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Ahead of his Troy Town Hall on Thursday night, U.S. Congressman Barry Moore spoke to the Pike County Republican Women at the Troy Country Club on Aug. 24.

Moore spoke about a number of topics he’s concerned about, including immigration, inflation, the IRS, “woke politics,” and more. He spent the bulk of his time discussing the “crisis” at the U.S. Southern Border.

“The cartels are trafficking in young kids, we saw children 14-17 years old. We’ve never seen this influx of unaccompanied minors,” Moore said of his trip to the border. “I asked, ‘Why don’t we send them back to the town and the country they came from?’ Their response to me was that they don’t know where they came from.

“These kids are 14-17 years old and can’t tell you where they’re coming from but they have a Google address and we’re paying to send them there. What sense does that make? We’re not even doing a background check on these people we’re sending them to. The FBI is doing background checks on you if you’re at a school board asking questions about curriculum but not on the people we’re sending these children to.”

Moore also pointed to the trafficking of Fentanyl over the Mexican border as a concern, especially in college towns like Troy.

“We’re seeing the highest death rates for Fentanyl overdoses we’ve seen in recent history,” Moore said. “They’re selling this Fentanyl online where it looks like Xanax. Kids shouldn’t take any of that stuff but definitely warn your kids and your grandkids about this, especially in a college town because that’s the market they’re targeting.”

Moore hit U.S. President Joe Biden over his energy policies, including the shutdown of the Keystone XL Pipeline, which was not operational when it was shutdown and is owned by the Government of Alberta in Canada. Moore’s criticisms of that move were less about oil prices and more about jobs and Russia.

“We’ve seen a disastrous approach to energy policy,” Moore emphasized. “When he shut down the Keystone XL Pipeline that was 12,000 American jobs – 8,000 union jobs – that were stopped on day one.

“We went to Russia and gave them the green light to move the the Nord Stream 2 pipeline (Germany-to-Russia pipeline) ahead and start producing energy. So, that emboldened (Russia President Vladimir) Putin and gave him money to make war with.”

Moore also took aim at the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act.

“It won’t reduce inflation,” he flatly said. “We were in a recess and (Speaker of the House) Nancy Pelosi had all 435 house members called back to office. My airline ticket was $1,2000. So, we spent $500,000 of your money to spend another $739 billion to stop inflation. That’s not how it works.”

While early in his speech to the Republican Women of Pike County, Moore pointed out that it can take up to four weeks to hear back from the IRS with tax issues, he lamented the Inflation Reduction Act for its inclusion of funding to hire 87,000 new IRS agents over the next 15 years.

“The news will tell you, ‘We’re not going to target low income people or (people) with less than $400,000 pass through income for business owners,” Moore continued. “The Senate offered an amendment to ensure that and the Democrats voted along party line against it. That tells you what they’re going to do. Watch what they do, not what they say.

“It’s radical, it’s not about reducing inflation. I dropped a bill on Friday to move those IRS agents to the border. If we’re going to arm them then put them on the southern border.”

Moore also talked about the recent National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) – military budget – vote in which Moore objected to due to the bill requiring women, aged 18 years old, to register for selective services as men are required to.

“That was the toughest vote I’ve had this year,” he said. “To vote against the NDAA was a very tough vote for Barry Moore and his family, but once you start talking about drafting our daughters and granddaughters, those are the kinds of things I refuse to compromise on.

“I ran on faith, family and finance and if our daughters want to go to war that’s fine but we aren’t going to draft them out of their homes if they want to be moms. That’s the way it is. We took a stand and a number of members of the delegation voted with us and shut it down and the Senate cleaned it up and sent it back without that provision.”

Moore said that he believes the tide is turning in America for Republicans.

“The media wasn’t giving us a fair shake, you know the media never treats us fairly, but the pendulum has started to swing the other way,” Moore said. “When young people started cheering for ‘Brandon’ in the stadiums America started waking up. I feel like we’ll win the majority (in the House) and it’s possible we may get the Senate, but that will be much tougher.

“I say it all the time, Democrats want to drive it off the cliff but I’m not going to just ride shotgun. I’m going to do my best to shut it down when we can.”

Moore urged constituents to contact his office with any concerns, especially in the areas he’s most focused on.

“If you have an issue as a veteran, tax support issues or social security issues call our office,” Moore said. “I was in a restaurant and a veteran came to me and told me he’s been waiting on hearing aides since the war, the Vietnam War. He called my office and within 14 days we had him taken care of.

“Don’t hesitate to call us, we’re here to serve you. A lot of people in (Washington) D.C. think you’re their subjects but we work for you.”

Moore will be holding a town hall event at the Pike County Courthouse tonight at 6:30 p.m.