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Legislative News and Views - Rep. Dale Lueck (R)

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Legislative update

Friday, February 25, 2022

Dear Neighbor,

As we look at the terrible destruction that Russia has unleashed on Ukraine this past week, to gain a perspective on what to expect, one must look to recent history and what happened to eastern Europe after Adolf Hitler’s Nazi Germany was defeated.

Within days of the end of World War II, Russia began to morph into the Soviet Union. Russia under Stalin began an unrelenting effort to put a Russian boot on the neck of every post-WWII country in eastern Europe. What Hitler could not do in eastern Europe, Stalin did.

For those veterans of the Cold War, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine should be no surprise. Moscow behind the “Iron Curtain” was unrelenting in destroying any resistance to Russian domination within Eastern Europe. U.S. Presidents from Roosevelt and Truman through Ronald Reagan had to deal with the Soviet Union’s aggressive effort to expand their dominance to all corners of the world.

President Ronald Reagan in 1982 was criticized by many for referring to the Soviet Union as an evil empire. By the end of President Reagan’s time in office the Soviet Union had collapsed. While the US and our allies put immense external pressure on the Soviet Union, the Soviet empire ultimately collapsed from internal pressures generated by freedom loving people within.

With the reunification of East and West Germany in 1989, the Iron Curtain finally came down and Russian domination under the Soviet Union gave way to re-establishing independent self-governing countries across eastern Europe. Sadly, today the leadership in Russia has again embarked on putting the Russian boot on the necks of its neighbors.

It remains to be seen if our decision makers in Washington, D.C., and the leadership of the current free nations of Europe, will demonstrate the same resolve that effectively countered the evil empire that resided in Moscow from the end of WWII until the late 1980’s.

Looking ahead we are about to receive the semi-annual state budget forecast. I would expect that the surplus will grow substantially. Once we have those latest numbers in hand that will allow us to shape how that surplus will be dealt with going forward.

Please be safe as we enjoy lots of snow and some warmer weather. Spring is just around the corner.

Sincerely,

Dale