this Task Force as a co-chair.
At the time of the Task Force creation, I was working with my staff on the Joint Economic Committee to produce an in-depth study on the numbers behind the opioid crisis as part of the Social Capital Project.
According to my Social Capital Project report, while four out of five heroin addicts began their addictions with heroin in the 1960s, today three out of four heroin addicts began abusing drugs with opioids obtained through a doctor or through someone else’s prescription. The report also found that 40 percent of opioids taken by opioid abusers were obtained freely from friends and family with legal prescriptions. These sobering findings underscore the importance of reducing opioid prescriptions on the front end and disposing of unused opioid prescriptions on the back end.
Just as importantly, the report discovered that individuals who are disconnected from their families and who are either never married or divorced are much more susceptible to opioid addiction, highlighting how important social connectedness is to fighting this epidemic.
These results complemented the work the Task Force was doing in that state. They discovered that we cannot arrest our way out of this problem. While there definitely are bad guys in this story—such as the dealers who take advantage of others by manufacturing and distributing opioid-synthetics—there are many more innocent people who were drawn into opioid addiction after a work or sports accident.
These people need our love and support. But there is more we can do to make sure innocent people aren’t swept up in this epidemic. As task force member and University of Utah professor Dr. Jennifer Plumb has told us, doctors have been overprescribing opioids for years because they have underestimated how addictive they are. Likewise, patients have come to believe that opioid prescriptions are the best way to deal with their pain, even when other pain-management methods may be better suited to their needs.
Thankfully, opioid prescriptions are declining as we spread awareness about their destructive potential. We also have partnered with federal, state, and local governments to help promote Utah Take Back Day, a biannual effort to collect unused prescription medications lying around in people’s homes. Just this past April, more than three dozen Utah law enforcement agencies removed more than 17,000 pounds of unused prescription drugs from Utah homes.
This is a fight we can win, and these are significant achievements. We know this because Utah already is seeing results: Our state was one of just 14 where opioid deaths actually fell last year.
But there is more we can do. We need to keep up the work and identify new ways to combat this epidemic. So please join our effort. You can help us solve this problem by sharing your experiences and ideas.
Only through our combined efforts Utah will beat the opioid epidemic.
A longer version originally published by the Deseret News
Issue in Focus: A Respectable Rescission Request
Over the next ten years, our national debt is set to almost double, going from around $15 trillion today to more than $28 trillion in 2028. Debt as a percentage of our entire economy is set to grow from 76.5 percent today to 96.2 percent in 2028, a level not reached since the end of World War II.
Net interest payments on that debt are set to grow from about $300 billion a year now, to more than $900 billion in 2028. And that assumes that interest rates stay below historic averages. If interest rates were to return just to historical averages taxpayers will soon be drowning in annual trillion dollar interest payments.
This has to change. If we do not find the will to reduce federal spending ourselves now, at some point economic reality will force us to do in a much more painful manner later.
That is why this week’s White House request for 38 spending rescissions totaling $15 billion in rescinded spending is such a welcome first step to bringing our out-of-control spending habit back in line.
A provision of the Budget and Impoundment Control Act of 1974, the rescission process established a set of rules that make it easier for the president and Congress to reduce previously appropriated federal spending.
First, the president must submit a rescission request to Congress, then the relevant committees have 25 days to act on the request before any member can discharge the request and force a floor vote. Rescission motions are considered “privileged” in the Senate, so both chambers can pass a rescission package by a simple majority.
In 1981, President Reagan used this process to request 133 separate rescissions to cut more than $15 billion in federal spending. He made another 245 requests in 1985 and another 83 in 1986 to cut more than $16 billion in federal spending.
Unfortunately, the rescission process has fallen out of use in recent years, with President Clinton making just three rescission requests in 2000 for just $128 million. President Obama made zero rescission requests his entire presidency.
None of the funds President Trump requested to cut will alter current federal programs in any way. For example, the Congressional Budget Office certified that the approximately $7 billion in Children’s Health Insurance Program would “not affect outlays, or the number of individuals with insurance coverage.”
Essentially all the money President Trump requested to be cut is sitting unused in government agency bank accounts. So how does it help to cut spending if this money is just sitting there? Because Congress has a nasty habit of “paying for” new spending by raiding these unused funds. If we can take back this money now, then Congress can’t use the money to “pay for” new spending later.
Yes, $15 billion is a drop in the bucket compared to $15 trillion. But we have to start cutting spending somewhere. Because if we don’t, if we continue to allow federal government spending to grow faster than the economy as a whole, we will drown our children in debt.
Sen. Lee Celebrates Embassy Move to Jerusalem
JERUSALEM – Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) issued the following statement Monday after witnessing the official transfer of the United States embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
“It is truly an honor to be here in Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, for the transfer of the United States Embassy from Tel Aviv. This is a long overdue recognition of history and reality,” Sen. Lee said.
"We continue to hope for peace and longtime stability between Israelis and Palestinians, but the US could no longer wait to do the right thing in recognizing the nation’s rightful capital.”
An online version of this release can be found here.
