By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was at the Northern Kentucky Area Development District in Florence Friday to discuss the local impact of the recently approved Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act (CARA).
Flanked by elected officials from throughout the region, including the judges-executive from all three Northern Kentucky counties, Sen. McConnell said two years ago, he thought heroin addiction was just a Kentucky problem. He later realized the scourge had a much broader reach.
“The problem that we’ve had here in the epicenter of this scourge in Kentucky is not unique to Kentucky,” he said. “We are among the worst, but it’s a national epidemic.”
The bipartisan CARA legislation is envisioned to establish a comprehensive strategy through grant programs that will help fight addiction and enhance treatment and recovery at the local level.
“This is just beginning and the real fight is fought at the level of these folks behind me,” McConnell said. “The Federal government did, I think do a good job of pulling together all of the expertise that we could glean from everybody involved in this fight, all over the country, to do what we could do at the Federal level.”
The legislation was sent to the desk of President Barack Obama this week and is awaiting his signature.
“This is one Hell of a fight, but we are all going to step up to it at the federal, state and local level and do the very best we can to turn this scourge around,” McConnell said.
The $181 million in funding authorized falls far short of the $900 million some Democratic leaders were seeking, but is a significant increase over the amount originally proposed by the Senate.
McConnell had an answer for critics who have said that this is just an authorization act and “you didn’t spend any money.”
“We are engaged in a dramatic increase in funding, that’s done at the federal through the appropriations process,” McConnell said. “Huge increase this year, huge increase coming next year. This isn’t just an authorizing bill; this is going to be backed up by dramatic increases in funding.”
McConnell praised Sen. Rob Portman, R-OH, for taking the lead on CARA legislation.
“Up steps Rob Portman, our neighbor to the north, who clearly was the national leader on pulling together over 250 groups around the country, including groups in Kentucky who had the expertise to offer,” McConnell said. “This was clearly the classic way to develop good bipartisan legislation. Everybody worked together to try to get the best possible outcome.”
Portman is engaged in a tough battle for reelection against Democrat Ted Strickland, the former Ohio governor.
McConnell also addressed the challenges facing the Republican Party and the nomination of Donald Trump as its candidate at next week’s convention in Cleveland.
“He is an unusual candidate and that has created some sparks along the way. I think what you will see in Cleveland next week is a unified Republican Party ready to go out and win.”
He added that “rhetorical adjustments” on Trump’s part would be helpful in the party’s attempts to appeal to minorities.
McConnell praised Trump’s selection of Indiana Governor Mike Pence as his running mate. He said that as a political outsider, Trump was wise to select someone who knows the ropes.
“He was in congress for 10 or 12 years, he’s had a successful term as governor of Indiana. “He’s) somebody who knows how the congress works and has run a state government.”
McConnell also spoke about the war on terror in the wake of the attacks yesterday in Nice, France.
He challenged President Obama’s handling of the war on terror, suggesting that the chief executive viewed terrorism as something we will have to live with.
“There isn’t a chance to get a handle on terrorism, primarily inspired by ISIL unless we take them out,” McConnell said. “They need to begin to look like losers and not winners. The way you begin to look like a loser is when you get your butt kicked militarily.”